Background: Shirley Malcom is Senior Advisor to the CEO and Director of the SEA Change initiative at American Association for the Advancement of Sciences (AAAS). She works to improve the quality and increase access to education and careers in STEM fields, as well as to enhance public science literacy. Dr. Malcom is a trustee of Caltech and a regent of Morgan State University, and a member of the SUNY Research Council. She is a former member of the National Science Board, the policymaking body of the National Science Foundation, and served on President Clinton’s Committee of Advisors on Science and Technology. Malcom, a native of Birmingham, Alabama, received her Ph.D. in ecology from The Pennsylvania State University, a master's in zoology from UCLA, and a bachelor’s with distinction in zoology from the University of Washington. She holds 16 honorary degrees.