Debra Herbenick

Dr. Debby Herbenick is a Professor in the Department of Applied Health Science and Director of the Center for Sexual Health Promotion in the Indiana University School of Public Health. From 2016-2018 she served as president of the American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors, and Therapists (AASECT) and she is also an AASECT-certified sexuality educator.

For the past 20 years, Dr. Debby Herbenick's research has focused on understanding how people experience their bodies and sexual lives. Among her 160+ scientific publications, she has developed and validated measurement scales to assess genital self-image, the quality of sexual experiences, and has consulted on the development of a number of other measures. Dr. Herbenick is the Principal Investigator of the National Survey of Sexual Health and Behavior (NSSHB), a decade long nationally representative probability survey of Americans' sexual lives. The award-winning NSSHB covers nine decades of live and has included tens of thousands of Americans. Between the NSSHB and several other privately supported studies, Dr. Herbenick has led 13 U.S. nationally representative probability surveys dedicated to understanding contemporary sex in the United States. An award winning researcher and educator, Dr. Herbenick is internationally known for her creative ways of sharing sexual science with the general public.