Speaker Bio: Elyse Aurbach, Ph.D.

Dr. Elyse Aurbach is a public engagement professional and researcher. She creates communities, programs, and products that maximize assets and address needs to support scholars in engaging with different publics. She specializes in translating research into useful tools for practice, creating effective training and capacity-building programs, and developing frameworks that synthesize scholarship and practitioner knowledge to help public engagement systems evolve.

As Assistant Director for Public Engagement & Research Impacts in the University of Michigan's Office of Research, Aurbach leads strategy and a team to support university faculty in their engagement efforts. As a Civic Science Fellow with the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities, she is leading a multi-institutional project to understand how different institutional contexts support scholars interested in public engagement and equity work and provide tools and strategies for those support networks to improve. Prior to joining the Office of Research and APLU teams, Aurbach served as Public Engagement Lead with the Center for Academic Innovation. She also previously pursued a double-life as a scientist studying the neurobiological underpinnings of major depression and leading a number of projects to improve science communication and public engagement, including developing and teaching communication courses in person and online and Co-Bossing with Nerd Nite Ann Arbor. She is also a co-founder and former director of RELATE, a science communication and public engagement organization. Aurbach was a NSF Graduate Research Fellow, a finalist for the AAAS Early Career Award for Public Engagement with Science, and an ARIS Fellow. Aurbach holds a PhD in neuroscience.