BOZEMAN — Montana State University President Waded Cruzado announced today that she has awarded the MSU Presidential Medallion for Achievement to a faculty member in recognition of her outstanding contributions to the university, her students and her respective field.

The honored professor is Elizabeth Shanahan, professor in the MSU Department of Political Science in the College of Letters and Science and MSU’s associate vice president for research development.

The award recognizes faculty members who have demonstrated scholarship of an international caliber, an exemplary commitment to teaching and mentoring, and leadership in service at MSU, around the state and beyond.

“Montana State University is honored to recognize professor Shanahan for her impressive achievements,” said MSU President Waded Cruzado. “She has made truly extraordinary contributions to her field of study and demonstrates a deep commitment to her students and to this university.”

“I have immense gratitude to be awarded MSU’s Presidential Medallion for Academic Achievement,” Shanahan said. “This recognition reflects the tapestry of people in my life—MSU students and colleagues, my mentors, my family—all who have guided, challenged and supported me on this amazing journey. In tandem, I also feel a great sense of responsibility and inspiration to continue the work embodied by this medallion—to contribute to MSU as an institution, engage with MSU students and bring my expertise to questions commissioned by our U.S. Congress through the National Academy of Public Administration.”

Shanahan, who came to MSU in 2005, is an expert in narrative risk communication and is co-architect of the Narrative Policy Framework, which she has spent her career developing and testing. The framework focuses on policymaking and the power that narrative and stories have to gain public attention, to motivate behavior and to shape policy outcomes. The Narrative Policy Framework is now used internationally, having “made a pretty big splash in the policy world” when it was introduced, Shanahan said.

Earlier this year, Shanahan was named a fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA). Founded in 1967, the Academy was chartered by Congress to provide independent, nonpartisan and neutral advice to government leaders and agencies at all levels of government, similar to the National Academy of Sciences. NAPA fellows are chosen by the membership based on their distinguished and continuing achievements in and contributions to public administration and public policy.

Shanahan said that, typically, technical approaches are proposed to deal with risk and hazards. In her work, she brings the social sciences into the mix to understand community perspectives about risks like flooding and works with these communities to develop and adopt risk reduction policies and behaviors.

“People need to see policy as relevant to their lives, and scientific information communicated in narrative form can help,” she said.

She added that she believes her expertise in narrative risk communication is a primary reason she was selected as a NAPA fellow, as it positions her to help governments — especially those in the western U.S. — prepare for and respond to natural hazards like fires and floods, the spread of infectious disease, and cybersecurity threats.

Mere weeks before the COVID-19 pandemic in the U.S., an interdisciplinary MSU research team led by Shanahan published a paper on its research showing that delivering public information about potential hazards through narrative is significantly more effective at engaging people in risk reduction behaviors than science statements alone. During the pandemic, Shanahan led a group of social scientists on COVID-19 vaccine narrative communication, publishing on the use of visual narratives to increase vaccine uptake. During that time, her team made risk communication recommendations to the U.S. House Committee on Science, Space and Technology.

Shanahan continues to research effective ways to communicate evidence-based information for a range of disasters (such as natural hazards, cyberattacks) while ensuring that the persuasive power of narrative isn’t misused.

Shanahan has a doctorate in political science and two master’s degrees, all from Idaho State University. She also has a bachelor’s degree from Dartmouth College.

Shanahan is the fifth recipient of the MSU Presidential Medallion for Achievement and the first social scientist; last year, MSU awarded the medallion to Alexandra Adams, Peter Buerhaus, Joan Broderick and Dana Longcope.