Four generations of O'Brien's family have served in elected office in Massachusetts government. Her great-grandfather, Michael T. O'Brien, was the proprietor of the family funeral home in Easthampton, Massachusetts, and first elected to the state legislature in 1930.[1][2] Her father Edward O'Brien (1933–2004) was a lawyer who served on the Massachusetts Governor's Council from 1970 to 1975 and left the post to run for Massachusetts attorney general, losing the 1974 Democratic primary to Francis X. Belotti. He then ran for Congress in 1976, losing to the incumbent Silvio Conte; he returned to the Governor's Council after the 1978 election and remained in office until his death in 2004.[3]
Shannon's mother is named Ann. Shannon has four siblings:[2] Erin, a clerk at the West Roxbury District Court; Gaelan, a court officer in the Northampton District Court; Tara, a former employee at Boston City Hall; and Michael, who runs the family funeral home in Easthampton.[4]
O'Brien worked for a large Boston law firm before her father alerted her to an open seat in the state legislature, which she won.[2]
O'Brien served in the Massachusetts House of Representatives from 1987 through 1993, and in the Massachusetts Senate from 1993 through 1995. While a state legislator she authored a law that increased penalties for crimes against children such as abuse and neglect.[2]
She was the Massachusetts state treasurer from 1999 through 2003, winning the office in the Massachusetts general election, 1998, after losing in her first attempt for that office in Massachusetts general election, 1994 and subsequently working as a vice president for external affairs at a health-care company.[2] She was the first woman to be elected in Massachusetts to statewide office by her own accord. She came into the office after it had suffered a major embezzlement scandal, and she tightened controls over the funds involved.[2] While serving as State Treasurer, she restructured the lottery commission and the Abandoned Properties Division in Massachusetts, gaining acclaim for returning dormant funds to the residents of the state. She also refinanced state debt and in doing so saved about $500 million.[2] In dealing with the near-infamous Big Dig project in Boston, which became the most expensive highway project in U.S. history,[5] she forced public disclosure of a $2 billion cost overrun.[2]
Following her defeat in 2002, O'Brien joined Boston-area local television station WLVI as a consumer advocate. She left the station in 2005 to head the Boston Area Girl Scouts, and as such is the CEO of the Patriot's Trail Girl Scout Council covering Greater Boston.[6]
In January 2014 OIKOS Software appointed O'Brien to its board of directors.[7]
In August 2022, State Treasurer and Receiver General Deb Goldberg appointed O'Brien as Chair of the Cannabis Control Commission.[8] She was suspended from the position by the State Treasurer on September 15, 2023.
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