Executive Director

Elizabeth A. Sherman, Ph.D.

Elizabeth A. Sherman, Ph.D., is currently an adjunct professor in the Graduate School of Public Policy and Public Administration at George Washington University. She founded and directed the Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy at the University of Massachusetts, Boston. For 10 years, she worked to establish a distinctive graduate certificate program and research institute focused on policy training, political education and leadership development for women. She also served as a research fellow from 2001 to 2004 at the Center for Public Leadership and as a teaching fellow in 1994 for the Institute of Politics, both at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University.

Sherman holds a Ph.D. in sociology from Boston College, a master’s degree in urban and environmental policy from Tufts University and a bachelor’s degree in political science from Emmanuel College. She is married to former Congressman Mickey Edwards, R-Okla., who now directs leadership programs at the Aspen Institute in Washington, D.C.

Early in her career, Sherman taught undergraduate and graduate level courses at a number of institutions, including Boston College and the University of Massachusetts, Boston. Her courses primarily focused on American politics and government, public policy, women in politics, political sociology, social movements and sociological theory.

She was a recipient of the Associated Press Public Service Award in 2000, the Abigail Adams Award from the Massachusetts Women’s Political Caucus in 1998 and the President’s Leadership Award from the Massachusetts Association of Public Administrators in 1993.