[6][7] On August 21, 2024 she announced she would be joining the University of Lethbridge Department of Political Science as Adjunct Faculty at the start of the Fall 2024 term.

[12] Phillips previously ran in the 2012 general election, losing to Progressive Conservative (PC) incumbent Greg Weadick.

[16] Phillips has advocated on numerous issues, including Indigenous land claims, consultation and relations, climate change, human rights, technology industry programs (artificial intelligence strategy),[17] renewable energy procurement, support for small and local breweries,[18] public service wages and women's economic equality.

[22] Shannon Phillips and Premier Rachel Notley released a climate change policy plan in 2015, which included a carbon price to be $30 per tonne by 2018, coal-fired power plants to be phased out by 2030, emissions from oil sands to be capped at 100 megatonnes per year, methane emissions to be reduced by 45% by 2025 in the oil & gas sector, and 30% of all electricity to be renewable generated by 2030.

[27] On June 24, 2016, the Wildrose Party[Notes 1] said during question period that Phillips' editorial work for a 2004 book by Greenpeace activist Mike Hudema, entitled An Action a Day Keeps Global Capitalism Away, would "make the business and industrial sectors even more jittery about the agenda of the new NDP government."

This included "unplugging electronics, refraining from idling vehicles, using reusable shopping bags, reducing shower time, and going meatless for one day each week.

"[29][30] Rich Smith, executive director of Alberta Beef Producers, said that Environment Lethbridge's Green Challenge which suggested eating less meat was clearly done with "good intentions" but was misinformed as "going meatless for one day a week" would not "reduce people's environmental impact substantially.

[33] Nixon has made unfounded claims that the plan is a "foreign-funded plot to wall off the back country to Albertans who call the region home".

[35] According to reporting, Minister Devin Dreeshen and Premier Jason Kenney indicated their support for relaxing those training standards for semi-truck drivers in some sectors including farmers.

Phillips was in the process of meeting with stakeholders in the lead-up to the formation of Castle Provincial Park, where the two officers had an interest in off-road vehicle driving.

[36] Phillips resigned as an MLA effective July 1, 2024, having opted out of the Alberta New Democrats leadership race following the retirement of Rachel Notley as leader, believing that she had accomplished enough in politics, had unnamed opportunities in the private sector and wanted to spend more time with her two teenage sons.