Youth and Families Advisory Committee

Founder and executive director of national nonprofit organization The Net Safety Collaborative

Writer and youth advocate Anne Collier has chronicled the public discussion about youth and digital media since 1997. She is founder and executive director of national nonprofit organization, The Net Safety Collaborative (TNSC), whose main project is a social media helpline for schools. Anne served on three national task forces on youth and Internet safety, including as co-chair of the Obama administration’s Online Safety & Technology Working Group, and the national Internet Safety Technical Task Force of 2008. More recently, she served on the Aspen Institute Task Force on Learning & the Internet of 2013-’14.

Clinician and researcher with expertise in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. Principal and founder of Soft River Consultation

Allison Briscoe-Smith is a licenced child clinical psychologist. She has spent her career moving between academia and program development with a focus on children and families who experience trauma and on issues of racial justice. She is the principal and founder of Soft River Consultation where she provides support, curriculum development, facilitation to organizations interested in removing barriers to belonging.

PhD, Professor, & founder of the Australian Technology and Wellbeing Cross-Sector Roundtable, Western Sydney University

Professor Amanda Third (PhD) is Professorial Research Fellow in the Institute for Culture & Society; Co-Director of the Young and Resilient Research Centre at Western Sydney University; and a Faculty Associate in the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University (2020-2023). An international expert in youth-centred, participatory research, Amanda’s work investigates children's and young people’s technology practices, focusing on marginalised groups and rights-based approaches. She has led child-centred projects to understand children’s experiences of the digital age in over 70 countries, working with partners across corporate, government and not-for-profit sectors and children and young people themselves.

PhD, Chancellor’s Professor of Psychology and Informatics, University of California Irvine and Co-Director, Child and Brain Development Program, Canadian Institute for Advanced Research

Candice Odgers is a developmental and quantitative psychologist with expertise in child and adolescent mental health. Her team has been capturing adolescents’ daily experiences and health using mobile phones and wearable devices for close to 20 years. Odgers designs research and interventions with and for young people to reduce risk and increase their opportunities online. She grew up in the coldest part of Canada but now lives in sunny California with her children, husband, and very large dog.

Assistant Professor in Adolescent Medicine at the University of Wisconsin-Madison

Dr. Selkie received her medical degree and MPH from the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health where she is currently an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics. Her clinical work involves preventative and specialized care of adolescents and young adults. As a clinician scientist, Dr. Selkie hopes to decrease negative social media activities and amplify positive social media activities for marginalized adolescents, particularly sexual and gender minority youth.

PhD, Professor, and Dir. of the Center for research on Children, Adolescents, and the Media, University of Amsterdam

Dr. Jessica Taylor Piotrowski is a Professor in the Amsterdam School of Communication Research (ASCoR) at the University of Amsterdam (UvA) where she holds the Chair Communication in the Digital Society. Dr. Piotrowski’s research asks how individual and socio-cultural differences influence children’s media selection, use, processing, and subsequent effects, with a particular focus on the contexts that support young people’s experiences with digital media.

PhD, Professor, and Co-Founder & Co-Director of the Cyberbullying Research Center, University of Wisconsin - Eau Claire

A professor of criminal justice at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. Justin Patchin’s research explores the intersection of teens and technology, with particular focus on cyberbullying, social networking, and sexting. He frequently travels to train educators, counselors, law enforcement officers, parents, and youth on how to prevent the misuse of technology.

Assistant Professor Drexel University School of Education

Kareem Edouard is an Assistant Professor of Learning Technologies at the School of Education at Drexel University, and media consultant for The Ole Greens Group. Dr. Edouard received his Ph.D. in the Learning Sciences and Technology Design program at the Graduate School of Education from Stanford. His research interests lie in understanding the intersectionality of race and culture and STEAM engagement for students of color. Dr. Edouard’s consulting work focuses on creative and content development emphasizing culture and inclusion and learning strategies.

Professor in Residence, Informatics, University of California at Irvine

Mimi Ito is a cultural anthropologist of digital culture and advocate for connected learning that is youth-centered, interest-driven, hands-on, and social. She is the co-founder of Connected Camps, a benefit corporation that provides online creative learning opportunities for kids in all walks of life. Decades of research on geeks, gamers, fans, activists, and artists has convinced Ito that kids learn best when they pursue things they care about with people who get and inspire them.

PhD, Professor, Florida Atlantic University; Co-Director, Cyberbullying Research Center; Co-Founder and Co-Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Bullying Prevention

Dr. Sameer Hinduja is recognized internationally for his groundbreaking work on cyberbullying and safe social media use. He has written seven books, and his research has been cited over 20,000 times in a wide range of fields. Dr. Hinduja frequently provides expert commentary to the media, and also trains students, educators, parents, mental health professionals, and technologists how best to promote the positive use of technology.

PhD, Professor of Human Development, School of Family Life, Brigham Young University

Dr. Sarah M. Coyne is a Professor of Human Development in the School of Family Life at Brigham Young University. She regularly speaks to families and teenagers about using media in positive ways. She received her BSc degree in Psychology from Utah State University, and her PhD in Psychology from the University of Central Lancashire in Preston, England. Her research interests involve media, aggression, gender, mental health, and child development. Dr. Coyne has over 200 publications on these and other topics. She has five children and lives in Utah.

Professor of Communication and Technology, Singapore Management University

Sun Sun Lim is Professor of Communication and Technology at the Singapore Management University. She has written extensively on media and families, including Transcendent Parenting: Raising Children in the Digital Age (Oxford University Press, 2020) and Mobile Communication and the Family (springer, 2016). She serves on the Media Literacy Council and from 2018-2020 was a Nominated Member of the Parliament of Singapore where she advocated for digital rights for children and responsible use of AI and data sharing.

Founder and President of SaferNet

Thiago Tavares is the founder and president of SaferNet, the 18-years long Safer Internet Center for Brazil. SaferNet is the first-ever NGO in Brazil to establish a multistakeholder approach to protect children and promote human rights in the digital environment. Since 2005 SaferNet is responsible for the National Hotline, Helpline and the Brazilian Awareness Hub. Over the last 15 years his work on child safety, digital security and internet governance has been presented in over 30 countries, including nine UN IGF editions.

Founding Director of The Center for Scholars & Storytellers and Adjunct Professor at UCLA

Yalda T. Uhls is an internationally recognized, award-winning research scientist, UCLA adjunct professor, and author of Media Moms & Digital Dads: A Fact not Fear Approach to Parenting in the Digital Age. She’s the founding director of The Center for Scholars & Storytellers, a research organization based at UCLA, which bridges the gap between social science research and media creation to support authentic and inclusive stories for youth. Dr. Uhl’s knowledge of how media content is created and the science of how media affects children informs her unique perspective.