Shotton is a citizen of the Wichita & Affiliated Tribes and is also of Kiowa and Cheyenne descent. She is the inaugural director of Indigenous Education Initiatives in the Jeannine Rainbolt College of Education at the University of Oklahoma, where she also serves as an associate professor in educational leadership & policy studies. Shotton’s scholarship focuses on indigenous higher education, indigenous student experiences and indigenous women in higher education. Her scholarship and practice have been dedicated to bringing visibility to indigenous people in higher education and transforming higher education as a site of reclamation for indigenous communities. She served as a co-editor of three critical books that address indigenous higher education: Beyond the Asterisk: Understanding Native Students in Higher Education, Reclaiming Indigenous Research in Higher Education, and Beyond Access: Indigenizing Programs for Native American Student Success. Shotton is a past president for the National Indian Education Association, a former NIEA Educator of the Year and former chair for the American Educational Research Association Indigenous Peoples of the Americas SIG. She is a strong advocate for Indigenous education and has spent her career advocating for indigenous students and communities in educational systems.
