Elyse Aurbach

As Director for Public Engagement & Research Impacts in the University of Michigan’s Office of Research, Elyse Aurbach develops strategy and oversees a team to support university faculty in their public engagement efforts. As a Civic Science Fellow with the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities, she leads 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, overseeing the center’s role in a Presidential strategic focus area on faculty public engagement. 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, and co-founding and directing 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.