Thought Leadership

Brian Southwell, Ph.D., holds a doctorate in Communication from the University of Pennsylvania and is an expert in the relationship between communication and human behavior. He currently serves as Lead Scientist for Public Understanding of Science at RTI International and holds faculty positions at Duke University, the University of Delaware, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His work has assessed public perceptions of a variety of health and scientific topics. Dr. Southwell’s expertise informs our science communication research and practice.

Federico Subervi, Ph.D., holds a doctorate in Mass Communication. He is an expert on issues related to mass media and ethnic minorities, particularly Latinos in the United States, and also on media and journalism in Puerto Rico, his home country. He is Co-Editor-in-Chief of The Oxford Encyclopedia of Race, Ethnicity and Communication and is Honorary Associate/Fellow of the Latin American, Caribbean and Iberian Studies Program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Dr. Subervi’s vast experience and expertise informs our science communication research.

Ann Sanson, Ph.D., is an Honorary Professorial Fellow at the University of Melbourne. Her research has principally focused on understanding the role of children, family and community characteristics in the social and emotional development and wellbeing of children, adolescents and young adults. The major focus of her current work is on the impact of the climate crisis on current and future generations of children, and how they can best be supported to cope with their responses to it, and to adapt to its inevitable effects on their lives. She recently co-founded Developmental Scientists for Climate Action, a global network to support research, education, practice and advocacy on the human development implications of climate change. She is a Fellow of the Australian Psychological Society and the International Society for the Study of Behavioral Development, as guest-edited three special issues of psychological journals on children and climate change, and has over 200 publications.

Keith L. Seitter, Ph.D., specializes in meteorology, climate science, and environmental policy. He is a Distinguished Visiting Lecturer at the College of the Holy Cross and also serves as Executive Director Emeritus and Senior Policy Fellow of the American Meteorological Society.

Jenny Radesky, M.D., is the David G. Dickinson Collegiate Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Michigan Medical School, where she directs the Division of Developmental Behavioral Pediatrics. Her NIH-funded research examines the use of mobile and interactive technology by parents and young children, parent-child relationships, and child social-emotional development. She authored the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) policy statements Media and Young Minds and Digital Advertising to Children and is co-Medical Director of the AAP Center of Excellence on Social Media and Youth Mental Health. She is editor of the developmental behavioral pediatrics textbook Encounters With Children, 5th Edition and sits on the Board of Children Youth and Families at the National Academy of Science.

Linda Espinosa, Ph.D., former Professor of Early Childhood Education at the University of Missouri, Co-Director of the National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER) at Rutgers University, Vice President of Bright Horizons Family Solutions, and school administrator in San Francisco for more than 20 years. She was Co-PI for the Getting on Track for Early School Success: Effective Teaching in Preschool Classrooms at the University of Chicago and Co-PI for the Center for Early Care and Education Research—Dual Language Learners at Frank Porter Graham CDI. Her recent research and policy work have focused on effective curriculum and assessment practices for young multilingual learners. Dr. Espinosa’s book, Getting it RIGHT for Young Children from Diverse Backgrounds (2015) focused on quality education for DLLs. She currently serves as a Co-Chair of the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine study committee, A New Vision for High Quality Preschool Curriculum.

Rosemarie Truglio, Ph.D., is a developmental psychologist and the senior vice president of Curriculum and Content at Sesame Workshop, where she oversees the curriculum and content development for Sesame Street and all new show productions. She has been at Sesame Workshop since 1997 and has become an expert in curricula and media that inspire preschoolers and adults in their lives to incorporate STEM concepts into everyday life. She is the author of Ready for School! A Parent’s Guide to Playful Learning for Children Ages 2 to 5. She brings her expertise in child research to the project.

Rachel Barr, Ph.D., is Professor of Psychology at Georgetown University and Director of the Georgetown Early Learning Project. Children are remarkable learners but many face remarkable challenges. Barr is primarily interested in how they pick up information so rapidly from the world around them. She has investigated how children bridge the gap between what they learn from media and how they apply that information in the real world and has worked with a parenting organization to disseminate the knowledge via Zero To Three’s Screen Sense resources. She has also co-developed a parenting intervention that utilizes media. Finally, she is investigating how young children pick up language(s) in bilingual and monolingual homes and how that affects learning in other domains.

Kathryn Hirsh-Pasek, Ph.D., a Professor of Psychology at Temple University and a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution was declared a “scientific entrepreneur” from the American Association of Psychology. Writing 17 books and 250+ publications, she is a leading professor in the science of learning who is known for translating research into actionable impact in schools, digital and screen media, and community spaces. Her Einstein Never Used Flashcards won the Book for a Better Life Award in 2003 with her Becoming Brilliant (2016) reaching the NYTimes Best Sellers List in education. Her newest book Making Schools Work is the first education book co-written with teachers, administrators and scientists.

Ann Segal, M.Ed., has nearly 60 years working on programs, policies, research, and evaluation focused on improving the school and life outcomes of low-income children. She began her career working for Dr. Berry Brazelton and later cofounded and directed a non-profit childcare program which remains ranked as high quality after 50 years serving a diverse population. Ann spent over 20 years at HHS in the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation and was the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy Initiatives when she retired to briefly join the Packard Foundation before becoming the senior philanthropic advisor for an anonymous funder’s large docket focused on advocacy to improve outcomes for young children living in low-income families. Her favorite foundation project was Abriendo Puertas: funding and advising its development, its expansion and its RCT evaluation. Ann is now retired and creating continuing education programs in her senior living community.

Wayne Lynch is an Emmy award-winning media executive who brings more than four decades of innovation in local and regional television news and programming. Throughout his career, Mr. Lynch has held various positions from on-air reporter and anchor, television news manager, and vice president of news and programming at NewsChannel 8 in Washington, D.C. He is currently a part-time lecturer at the University of Washington, Tacoma. Mr. Lynch contributes knowledge and experience that he has acquired throughout his long career as a news professional.

María Rosa Becker has been a Montessori teacher since 1980 working with children, youth, and families in the United States, Spain and since 1992 in Chile, her home country. She is the founder and Director of a bi-lingual (Spanish and English) Montessori school for children ranging from 2 to 18 years old. Maria Rosa also serves as the director of a teacher training center since 1996 for educators from Chile and from Santa Cruz, Bolivia. “Following Dr. Montessori’s original vision and recognizing our changing climate, our school focuses on Peace Education to equip our children and youngsters with the tools and skills they need to create a more cooperative and sustainable future.