Shannon McNary

Shannon McNary is a corporate social responsibility expert with over 20 years’ experience leading meaningful community investment initiatives. Shannon leads with an intense focus on impact and helps organizations thrive by designing systems, structures and processes that drive efficiency and cohesiveness. Shannon is currently Manager, Public Affairs and Corporate Citizenship at CITGO Petroleum where she identifies innovative and practical strategies to build shared value, mitigate risk and enhance reputation. She designs and manages programs that empower communities in education, disaster resilience and environmental programming. She is her company’s subject matter expert on social investment where she established all procedures, protocols, rubrics, and guidelines for community engagement. Shannon infuses purpose in everything she does.

Shannon has diverse skills in program strategy and design, impact quantification and draws upon cross-cultural work experience in the US, Korea, Eastern Europe, Central Asia and the Caucasus.
Prior to her work at CITGO, Shannon lived and worked in the former Soviet Union working with human rights organizations on issues related to frozen conflicts by improving organizational capacity building to better serve community needs.

Shannon is a Senior Fellow, American Leadership Forum Class 63, and an alumna of the Center for Houston’s Future Business and Civic Leadership Forum, class 50. She was named as one of Houston’s 50 Most Influential Women of 2024 by Houston Women Magazine. Shannon has a master’s degree from American University where she focused on non-formal adult education and international development and a bachelor’s degree from University of Texas at Austin in Post-Soviet and East European Studies. In her spare time, Shannon loves to travel, garden and cook elaborate dinners for her neighbors.