Biography

Sunshine Menezes, Ph.D. has served as executive director of Metcalf Institute since 2006 and is a Clinical Professor of Environmental Communication in the URI Department of Natural Resources Science. Sunshine also served as associate director for communication in the URI Graduate School of Oceanography’s Office of Marine Programs from 2006-2017. Prior to joining Metcalf Institute, she worked on national and state-level environmental policy, first as a Dean John Knauss National Sea Grant Marine Policy Fellow with Congressman Frank Pallone, Jr. and later as part of a multidisciplinary team at the URI Coastal Resources Center and Rhode Island Sea Grant. Sunshine was named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2023. She has been a resource partner for the Civic Science Fellows Program and as a member of the national Broadening Participation Task Force organized by the Center for Advancement of Informal Science Education (CAISE), as well as several national projects designed to craft novel, transdisciplinary approaches to graduate-level science education. Menezes earned a B.S. in zoology from Michigan State University and a Ph.D. in oceanography from the URI Graduate School of Oceanography.

Menezes frequently lectures and conducts workshops about the importance of equitable science communication, working with the news media, and how to become a more effective and inclusive science communicator.