MEDIA EDUCATION LAB - Key Persons

April Leach

Job Titles:

Fellow Specialist / Librarian / Researcher / Educator

April Leach received a Ph.D. in Education Technology and eLearning from Northcentral University, a M.Ed. in Education - Literacy PK-12 from the University of Nebraska, a B.A. in Comparative Literacy with minors in Social Psychology and Sociology with a Teaching Certificate from Ramapo College of New Jersey, and is certified in Art. Languages: English & French

Arab Berlin

Job Titles:

Media Club

In this Media Club Hanan Badr will talk about the co-edited book Arab Berlin: Dynamics of a Transformation. Returning the gaze into transformations in Western societies, the Media Club revisits the interpretations of contemporary transformations in Berlin which vary depending on the areas in which they take place. This book's epistemic and critical intersectional position is on the margins.

Carolyn Fortuna

Job Titles:

Fellow Writer
Writer, Researcher

Carolyn Fortuna is a writer, researcher, and educator with a lifelong dedication to ecojustice. She has written over 1000 articles for CleanTechnica and has won awards from the Anti-Defamation League, The International Literacy Association, and The Leavey Foundation. Her particular areas of media literacy interest are critical literacy, media messaging, discourse analysis, and visual analysis. Carolyn is a grades 6-12 curriculum developer, a writer's workshop facilitator, and a professional development event producer who has spoken at over 50 conferences. Carolyn has a PhD in education from the University of Rhode Island and bachelor's and master's degrees in writing from the University of Connecticut. You are welcomed to visit Carolyn's professional website at idigitmedia.com.

Catherine Morris

Job Titles:

Program Director
Program Director for MEL 's Courageous RI

Catherine serves as the Program Director for MEL's Courageous RI initiative. In addition to this role, she is an Instructor at the University of Rhode Island in the Communication Studies department. Prior to attending URI for graduate school, Catherine worked in the marketing and direct sales industry for seven years. Her research and areas of interest include education, media literacy, and childhood development.

Cornelia Trahan

Cornelia Trahan is a Ph.D. student in the doctoral program offered jointly by the University of Rhode Island (URI) and Rhode Island College (RIC). Before enrolling in the program, she worked extensively in promotion and development in the nonprofit and corporate sectors in the New England area. In 2018, she completed her Master of Education, Adult Education, at the University of Rhode Island, Providence campus. She presented at the Association for Continuing Higher Education (ACHE) Conference in Newport, Rhode Island and was awarded the ACHE Graduate Student Conference Grant. She also presented at the Adult Higher Education Alliance (AHEA) Annual Conference in Orlando, Florida. As she fulfilled her graduate coursework, she observed unanticipated consequences as digital literacy competencies increased, initially in her own experience and then in her classmates. As a Ph.D. student, this led to her ongoing exploration of research interest(s) that address the intersection of critical media literacy, identity formation, leadership development, and storytelling. Also, she is studying the relationships between the affordance of learning with emerging media and technology tools and its effect on civic engagement. In her work as a graduate research assistant at URI, she supports the mission of the Robert Noyce Teacher Scholar Program to address the critical need for K-12 STEM teachers in high-need school districts.

Devina Sarwatay

Job Titles:

Webinar Series Manager

Dr. Ebubekir Cakmak

Job Titles:

Researcher
Associate Professor With a
Research Fellow

Ebubekir Cakmak is a Turkish educational researcher who specializes in digital and media literacy, digital storytelling, and issues of representation. Until 2016, he was a tenured professor in the faculty of education at Abant Izzet Baysal University. He helped to author the national Media Literacy Curriculum for the Turkish Ministry of Education in 2014, and contributed to the curricul;um in Secondary Reading, Writing and Authorship as well. He helped develop the National Children and Media Strategy and Implementation Plan. With his colleague Sait Tuzel, he wrote an influential paper about the future of media literacy in Turkey entitled, "Debates about the Future of Media Literacy in Turkey," published in the Journal of Media Literacy Education. Dr. Ebubekir Cakmak is an associate professor with a PhD in Curriculum and Instruction, focusing on Education and Language Arts Curriculum in Turkey. Dr. Cakmak has been working as a researcher at the

Dr. Jiwon Yoon

Job Titles:

