Nicholas Institute Staff

Sheril Kirshenbaum
Sheril Kirshenbaum joined the Nicholas Institute in 2006 as an Associate in Research for Ocean and Coastal Policy.  She is involved in conservation initiatives regionally and locally across levels of government and also works to improve communication between scientists, policymakers, and the public. She holds two Master's degrees in Marine Biology and Marine Policy from the University of Maine where she studied the population dynamics and life history characteristics of the Maine Sea Cucumber (Cucumaria frondosa) as well as the socioeconomics of the fishing industry in the Gulf of Maine. In 2006, Sheril was selected as one of nine legislative John A. Knauss Sea Grant Fellows working on Capitol Hill. She served as an environmental advisor for Senator Bill Nelson (D-FL) and was involved in Energy, Climate, and Ocean Policy. Sheril hosts the popular Scienceblog The Intersection and contributes to the Wired Science/PBS blog Correlations. She is also a founding member of the ScienceDebate2008 initiative. Additionally, she served as a Fellow with the Center for Biodiversity and Conservation at the American Museum of Natural History and as a Howard Hughes Research Fellow at Tufts University.  She has contributed reports to The Nature Conservancy and provided assistance on international protected area projects. Sheril also has experience working in pop radio and her work has been featured in magazines and published in Science, Fisheries Bulletin, and Oecologia.