Shannon Baker (They/Them), Managing Director

Shannon Baker (they/them) is the Managing Director of InReach. They previously served as InReach’s Community Outreach & Programs Director for three years. 

Shannon first connected with InReach as a user and they still rely on the free InReach App to find verified, affirming resources for their family in a state facing growing attacks on LGBTQ+ rights. They bring over a decade of experience in national service, nonprofit leadership, outreach, and executive mentorship. Their leadership is deeply informed by lived experience—as a nonbinary parent of a trans child, a member of the disability community, a survivor of conversion therapy, and a formerly unhoused LGBTQ+ youth. Their leadership continues InReach’s legacy as a proud trans-led organization rooted in lived experience, community connection, and strategic vision.

Shannon’s personal journey shapes their work: growing up in a rural community marked by poverty and harmful religious doctrine, they fled their biological family as a teenager to escape conversion therapy. At just sixteen, they experienced homelessness, were unable to attend high school, and faced the same assault and trauma that many unhoused LGBTQIA+ youth endure. 

Chosen family helped Shannon reclaim their future, supporting them to complete school and earn a bachelor’s degree. They used national service as an AmeriCorps VISTA to overcome poverty and build a career dedicated to social justice and community empowerment.

In their nonprofit career, Shannon has led communications, built partnerships, and developed programs that advance mental health and equity initiatives. They are passionate about mentoring emerging organizers and ensuring underserved communities have access to the resources they need.

Shannon’s lived experience fuels their commitment to InReach and its mission. They are proud to contribute to a resource that could have changed the trajectory of their own youth.