FOSI Briefs the Hill - Misinformation and the Importance of Media Literacy

Lindsey Kerr serves as the Democratic Staff Director and Chief Counsel on the Senate Rules Committee under Ranking Member Amy Klobuchar. Lindsey works on a broad portfolio of issues relating to campaign finance, election law, and national security. Prior to her current role, Lindsey served as National Security Advisor to Senator Klobuchar and Senior Counsel to Congressman Keith Ellison (D-MN). Lindsey came to Capitol Hill as a PhD candidate studying law and politics with the American Political Science Association’s Doctoral Fellowship Program. She graduated from Georgia State University and received a master’s in comparative politics, as well as a JD from the Georgia State University College of Law.

Sonia Livingstone DPhil (Oxon), OBE, FBA, FBPS, FAcSS, FRSA, is a professor in the Department of Media and Communications at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Taking a comparative, critical and contextualised approach, her research examines how changing conditions of mediation reshape everyday practices and possibilities for action. She has published 20 books on media audiences, children and young people’s risks and opportunities, media literacy and rights in the digital environment, including “Parenting for a Digital Future: How hopes and fears about technology shape children’s lives” (OUP 2020). Since founding the EC-funded 33 country “EU Kids Online” research network, and Global Kids Online (with UNICEF Office of Research-Innocenti), she has advised the Council of Europe, European Commission, European Parliament, UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, OECD, ITU and UNICEF. She chaired LSE’s Truth, Trust and Technology Commission and is currently leading the Digital Futures Commission with the 5Rights Foundation. See www.sonialivingstone.net

Matthew Johnson is the Director of Education for MediaSmarts, Canada’s centre for digital media literacy. He is the architect of Access, Use, Understand, Create: Digital Media Literacy Framework for Canadian K-12 Schools and the author of many of MediaSmarts’ parent, youth and classroom resources including Break the Fake, which returned the beloved house hippo to Canadian screens. He is a member of the Canadian Pediatric Society's Digital Health Task Force and has served as on expert panels convened by the Sex Information & Education Council of Canada and the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario’s Strategic Priorities Advisory Committee, among others.

Dewayne comes to Digital Promise most recently as Director of Educational Technology and Library Programs at D.C. Public Schools, where he supervised DCPS’s 1:1 pilot and roll-out and other innovation initiatives. He has broad and deep experience as a teacher and district leader. He has worked in rural South Carolina, the suburbs of Virginia, and at an urban D.C. school district. Dewayne is a visionary and strategic leader, an extraordinary relationship builder, and a highly energetic, adept communicator. In his role as Director of the League of Innovative Schools, he will lead efforts to increase engagement and impact for the network. Dewayne earned a BS in Political Science from Francis Marion University, an Executive Master’s in Leadership from Georgetown University, and is pursuing a Ph.D in Curriculum and Instruction from Liberty University.

Tessa Jolls is President and CEO of the Center for Media Literacy, a position she has held since 1999. She also founded the Consortium for Media Literacy, a nonprofit which provides research and a quarterly leadership publication. Jolls was awarded the 2020 NATO Fulbright Research Award in Brussels, as well as Visiting Scholar positions at American University/Brussels, UCLouvain, and the University of Latvia Faculty of Social Sciences. She also served as a 2019 Fulbright Specialist for a two-week assignment in Bulgaria.

In 2015, Jolls received the Global Media and Information Literacy Award, in recognition of her work in Media and Information Literacy and Intercultural Dialogue, from the UNESCO-initiated GAPMIL, in cooperation with the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC). In 2014, Jolls was honored with the International Media Literacy Award by Gateway Media Literacy Partners; in 2013, she was recognized with the Jesse McCanse Award for Individual Contribution to Media Literacy by the National Telemedia Council. She was invited to attend the Stanford Graduate School of Business Executive Education, WICT Senior Executive Summit in March, 2018.