Shannon K. Knight, before breaking into the world of consulting, was the Director of Special Projects at the RISD Museum in Providence, Rhode Island. The title was intentionally vague, as Shannon’s role covered a lot of ground over her almost six years at the Museum. She started out shepherding the Museum’s AAM reaccreditation to a successful completion and moved on to provide an analysis of the exhibition process, identifying ways in which the different departments could work together more efficiently. Shannon served for one-and-a-half years as the Interim Assistant Director where she managed exhibitions; drafted internal documentation such as the Museum Style Guide; published articles on such topics as data integrity; organized decades of old constituent records; and oversaw the refinishing of the Museum’s cherished grand piano. (She’ll be happy to talk with you about lacquer and its relationship to the South American cotton industry!)
After simultaneously spearheading a complete rewrite of the RISD Museum’s website (risdmuseum.org) and the migration to a new enterprise system for ticketing and membership (Altru), Shannon moved to Philadelphia. With three years of Altru experience, she started officially consulting in January 2016, helping ensure that her clients' business processes and Altru work together in the most efficient way possible. In the years since, Shannon has worked with art museums, science centers, zoos, theatres, arboretums -- many different types of Altru users with many different needs and challenges. However, her goal with all clients is the same: to make the client's day-to-day tasks as seamless and easy as possible so their focus can shift from the work itself to serving their constituents and forwarding their organization's overall mission.
Prior to starting at the RISD Museum, Shannon spent fifteen years in the software industry, working at various times as a program manager, a QA engineer, and a database developer. She managed a wide variety of teams and has extensive experience helping "problem" groups to become successful.
When not working as a consultant, Shannon serves as the Theatre Director at Bala Cynwyd Middle School. She also volunteers at her daughter’s high school, watches cinema classics like National Lampoon's Vacation or Die Hard with her husband, paddles on a Dragon Boat team, and takes long walks with her two dogs. She also occasionally sits down to read an actual book or sing and play guitar.