Shauna had a childhood immersed in nature just below the Chesapeake & Delaware Canal.
Shauna McVey is a lifelong Delawarean, something that people who never leave the First State love to call themselves. She grew up just north of the Middletown town limits in a woodland + wetland wonderland. When not playing on the property’s trails, cooling off in its stream – Joy Run, listening to birds, discovering bugs or attempting to rescue injured wildlife, she spent her time inside writing, drawing and playing piano. Shauna witnessed Middletown’s transformation from a small farming town to one of the most desirable places to live in Delaware. The drastic changes to her hometown’s landscape inspired her as a teenager to grab a film camera and capture scenic agricultural images before houses and strip malls replaced them. She then ventured out of Delaware – all the way to Maryland – to study English, art and music at Salisbury University.
Shauna’s professional writing career started as a desk editor with the Delaware State News, where she honed her editing skills by making public submissions publishable, before she was hired as a staff writer for her hometown newspaper, The Middletown Transcript. She worked her way up to senior reporter before her promotion to managing editor in 2009. During that time, she preserved the integrity of the longtime locally owned newspaper throughout significant ad revenue and staff loss due to the Great Recession, coupled with a controversial ownership change and dwindling editorial space.
In 2010 Shauna made the difficult decision to leave her managing editor role and full-time journalism to work for the Delaware House of Representatives. She also launched a side business – Shauna McVey Photography, at that time, and became the lead second shooter for the award-winning Dunks Photo high-end photography company in Maryland. In 2014 she was recruited to help build Delaware’s newly created Office of Animal Welfare housed under the Delaware Department of Health and Social Services Division of Public Health. She kept one foot in the journalism door by working in communications roles throughout her 12-year career with Delaware state government and via freelance writing for various publications. Shauna is currently the public information officer for the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control Division of Parks and Recreation, which manages all 17 Delaware State Parks, the Brandywine Zoo and 21 nature preserves.
While she hails from “upstate” Delaware, Shauna now lives near the beaches in “slower lower” in a fixer-upper river cottage with her equally outdoorsy husband, Italian Mastiff, big orange Tabby and polydactyl Calico, all of whom are rescues. She volunteers with her local stray cat rescue to facilitate spay/neuter surgeries when time allows and frequently collects litter wherever she sees it, often from riverbanks while kayaking.