Prior to becoming involved with the MER project, Shonte was a member of the Europa Orbiter/Pluto Kuiper Thermal Team. Her responsibilities included the design, implementation, and verification of the preliminary thermal designs of the Europa Orbiter propulsion module, main engine assembly, and thruster cluster assembly. Shonte also worked with the Center for Space Mission Architecture and Design in a simulation of a concurrent formulation phase design process in which her thermal analysis of a Europa Orbiter Spacecraft design case was highlighted. In addition to her MER and Europa Orbiter/Pluto Kuiper work, Shonte supported the solar thermal vacuum test of the Mars Odyssey Spacecraft at Lockeed Martin (Denver, CO).

Since the successful launch of the first of NASA - Jet Propulsion Laboratory's twin rovers, Shonte has moved on to support other thermal efforts at JPL. Currently, Shonte is providing thermal hardware and test support to the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) project, the CloudSat project, and the Herschel/Planck project (a European Space Agency mission). In addition to her work on these projects, she is a Technical Recruiter for the Mechanical Systems Engineering and Research Division.