in zoology from the University of California, Riverside. Pennock previously served on the faculty of the Department of Biology and the Center for Integrative and Comparative Biology, and on the faculty of the Department of Biology at Loma Linda University. He currently serves as an affiliate professor in the Department of Biology at Indiana Wesleyan University, where he teaches evolution and science education, and as a senior research scientist in molecular genetics at Indiana University School of Medicine-Bloomington.
From 1997 to 2000, Pennock was a member of the board of directors of the Discovery Institute which promotes intelligent design creationism as a viable alternative to evolution in public schools. In this capacity, he helped draft a statement on evolution being taught in public schools that was given to President George W. Bush by a committee led by William A.
Dembski that recommended that creationism be taught alongside evolution in public schools. Pennock has been a consultant to both Congress and numerous state legislatures on issues pertaining to evolution education, including helping to draft legislation supporting intelligent design as an alternative to evolutionary biology in public school science curricula as well as legislation requiring public school districts receiving federal funds for science education to teach both evolution and intelligent design as alternatives to evolutionary theory