Hi, there. 👋
My name is Travis Schirner. I'm a professional creative communicator currently leading the incredible Universe Public Engagement team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. My team finds accessible onramps to astrophysics and exoplanet science, then creates digestible content for public audiences. I'm also a reserve officer at the Air Force Entertainment Office, where I provide Air Force & Space Force support to film and television projects.
I'm good at these things.
And some others, but three seems like enough to put here.
- Creative Ideation & Content Generation
- Communications Leadership
- Relationship Management & Trust Building
I'm just a SoCal kid (born & raised) who has always had an intense interest in entertainment, tech, philosophy, and existential questions on life and the cosmos. My parents told me that I'd have to finance my own college, so I did well enough in school to get admitted to UCLA with academic scholarships via the Air Force. In the Air Force, I was trained to be a Public Affairs Officer at the inimitable Defense Information School alongside military and civilian communicators. I spent about 8 years in the Air Force as a Public Affairs Officer -- including stints in the Air Force Entertainment Office and at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles -- then became a reservist to pursue other opportunities in civilian life.
As a member of the Air Force Entertainment Liaison Office, I have experience working directly with creative executives, producers, writers, directors, and location managers to get projects featuring the USAF or USSF to the screen. In this role, I substantially contributed to these things (some more than others, obviously): PROJECTS: First Man (Universal); Captain Marvel (Disney/Marvel); WandaVision (Disney+); The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (Disney+); The Tomorrow War (Paramount/Skydance/Amazon); Operation Christmas Drop (Netflix); Transformers: The Last Knight (Paramount/Hasbro); Greenland (STX/HBO); Sully (WB); The Titan Games (NBC); Sesame Street (HBO); Superpower Dogs (IMAX); MasterChef (FOX); Hawaii Five-0 (CBS); Jay Leno's Garage (CNBC); One Strange Rock (NatGeo); Armstrong (Doc Film); Hard to Kill (Discovery); Breakthrough (PBS); First Take Veterans Day Special 2018 & 2019 (ESPN); Rob Riggle: Global Investigator (Discovery); World's Greatest Drag Race 7, 8 & 9 (MotorTrend); Mystery of the Northern Lights (SCI Channel)
Shoot me a message by clicking the spinning mailbox above. Would be happy to chat about your creative projects, about JPL, or about communications generally.