We had the good fortune of connecting with Shannon and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Shannon, do you have some perspective or insight you can share with us on the question of when someone should give up versus when they should keep going?
I’ve learned to ask a different question — not ‘should I keep going?’ but ‘who is depending on me to?’

The women I work with in Ethiopia, Kenya, and South Sudan don’t have the luxury of giving up. They are growing food for entire communities, raising children while rebuilding their lives after conflict, and building small businesses from nothing — with no safety net, no backup plan, and no one telling them their work matters. And yet they show up. Every single day.

Enset, the crop at the center of our work, is called the ‘tree against hunger.’ It doesn’t give up either. It survives drought, it feeds families for generations, and it holds the soil together when everything else fails. The women who tend it have that same quality. I have watched them choose resilience in circumstances that would have broken most people I know.

When I think about giving up — about the hard days, the fundraising walls, the moments when the gap between the need and the resources feels impossible, I think about what that choice would actually mean. It wouldn’t just mean I stopped. It would mean the women, depending on this work, lose a stake in rooms not built for them. It would mean less food, less income, less dignity for communities already carrying too much.

They taught me that. They didn’t teach it with words; they taught it by just refusing to stop. So I don’t get to stop either. The mission doesn’t belong to me. It belongs to them.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
What sets Alabaster apart is simple: we don’t lead. The communities do.

I spent years as a Nurse Practitioner in Los Angeles. It was meaningful work, and I believe in it. But I kept encountering a gap between the resources that exist in the world and the people who need them most. That gap became impossible to ignore. When Alabaster began growing, expanding into multiple continents, working in four countries across Africa and South Asia, I reached a turning point. I realized that if this work was going to stay truly community-led and community-centered, I needed to be close to it. Not managing it from a distance. Present to it. So I left medicine. I left a career I had built. And I stepped fully into this.

Was it easy? No. There is nothing easy about walking away from stability to pursue something that has no guaranteed outcome. There were moments of doubt, seasons of scarcity, and more than a few times I had to choose the mission over my own comfort. What carried me through was the same thing that carries the women I work with — you keep going, because the alternative is unthinkable.

What I’ve learned is that proximity is everything. The further you are from the people you serve, the easier it is to get the work wrong. The closer you are, the more you realize they already have the answers — they just need resources, respect, and someone willing to listen.

What I want the world to know about Alabaster is this: we are not a charity that swoops in with solutions. We are a partner that shows up, stays, and follows the lead of the women already doing the work. That’s what makes us different. And that’s what makes it worth everything I gave up to be here.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I would take them to Palos Verdes on a beautiful hike through the estates and then to Aunty Maile’s Hawaiian restaurant for a delicious Hawaiian brunch meal. The hike is scenic with beautiful homes on one side and panoramic ocean views on the other. It’s peaceful, but also a good workout, working up our appetite for our brunch. Aunty Maile’s is a 15-min drive and has the best local Hawaiian dishes like Loco Moco and Mac salad. They also have live music on the weekends!

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
There are people who deserve far more recognition than they typically receive, and I want to use this moment to name them.

Girl Child Network in Kenya has been championing the rights and dignity of girls long before it was a talking point. They work in communities where a girl’s future is still considered less valuable than a boy’s, and they refuse to accept that. Their tireless advocacy changes the trajectory of entire families. They have been our longest-standing partner, co-dreaming and co-building with us since 2012.

Arba Minch University in Ethiopia is where science meets mission. Their researchers and faculty are doing the hard work of understanding the Enset plant — its nutrition, its resilience, its potential to feed millions and they are doing it because they believe their own communities deserve food security and a future built on their own resources. That kind of local scholarship is irreplaceable. They are the reason we know, love, and build programs around Enset.

UNIDOR in South Sudan is doing work that requires a kind of courage most of us will never be asked to find. South Sudan has lived through conflict that has shattered communities, displaced families, and stolen childhoods. UNIDOR shows up anyway, rebuilding, restoring, refusing to let devastation be the final word. We trust them with our lives.

Live, Love, and Give in Sri Lanka reminds me that this mission is truly global. The women they serve face different challenges, a different landscape, a different history — but the same fundamental truth: that when women are equipped and supported, entire communities rise.

Each of these organizations was building long before Alabaster arrived. They are the ones with the relationships, the trust, and the roots. We are honored to walk alongside them. Whatever impact Alabaster has in the world, it starts with them.

Website: https://alabasterinternational.org

Instagram: alabaster_international

Linkedin: company/alabaster-international

Facebook: Alabaster International

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCR2VZ7IX6OxdYLVPxnUdHBQ

Image Credits
Headshot: John Pascha
others: Alabaster International

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