Sherry L. Emery is a senior fellow of public health at the independent research organization NORC at the University of Chicago.

Before joining NORC with her team in July 2016, Emery was a senior research scientist at the Institute for Health Research and Policy (IHRP), where she established and directed the Health Media Collaboratory (now Social Data Collaboratory) in 2011. She was an IHRP Fellow and a research associate professor in the UIC Department of Economics.

Emery's interdisciplinary research applies the approaches of health communication, economics, and public policy to understand how both traditional and new media influence health behavior. For over a decade, she focused primarily on the roles that tobacco control and other tobacco-related advertising play in shaping attitudes, beliefs, and tobacco-use behaviors among youth and adults. Since 2010, her research scope has expanded to include examinations of the impact of anti-drug and anti-obesity media campaigns, as well how pharmaceutical advertising affects health care utilization.

Emery serves or has served as the principal investigator on research studies funded by the National Cancer Institute; National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute; the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation; the State of California; and the American Legacy Foundation, now known as the Truth Initiative. In addition to her media studies, Emery has also analyzed the impact of cigarette prices, clean indoor air laws, community-based youth smoking cessation programs, and anti-smoking media campaigns.