Shannon Dea (she/her, they/them) is a Professor of Philosophy at University of Waterloo, where she also teaches Gender and Social Justice, and was formerly the Director of Women’s Studies. She researches and teaches about academic freedom, abortion issues, sex and gender, LGBTQ issues, pedagogy, equity, and the history of philosophy (17th to 20th century). She is the author of Beyond the Binary: Thinking About Sex and Gender (Peterborough: Broadview, 2016), and of numerous articles and book chapters. She writes the monthly Dispatches on Academic Freedom column for University Affairs. Shannon has a long history of service. She is the Vice-President of the Faculty Association of the University of Waterloo, and represents faculty members on both the University of Waterloo Senate and Board of Governors. She is a former president of Planned Parenthood Waterloo Region (now SHORE); she has also volunteered in agencies that provide support for injection drug users, sex workers, and women prisoners and ex-offenders. Shannon regularly gives public talks and media interviews on a wide range of topics. She is a recipient of the University of Waterloo's Distinguished Teacher Award, and UW Faculty of Arts' Excellence in Teaching Award. In 2013, she received the Ontario Women’s Directorate’s Leading Women Building Communities Award.

Shannon is a settler who grew up on the traditional territory of the St. Lawrence Iroquois, Omàmiwininiwak (Algonquin), and Huron-Wendat peoples on land covered by the Upper Canada Treaties. Today, she lives and works on the traditional territory of the Neutral, Anishnabeg, and Haudenosaunee peoples. The University of Waterloo is situated on the Haldimand Tract -- land 10 kms on each side of the Grand River that was promised to the Six Nations.