She won the Ezra Jack Keats Award and the Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe Award for New Talent in 2009 for her work in her first picturebook, Bird, written by Zetta Elliott. Strickland co-illustrated Our Children Can Soar, winner of a 2010 NAACP Image Award. Shadra is also the illustrator of A Place Where Hurricanes Happen (Random House, 2010), written by Renee Watson: a story of four children in New Orleans before, during, and after Hurricane Katrina. Publishers Weekly called Strickland's illustrations "quietly powerful," and Booklist said, "In vibrant, mixed-media images, award-winning illustrator Strickland extends the drama, feeling, and individual stories."

Shadra travels the country conducting workshops and sharing her work with children, teachers, and librarians. She currently lives in Atlanta where she continues to work on books and personal projects.