In short: "Learning is fun ... and Education should be, too!" Shirley's entrepreneurial "career" has included: professional writer; curriculum designer; reporter and editor; professional speaker on the power of humor in learning, parenting and building healthy relationships; portrait photographer and desktop publisher; all while raising four children on the family farm. Her experience as a curriculum designer eventually led her to create the EVATEC model for designing experiential learning structures involving the six considerations she addresses in the process. She is a past president of the Association for Applied and Therapeutic Humor (aath.org), during which she created the structure that eventually became the organization's Certified Humor Professional (CHP) certification. Prior to her presidency, Shirley led an AATH team that ultimately created the definition of "therapeutic humor." On June 1, 2000, that team confirmed the definition as: "Any intervention that promotes health and wellness by stimulating a playful discovery, expression or appreciation of the absurdity or incongruity of life's situation. This intervention may enhance health or be used as a complementary treatment of illness to facilitate healing or coping, whether physical, emotional, cognitive, social or spiritual."

Her book, "Light Dances: Illumination Families with Laughter and Love," underscores how humor research has demonstrated its value in drawing her extended family together through decades of laughter.