RJ Shannon

RJ Shannon, born in Chicago and raised in a Chicago suburb, has lived in Phoenix, Arizona for 41 years as a mother, musician, health educator, community mobilizer and activist. Beginning in 1992, RJ’s passions led her to work in the areas of community and gun violence prevention; HIV in communities of color; studying and addressing health disparities; understanding and advocation of human rights; and racial/ sexual justice.

Even though RJ retired from Public Health in 2017, she continues to volunteer with Moms Demand Action and now serves as the Arizona State Chapter in the role of State Chapter Leader. She is an active member of the Arizona Public Health Association – previously serving on the Health Justice Committee; is an active Board member of CPIC NOW (National Organization of Women), sits on the Board of Directors for the Southwest Center, newly named Prisma; is a member of the People of Color committee for ACESDV and, is a new member to the West Valley NAACP and Win with Black Women. RJ also served as a HEAAL volunteer since 2008 working to end substance use misuse and foster suicide prevention activities among Maricopa County youth. This work has led her to join the Arizonans for Suicide Prevention with focus on Arizona’s most vulnerable communities.

One of RJ’s most proud roles was as a founding member of the Release the Fear organization whose sculpture for peace still stands at the intersection of Roosevelt and 1st Avenue in Phoenix. Robert Miley was the creative genius that imagined a new peace symbol comprised of melted weapons that were donated by Arizona’s law enforcement agencies for a period of over ten years. During the time of development, a workshop was established that incorporated the arts as tools for better understanding the world in which we live while combatting violence in communities.

RJ has served with national, state, and local groups dedicated to organizing communities to end hate, violence and disinformation that fosters the inequities we continue to experience every day somewhere in America – somewhere in Arizona. It used to be good to be retired. Now, we will just have to wait and see….