Dr Shelley Thompson started her career as a journalist in New York and New England, before joining BU in 2009. She completed her PhD at BU and progressed through various academic and leadership roles, previously Deputy Dean of the Business School and Head of the Department of Communication and Journalism in the Faculty of Media and Communication.
As Pro Vice-Chancellor of Student Experience, Dr Thompson provides leadership and policy direction for the development, communication, delivery and review of BU’s student experience strategies.
She has taught on a variety of degrees including the Politics, Multimedia Journalism, and Communications and Media. Supervised and examined PhDs and postdoctoral researchers, especially in areas of science journalism (including gendered representations of science and science expertise) and broader areas of journalism studies and political communication. She is also a fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
Dr Thompson is a science journalism scholar, specialising in the reporting of emerging and controversial science. Her current research considers the under-representation of women's voices in news debates about science, following her intervention at the 2017 UN Conference on Women and Girls in Science and the Role of the Media.