Sunshine Menezes
Sunshine Menezes (she/her) grew up off the grid in Michigan before moving to Rhode Island to study oceanography. Unsatisfied by all the time she was spending alone in dark rooms as a researcher, she left marine science to work on environmental policy. She has led the University of Rhode Island’s Metcalf Institute since 2006, expanding its mission from science training for journalists to include communication training for scientists and launching the national Inclusive SciComm Symposium to build a community of practice and scholarship that centers inclusion, equity, and intersectionality in science communication. Sunshine is a Clinical Associate Professor of Environmental Communication in the URI Department of Natural Resources Science, where she teaches environmental crisis communication and public engagement with science. She is a resource partner for the Civic Science Fellowship and has served on a national Broadening Participation Task Force organized by the Center for Advancement of Informal Science Education (CAISE) and several national projects designed to craft new, interdisciplinary approaches to graduate-level science education. Menezes earned a Ph.D. in oceanography from the URI Graduate School of Oceanography and a B.S. in zoology from Michigan State University.
