What is your occupation and title? Senior Director, Thrive Regional Partnership
How long have you been a member of CWLI? 2 and half years
What other organizations are you involved with? Chattanooga Nonprofit Alliance, Leadership Tennessee NEXT, Miracle League
What does leadership mean to you? It’s important to me to live my life with integrity, driven by making a difference in people’s lives, recognizing potential and helping them develop that potential and actuate it to improve their circumstances.
More about Shannon: Shannon Millsaps serves as the Senior Director of Transportation and Infrastructure at Thrive Regional Partnership. In this role, she cultivates stakeholder engagement among Thrive’s Freight Mobility Coalition and Regional Broadband Alliance, as well as overseeing programs dedicated to addressing critical infrastructure challenges involving the movement of people, products, and data around the tri-state, greater Chattanooga region.
Before joining the Thrive team, Shannon spent 14 years in the broadcast television industry in Chattanooga, Tennessee and Asheville, North Carolina, ultimately serving as Assistant News Director for her hometown station, WTVC-NewsChannel 9. During her career, Shannon worked closely with elected officials, community leaders and school systems to personalize the news, giving those most impacted a platform and a voice. As a native of Chattanooga, it was a natural next step to support Thrive’s mission of inspiring responsible growth across the region she calls home.
When she’s not in the office, you can find Shannon cheering on the Chattanooga Football Club, traveling, listening to live music and enjoying downtime with her wife, Claire, and their four-legged children Sully, Jackson and Sophie.