Legislation Update: What’s Giving You Heartburn?

Shannon brings twenty five years experience as a multi-state lobbyist based primarily at the Texas Capitol and ten years of courtroom legal expertise to her dynamic government affairs consulting practice. Prior to creating Meroney Public Affairs LLC, Shannon spent six years as a Senior Government Relations Manager for Aetna, a Fortune 100 health insurance corporation with multi-state responsibility. Previous to that, she was a Partner at the Texas law firm Thompson, Coe, Cousins & Irons representing multiple corporate clients and large trade associations at the Capitol, in the courtroom and providing legal drafting and analysis expertise.

Most recently, Shannon’s corporate work included executive management of the third largest public employee health insurance account in Texas, the Teachers Retirement System (TRS). During this time she also helped lead the company’s successful pursuit of Texas’ second largest public health employee group through a highly competitive RFP process. The effort resulted in a victory over the incumbent vendor, which had held the state contract more than thirty years. This experience honed Shannon’s expertise in the government contracting and procurement process.

A past president of a large Texas trade organization, Shannon’s consulting work includes corporations, trade associations, and non-profits. She has extensive knowledge of the Affordable Care Act, Medicaid Managed Care, Medicare products, workers compensation, property & casualty insurance, the commercial healthcare market, wellness programs, hospital and provider related contracting, compliance, liability and regulatory issues. Her contacts include city, county and state elected officials, agency staff and regulatory entities throughout Texas. She specializes in legislative advocacy, legal analysis and drafting, public policy creation, developing strategic grassroots campaigns, and synthesizing complex problems into common sense solutions.

Shannon received her undergraduate degree from the University of Texas at Austin and her law degree from the University of Houston Law Center where she graduated Order of the Coif. She is a Past Chair of Leadership Austin and has served on the boards of the Austin Bar Association and the Junior League of Austin. She serves as one of the Seton Fund’s “Fifty,” was on the Leadership Council for the American Lung Association’s Austin Chapter and was Vice Chair of the Austin’s Commission for Women. She was awarded the Austin Business Journal’s Profile in Power distinction and was a finalist for the Austin Under 40 Award in both Law and Government.

In her first ten years of private lobby practice, Capitol Inside ranked her as one the top 100 “Hired Gun” Lobbyists in Texas every session from 2015 to 2023. She is a frequent lecturer on both healthcare and education, the proud mom of Cal (18) and Griffin (16), and a certified soccer/lacrosse/tennis mom.