As lecturer and astronomy educator at the Ward Beecher Planetarium at Youngstown State University, she develops and presents programs on a wide range of topics within astronomy and space science to audiences ranging from enthusiastic preschoolers to just as enthusiastic adults.

A Youngstown State University graduate she worked as a reporter and editor at two daily newspapers in Ohio, before accepting a position at YSU's Department of Physics & Astronomy. She initiated the planetarium's first programming for pre-school children, edited planetarium programs, and co-wrote The Comet Show, an historical account of comets that highlighted the recent appearance of Comet Hale-Bopp.

Shanks writes a weekly astronomy column for the Youngstown Vindicator and a monthly “Around the Universe” column for children in the local parenting magazine.

Shanks is a member of the Great Lakes Planetarium Association, the Mid-Atlantic Planetarium Sociery, the International Planetarium Society and the Astronomical Society of the Pacific.