Sandra Stencel

Associate Director, Editorial

Sandra Stencel is the associate director for editorial at the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life. Prior to joining the Pew Forum in 2002, Sandra was the executive director of the Brookings Institution's Presidential Appointee Initiative, a project supported by The Pew Charitable Trusts to encourage talented citizens to seek and accept presidential appointments. Earlier in her career, Sandra was a journalist and news executive at Congressional Quarterly, Inc. From 1991-99, she was the editor of The CQ Researcher, where she published in-depth backgrounders on policy issues of interest to public officials, policy experts, journalists, librarians and educators. The reports frequently covered topics on religion and public life, including religion and politics, religion and public schools, faith-based initiatives, religion in the workplace and bioethics. The Researcher won the 1999 Society of Professional Journalists Award for Excellence for a 10-part series on health-care issues. Sandra also served as marketing manager for CQ's Publications Division from 1983-1987, and as managing editor, associate editor, staff writer and editorial assistant for CQ's Editorial Research Reports.

Sandra has a bachelor's degree in American history from the University of Alabama, Huntsville. She was selected as an "Alumnus of Achievement" in 2001.