Sherna Hough Deamer is a professional writer who became a Bahá’í in Los Angeles in 1978. Within months of enrolling in the Faith she was asked to do public relations work on behalf of the persecuted Baha’is of Iran. She worked in the L.A. Bahá’í Center until 1983, when she was invited to serve at the Bahá’í World Centre in Haifa, Israel, to do public relations work as directed by the Universal House of Justice. She served at the World Centre in Israel for 19 years, holding a number of positions (often concurrently) including Public Information Officer, head of the Department of Publishing, editor of the Bahá’í International News Service, and manager of the Guided Tours Operation.
Sherna had become a Bahá’í while working for Jacques Cousteau in his Los Angeles office that produced the television series The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau. She was editor of his environmental newsletter, The Calypso Log, wrote environmental education material, and coordinated Cousteau’s publicity in the United States. Previously she had been an editor at Peterson Publishing Co. and a book reviewer for Psychology Today magazine.
After leaving the Bahá’í World Center, Sherna worked for 11 years for the Superior Court of California as manager of a website that helps people use the courts without lawyers. In this capacity she created over 2,500 pages of legal content, produced videos, created PowerPoint presentations and much more to serve the public. Since retiring in 2014, she studies law, striving to advance the discourse that will lead to “a single code of international law” as envisioned by Shoghi Effendi in The Goal of a New World Order.