Dr. Shannon Miller Cox started her work with underserved populations as a law enforcement officer, working for the Utah Department of Corrections, in 1994. A survivor of sexual violence, she believed she could remove herself from harm by becoming an officer. She soon found so many trauma victims inside the criminal justice system, not allowed to survive the way she had; without the white privilege, the private insurance, and the safe family to pluck her in and out of school and provide a safety net for her eventual healing and survival. Thousands of addicted, mentally ill victims that needed trauma responsive services, alternatives to incarceration, and access to livable wage employment, safe housing, and trauma informed care.

The second half of her law enforcement career was spent creating Gender Responsive/Trauma Informed programs for women. She created a Gender Responsive supervision center, the Women’s Treatment and Resource Center, starting in a double-wide trailer and eventually built a half million dollar facility full of agents who supervised women through a Gender Responsive lens. She was the co-creator of the Utah Women’s Summit, a multi-disciplinary team utilizing over 100 local, state, federal, non-profit, religious partners to support harmed women living in the community under criminal justice supervision and those incarcerated in our prison. The program is now called the Female Offender Success Initiative (FOSI) with over 100 agent’s statewide supervising females utilizing a Gender Responsive Trauma Informed evidence-based model and eventually became a trainer for the National Institute of Corrections. She trained this model in several other states and is considered a Utah Expert in Gender Responsive Trauma Informed programming and case management services.

She was presented with the Utah Governor’s Award for Excellence – FOSI Committee – Innovation and Efficiency before retiring in 2014 to fulfill the dream of creating a non-profit for the women and girls she had endeavored to serve. Journey of Hope, Inc (JOH) incorporated in 2014, and started mentoring women from the prison in July 2014. To date they have assisted well over 3000 women, girls, and LGBTQIIA+ and their families, transitioning into the community from the Utah State Prison, homelessness, fleeing violence, and those suffering from mental illness and addiction. The recidivism rates for the prison mentoring program are the lowest in the State, 17%, while the State rate is one of the highest in the nation, 70%.

JOH opened their doors to community clients in 2016, in order to serve the most vulnerable women, girls, and LGBTQIIA+ from the community (homeless, trafficked, fleeing domestic violence, from jail and prison, and girls aging out of state services, fleeing trafficking, exploitation, and homelessness.) They are the poorest in our community, vulnerable to ongoing harm living in extreme poverty. JOH has moved hundreds of these families into Low Income Housing with powerful community partners.

No one agency can do this work on their own. Shannon’s leadership engages all levels of partnership with a common goal: “Harmed children do not have to grow into or remain victims or become perpetrators as adults.” Interupting the Sexual Assault to Prison Pipleine in Utah and in this Country is an awesome task.

We know engaging systems that work with these children long before they begin to self- medicate, self- sabotage, and find themselves caught in the criminal justice system could allow thousands in this state to find healing and self- love long before their lives spiral away from them. As a Social Justice, Racial Justice, Female Justice advocate she is asking Leaders to see these issues differently, and to adopt a Trauma Informed and Responsive Lens at all Levels of Government, Community Leadership, and Religious Support.

Dr. Cox has recently created an LLC called Trauma Intelligence, to teach community leaders, and international leaders how to heal, bring HOPE, and celebrate God’s Beautiful Plan for each of us on this earth. She is collaborating with I Change Nations to center trauma healing in all the work they do in 48 nations in this world. She is writing a book and teaching leaders that they can heal their nations with Trauma Intelligence!

In 2021, Dr. Shannon Cox was awarded the International Civility Award for the United States of America. She was also named SHERO of the year from Sheroes International. In 2019 Mrs. Shannon Cox was honored with a Humanitarian Award from the Inclusion Center for Community and Justice. She was also awarded a National Federal Bureau of Investigations Community Leadership Award in 2019. Journey of Hope was also awarded the 2019 Salt Lake City Human Rights Commission Exceptional Organization Award.

In 2022, Shannon Miller Cox was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Philosophy in Humanities from the International United Graduate College and Seminary. This honor was bestowed for her body of work with the underserved, her social justice trauma work, and for bringing Trauma Intelligence to the world! She has also been awarded a Presidential Lifetime Achievement Award by President Joseph R. Biden, and has been appointed as an advisor to the Development King of Ghana, His Royal Highness Sir Clyde Rivers. She has also been asked to lead a Congress for Global Communication team under the I Change Nations International Collaboration working with the United Nations for Goal #16: Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions.

Dr. Shannon Miller Cox was just recently nominated for the 2023 World Book of Greatness in Great Britain, an honor bestowed on many great leaders around the world. She has created a Trauma Responsive Curriculum to be coached in collaboration with SHERO’s around the World!