Unelected Representative is a research-based newsletter about the people in Congress responsible for making choices about complex and often contentious science-related issues that shape our lives. It weaves together new academic research with theory in political science, communication, and psychology drawing on personal staff experiences. It also explores ideas related to fostering trust and building stronger relationships between the people in science and those behind the scenes in Congress with the influence and ability to make a difference.
Dr. Sheril Kirshenbaum is an Emmy Award-winning scientist and author working to enhance public understanding of science and improve communication between scientists, policymakers, and the public. She hosts and writes the PBS series, Serving Up Science, and is currently working in the U.S. Senate as a Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellow.
Kirshenbaum has co-authored Unscientific America: How Scientific Illiteracy Threatens Our Future with Chris Mooney and The Science of Kissing. Her writing also appears in the The Best American Science Writing 2010.
In 2007, Sheril co-founded Science Debate and served as Executive Director from 2015-2022. Science Debate, now Science on the Ballot within the National Science Policy Network, is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization working with citizens across the nation to get presidential, state, and local candidates on record on science policy prior to Election Day. She has been a Presidential Leadership Scholar, a Marshall Memorial Fellow, a legislative NOAA Sea Grant Knauss Fellow in the U.S. Senate with Senator Bill Nelson and a Next Generation Fellow through the Robert Strauss Center for International Security and Law.
She has also hosted blogs at Discover, Scientific American and Wired, as well as the weekly NPR podcast Serving Up Science. She holds a Ph.D. in community sustainability and two master's degrees in marine biology and policy. Her research focuses on how we make decisions about science and policy.
Previously, Sheril served as director of the University of Texas at Austin Energy Poll. She has also worked with the Webber Energy Group at the Center for International Energy and Environmental Policy, Michigan State University, and Duke University's Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions. Sheril has been a visiting scholar with The Pimm Group, a fellow with the Center for Biodiversity and Conservation at the American Museum of Natural History, and a Howard Hughes Research Fellow. She lives in Bethesda, Maryland with her husband, David Lowry, and sons.
