Shannon Baird, PR & Outreach Division Head

Dr. Shannon Baird is the lead Mental Strength Coach for 1st Special Forces Group (1SFG). With this elite fighting force, she strives to arm every warrior with an unassailable arsenal of mental skills that can be deployed to enhance lethality and longevity. To this end, Dr. Baird designs and delivers tailored training to inspire internalization and sustained utilization of mental skills across multiple domains. In 2020, she was promoted to 1SFG(A) Cognitive Enhancement Practitioner. As the CEP she continues to embed mental skills education while simultaneously influencing the direction of Special Operations’ Cognitive Domain.

Dr. Baird earned her Ph.D.at the University of Iowa in Sport Psychology. She completed her M.Ed. in Developmental Kinesiology and B.S. in Kinesiology from Bowling Green State University in Ohio where she also competed as a DI athlete.

Her professional career began at Iowa as a lecturer and applied practitioner where she worked with various sport teams and individual performers.  Subsequently, she worked as a contractor in support of a Department of the Army program. In that role, she worked at both the strategic and at the tactical levels.  Dr. Baird has 20 years of applied experiences, a decade of which has focused entirely on the Military. In addition to her applied experiences, Dr. Baird is an invited lecturer, keynote presenter, and published author. She currently lives in Washington State with her wife and two dogs where she actively pursues her dream of running the Big Foot 200.