Shawnee received her BA degree in Psychology from Bethany University in 2008. She plans to attend California State University in 2010 and begin work on her Masters in Social Work.

Shawnee began her career in addictions counseling in 1997, working with youth in an intensive outpatient program in Las Vegas, Nevada. She continued to work with juveniles in outpatient treatment until 2002.

From 2002 until 2008 Shawnee worked at Choices, Inc. in Las Vegas. While at Choices, Shawnee worked with various populations in the Las Vegas drug court system including criminal courts, justice courts, family courts, early prison release, child support courts and juvenile offenders. She maintained a position of lead counselor in the family court program at Choices from 2005 ? 2008.

Shawnee relocated to Southern California in October 2008, and she has been teaching alcohol and drug counseling classes at ICDC College since that time. In addition to her work at ICDC, Shawnee has held a position as Program Manager for the Hollywood and Vine Recovery Center, managing a recovery home and treatment program in Lancaster, California. Shawnee also worked as a counselor for Action Recovery adolescent inpatient treatment program in Saugus, California.
 

Prior to her experience in addictions counseling, Shawnee held various positions in office management and personnel management for ShowBiz Expo, Advanstar Corporation, Franklin Machine Products and for Alan Gordon Enterprises. She has been actively involved in 12 Step support group service since 1982.