Sharon Tennyson is a Professor at Cornell University in the Department of Policy Analysis and Management and Director of Graduate Studies for the Field of Public Affairs. She is a faculty Fellow of the Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future and faculty coordinator of the Mario Einaudi Center's Working Group on Disasters.

An economist by training, Dr. Tennyson's primary research focus is the impact of laws and government regulations on the wellbeing of consumers in markets. Recognizing that government actions may alter firms' operations and/or consumers' decisions in markets, her work explores the effects of regulations on these behaviors and the changes in market outcomes that result.  Much of her work has studied insurance markets, but she has also written on the regulation of credit cards, prescription drugs and airlines. 

From 2014-2017 Dr. Tennyson served as Director of CIPA, and from 2012-2017 she served as Editor of the Journal of Consumer Affairs. She is currently Editor of the International Review of Financial Consumers and a Senior Associate Editor of the Journal of Risk and Insurance. She is a former president of the Risk Theory Society, and began her career as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Insurance and Risk Management at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.