School of Public Health

Education

• Indiana University, Ph.D. in Health Behaviour, 2007

• Indiana University, M.P.H., 2003

• University of Maryland, B.A. in Psychology, 1998

Background

• 2021 Outstanding Senior Researcher Award
• Past-president (2016-2018), American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors, and Therapists
• Grants exceeding $6 million from the US Department of State, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Church & Dwight Co., National Institutes of Health, Patty Brisben Foundation, as well as various corporations, private foundations, and philanthropists
• 2013 Early Career Scholar Award. School of Public Health - Bloomington. Indiana University. Bloomington, Indiana.
• 2020 Career Teaching Award, Indiana University School of Public Health
• 2020 Professional Standard of Excellence Award from the American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors & Therapists
• Awarded a 2018-2019 Trustees Teaching Award from the Indiana University School of Public Health
• 2018 Outstanding Faculty Collaborative Research and Lecture. Indiana University (award shared with research collaborators Reece, Dodge, Fortenberry, and Sanders)
• Co-producer of the Emmy-nominated documentary, Hot Girls Wanted
• Author of 5 best-selling books

Courses

• SPH F255: Human Sexuality
• SPH B632: Contemporary Controversies and Discoveries in Sexual Health

Research Interests

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, attitudes toward condoms, attitudes toward bisexual women and men, 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. In total—between the NSSHB and several other separately supported studies—Dr. Herbenick has led 13 U.S. probability surveys dedicated to understanding contemporary sex in the United States. Her research has addressed female sexual pleasure and masturbation, vibrator use, couples communication, consensual nonmonogamy, diverse sexual behaviors, condom use, sexual satisfaction, sexually explicit media use, and the use of consumer sexual health and enhancement products (e.g., vibrators, condoms, lubricants, etc.). An award winning researcher and educator, Dr. Herbenick is internationally known for her creative ways of sharing sexual science with the general public. She has published five best-selling books about sex, several thousand newspaper and magazine columns, and served as co-producer for the Emmy-nominated documentary Hot Girls Wanted. In addition, Dr. Herbenick wrote The Kinsey Institute's Kinsey Confidential columns and podcasts for 17 years. She has appeared on various television, radio, and web-based video series talking about sex and sex research. She is also the founder and host of the Bloomington Sex Salon, a popular event series dedicated to creating campus-community conversations about sexuality topics.

Selected Publications

Articles

Herbenick, D., Eastman-Mueller, H., Fu, T.C., Dodge, B., Ponander, K., & Sanders, S.A. (In press). Women's sexual satisfaction, communication, and reasons for (no longer) faking orgasm: Findings from a U.S. probability sample. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 48(8), 2461-2472.

Herbenick, D., Fu, T.C., Wright, P., Paul, B., Gradus, R., Bauer, J., Jones, R. (2020). Pornography use and diverse sexual behaviors: Findings from a Nationally Representative Survey of Americans Ages 14 to 60. Journal of Sexual Medicine, 17(4), 623-633.

Herbenick, D., Bartelt, E., Fu, T.C., Paul, B., Gradus, R., Bauer, J., and Jones, R. (2019). Feeling scared during sex: Findings and implications from a U.S. probability sample of women and men ages 14 to 60. Journal of Sex & Marital Therapy. Published online ahead of print.

Herbenick, D., Fu, T.C., Arter, J., Dodge, B., & Sanders, S.A. (2017). Women's experiences with genital touching, sexual pleasure, and orgasm: results from a U.S. probability sample. Journal of Sex & Marital Therapy. Published online ahead of print.

Herbenick, D., Bowling, J., Fu, T.C.J., Dodge, B., Guerra-Reyes, L., Sanders, S. (2017). Sexual diversity in the United States: Results from a nationally representative probability sample of adult women and men. PLOS One. Article Link

Dodge, B., Herbenick, D., Fu., T.C.J., Schick, V., Reece, M., and Fortenberry, J.D. (2016). Sexual behaviors of U.S. men by self-identified sexual orientation: results from the 2012 National Survey of Sexual Health and Behavior. Journal of Sexual Medicine, 13(4), 637-649.

Herbenick, D., Schick, V., Sanders, S.A., Reece, M., and Fortenberry, J.D. (2015). Pain experienced during vaginal and anal intercourse among male-female partners: findings from a nationally representative probability study in the United States. Journal of Sexual Medicine, 12(4), 1040-1051.

Herbenick, D., Reece, M., Schick, V., Sanders, S., & Fortenberry, J.D. (2013). The development and validation of the male genital self-image scale: results from a nationally representative probability sample of men in the United States. Journal of Sexual Medicine, 10(6), 1516-1525.

Herbenick, D., Reece, M., Schick, V., Jozkowski, K., Middlestadt, S., Sanders, S.A., Dodge, B., Ghassemi, A., & Fortenberry, J.D. (2011). Beliefs about women's vibrator use: results from a nationally representative survey in the United States. Journal of Sex & Marital Therapy, 37(5), 329-345.

Herbenick, D., Reece, M., Sanders, S.A., Schick, V., Dodge, B., & Fortenberry, J.D. (2010). Sexual behavior in the United States: Results from a national probability sample of males and females ages 14 to 94. Journal of Sexual Medicine, 7 (suppl 5), 255-265.

Books

Dr. Herbenick's books include The Coregasm Workout, Sex Made Easy, Read My Lips: A Complete Guide to the Vulva and Vagina, Great in Bed and Because It Feels Good. Her books have been translated into five languages.

For more information about Dr. Herbenick's published books, visit her Amazon author page:

https://www.amazon.com/Debby-Herbenick/