Her research focuses on the demography of children, youth and families along the U.S. rural-urban continuum, with a particular focus on the correlates and consequences of social and spatial inequalities and health disparities. Her recent projects have explored racial/ethnic differences in health care utilization, disparities in health care access and use among Hispanics living in new versus traditional destinations, and rural/urban differences in the demographic, economic, and social correlates of adult and adolescent opiate abuse. She teaches courses in statistical analysis, rural social change, and population and environment in the Department of Agricultural Economics, Sociology and Education at Penn State. Shannon holds a PhD in Sociology from the University at Albany, State University of New York.