As a science communicator, Shira D Gordon, Ph.D. has strengths in collaboration, content synthesis, and creativity to successfully lead a diversity of projects. She creates award-winning videos, develops infographics and fact sheets, and writes website content for federal, nonprofit, and industry websites and digital products.

Shira’s passion is to create meaningful content that transforms complex scientific and health information into understandable and relatable materials.

“Dr Gordon is a fantastic collaborator. From brainstorming with the creative team, to directing illustrators and animators, to conducting video interviews with scientific researchers, Shira has demonstrated her flexibility and dedication to the project at hand many times over.”

Ody L., Creative Director, IQ Solutions

SheRockScience LLC

Shira founded SheRockScience LLC in 2018 as a way to help people understand science and health topics. Now she collaborates cross-functionally to create engaging content covering a large range of topics and clients.  She has extensive experience within the federal space. Some of the types of projects include:

  • Content Development: Research topics, write content, work with subject matter experts, edit, and approve final content.
  • Video Production: Produce videos, working both with a production team (e.g., IQ Solutions) and independently (SheRockScience Production). Within the team, her roles are typically writer, interviewer, director, and editor.
  • Content Strategy: Determine prioritization of messaging and the most effective format for presenting information to a variety of audiences on different platforms.
  • Website Governance: Audit website content for good SEO practice, user journey, and information architecture (IA).
  • Project Management: Establish project requirements, lead discovery sessions, and manage personnel including writers, creative team members, and web content administrators.
  • Data Analytics: Analyze client data. Apply web analytics to improve website content and usage.

SheRockScience Video Production

Through SheRockScience Productions, Shira created numerous science and non-science video projects found on YouTube @SheRockScience. Shira was awarded the 2020 Producer of the Year Award (CMAC in central California). In collaboration with IQ Solutions, she has written and co-directed over 20 videos. Below are a few samples, please visit the Video Samples page for further examples.

HBCD Overview Video (2025) is an overview video of a nationwide long-term study of child development. Along with other short videos and supporting materials, the project was awarded an AVA Digital Award, 2025, NIDA HBCD Study, for participant experience.

On The Edge (2020) was awarded to be part of the The Big Tell documentary collection. This video explores the support and friendship of two women who rock climb. The video premiered on October 23, 2020 at the Big Tell Film Festival.

A Daffodil Blooms in Spring (2021) is one of a few videos created during the pandemic. As a science communicator, Shira felt a calling to share her understanding and to help people get information. Please see the Coronavirus page for more information.

Science Communication and Video Production Memberships and Activities

Staying relevant in the field of Science Communication, Dr Gordon is a member of various SciComm groups and societies. She participates in conferences and science engagement webinars (e.g., AAAS, Advancing Research Impact in Society (ARIS), Science Talk, SciCommCon). She is a member of the National Association Science of Writers (NASW), DC Science Writers Association (DCSWA), and Women in Film and Video (WIFV). She has served as a judge for the STEM Science Fair Judge (Blair High School, 2024) and for middle and high school videos in the Picture the Valley Film Festival (2020–2025).

Certifications and Qualifications

  • Plain Language Training: 2025 US Department of Human and Health Services
  • Content Strategy and Governance Course: 2024 Nielsen Norman Group
  • PhD: 2010 University of Cincinnati
  • MS: 2006 University of Georgia
  • BS: 2002 University of Colorado

Shira D Gordon, PhD Scientific Background

Before SheRockScience, Dr. Gordon was a researcher, focusing on animal communication and how elements from the environment influenced it. She published 20 peer-reviewed publications, first author on over half of them. Dr Gordon’s research was intentionally diverse, seeking out interdisciplinary collaborations. For example, she worked with engineers, spending 3.5 years as the biologist in an engineering department at Strathclyde in Glasgow, Scotland. She continued the biology-engineering collaborations while a researcher at Dartmouth and at the USDA. More information about her specific research areas can be found on her scientific website.

Teaching Science and Communication

Dr Gordon has experience teaching science communication. She has taught a workshop course to graduate students across several departments (“Writing for the Public”) University of Strathclyde, Spring 2012 & 2013) and a workshop for scientists to speak more fluidly about research using improvisation (Dartmouth 2014). She has mentored over 25 students in the lab and in the field, helping them with research and presenting their work. In addition, she has lead numerous outreach events to school kids through adults while at the USDA (2014-2018). Finally, Dr Gordon was recruited to develop and teach a courses on Agricultural Entomology for Monterey Bay at California State University (CSU) and General Entomology for Fresno CSU (2020).

Presentations, Seminars, and Talks

Dr Gordon has been invited to speak to broad audiences including industry (Polytec 2017), agriculture (California Department of Food and Agriculture 2016), for specialist groups (Environmental acoustics group 2018), and at various university seminars (e.g., Oxford, Berlin, Cambridge, Berkeley, & Dundee). She presented over 20 conference presentations and posters to a variety of audiences (see the full list).

Contact Information Shira D Gordon, PhD
email: Shira at SheRockScience.com