About Sharon

Sharon Dunwoody, Evjue-Bascom Professor Emerita of the School of Journalism and Mass Communication and a leader in science communication research, died February 4, 2022, after undergoing treatment for cancer in recent months.

Sharon was the first woman Director of the School, serving from 1998-2003, and later served as UW-Madison’s Associate Dean for Graduate Education. She joined the Wisconsin faculty in 1981 and went on to become nationally and internationally renowned for her research and her mentorship of other scholars. She studied the construction of media messages and how people use those messages to guide their thinking and behavior. Sharon’s scholarship helped generations of journalists, students and scientists become better translators of complex ideas to audiences all over the world.

Sharon’s reach in the field was phenomenal. She was a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the Midwest Association for Public Opinion Research (MAPOR) and the Society for Risk Analysis. She served twice as head of the AAAS section on General Interest in Science and Technology. She is former president of both MAPOR and the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC). She was named a Fellow of the International Communication Association (ICA) in 2017.

Sharon was the second woman to win the Paul J. Deutschmann Award from AEJMC. She was a Fulbright Distinguished Lecturer in Brazil, a visiting journalism fellow at Deakin University in Australia and the Donnier Guest Professor at Stockholm University. She was a Distinguished Alumni Fellow at her beloved BA and PhD granting alma mater, Indiana University.

In 1986, Sharon helped found UW-Madison’s Science Journalist in Residence program, bringing notable reporters to campus to interact with the university’s leading researchers and engaging with the public on critical scientific questions of the day. Though she retired in 2013, Sharon continued to lead that program and stay active in the School and interested in the lives of her colleagues, students and alumni.

Beyond her path-breaking scholarship and public outreach, Sharon was an outstanding colleague, mentor, teacher and friend. Legions of students she guided, both as undergraduate and graduate students, have gone on to impactful careers in science communication and research.

Sharon’s impact was so profound that in 2019, the School created the Sharon Dunwoody Early Career Award to honor outstanding PhD graduates of the school for their accomplishments in research and teaching.

Sharon leaves an indelible imprint on the Journalism and Mass Communication program at Wisconsin. Known for her kind and confident style, she had an abiding love of hummus and a knack for finding homes for a never-ending array of plants. Her colleagues remember how she welcomed them as junior faculty and seemed to always have the incisive point you had not yet considered in your latest research project or new course prep.  Colleagues across the School share that admiration and will deeply miss Sharon’s presence.

Kind, patient, wise, thoughtful and generous, Sharon Dunwoody was an embodiment and reflection of the best of us. She leaves an enormous footprint in the field and in our school and an even larger hole in our hearts.