Fellow Scholar

Jiwon has been focusing on research in media literacy in the areas of global understanding, intercultural communication, cultural competence, and popular culture in North and South Korea. Her works have been published in scholarly journals and as book chapters, and she has received research awards from BEA (Broadcast Education Association) and ICA (International Communication Association). She has engaged in numerous collaborations with South Korean media literacy academics, such as conducting research on youth media use and policy in four nations and developing media literacy education resources for multicultural contexts. Jiwon is passionate about sharing the narratives of North Korean defectors. She is currently working with Kumhee Choi, a North Korean defector residing in Australia, to tell her life story. Learn more about their collaborative journey at http://fromtwokoreas.com/about-this-blog/#HowIBlog Additionally, Jiwon is exploring the intersection of media literacy with cultural competence, a topic she plans to delve into on this blog: https://www.jiwon-yoon.com/ **Jiwon was a member of Media Education Lab during her doctoral studies at Temple University (2005-2009) and participated in various projects, including but not limited to: MyPopStudio.com (developed the content and format of online multimedia curriculum for girls); Media Literacy as a Means to Promote Cultural Understanding project (worked as a consultant to promote better understanding of Muslim culture through media literacy); and Digital Nation (as part of a team, developed a structured online learning experience for educators and parents using video and multimedia resources created for the television documentary entitled Digital Nation).

Elena Gabbi

Job Titles:

Journal of Media Literacy Education

Elizaveta Friesem

Job Titles:

Fellow Scholar & Writer
Writer

Elizaveta Friesem is a scholar, writer, and editor. After publishing a number of academic articles and a book Media Is Us: Understanding Communication and Moving beyond Blame (Rowman & Littlefield, 2021), Elizaveta is now developing her ideas through hypertext projects. Currently, her main focus is the project POWER of meanings // MEANINGS of power that aims to challenge the binary thinking about power while at the same time dealing with society's injustices and inequalities. Elizaveta's guiding vision is to help people combine awareness about social problems with collaboration across divides through empathy. As an immigrant with an interdisciplinary background and a passion for empathy, she believes that her main strength is an ability to draw from different fields and communities, and to find solutions that combine contradictory perspectives. Elizaveta Friesem served as a co-editor of the Journal of Media Literacy Education between 2019 and 2022. In her free time, she enjoys learning languages, writing poems, and doing epoxy resin crafts. To read more about Elizaveta, visit her website http://www.elizavetafriesem.co m and her new project: https://www.meaningsofpower.com/

Francia Garcia Hernandez

Job Titles:

Communications Specialist
Digital Content Coordinator

Francia Garcia Hernandez is a purpose-driven communications specialist and media creator from Mexico City. She is a graduate of the Civic Media program at Columbia College Chicago, where she learned skills to produce media that centers on community participation, equity, and justice. In her graduate studies, she worked as a marketing assistant for the Civic Media program, curating and promoting content, including events, programs, media creators and job opportunities in civic media. She also worked as a community reporter, where she explored how journalism can serve communities. In 2022, she participated in the Summer Institute in Digital Literacy. Prior to her graduate work, she led communications and sustainability programs in the business and nonprofit sectors in Mexico and the U.S. for 5 years.

Frank Romanelli

Job Titles:

Assistant Director
Professor of Writing and Rhetoric at the University of Rhode Island He

Frank Romanelli is an associate teaching professor of writing and rhetoric at the University of Rhode Island He teaches live, blended, and online classes and coordinates the concurrent enrollment program for writing and rhetoric. He is a member of The National Association of Concurrent Enrollment Partnerships (NACEP) and a board member of the New England Association of Concurrent Enrollment Partnerships (NEACEP). Frank presents nationally and online about Concurrent and dual enrollment and digital literacy. He has also facilitated faculty development workshops in project-based learning, technology and learning, dual and concurrent enrollment, and digital literacy across the curriculum. Frank has served as the director and Digital Pedagogy Specialist for the Writing and Rhetoric Production Lab and as coordinator of UnClassroom, a project based learning initiative for the Harrington School of Communication and Media at URI He has been a member of the leadership team of the Summer Institute in Digital Literacy and on the staff of the Media Education Lab at URI Harrington School of Communication and Media. He has done extensive teaching, writing and coordinating in Project Based Learning in Higher Education. Frank holds a B.A. an M.A. Education and English from University of Rhode Island with post graduate work in Educational Leadership from Rhode Island College.

Helen Liu

Job Titles:

Managing Editor, Journal of Media Literacy Education

Helen Liu is a doctoral student in the Faculty of Education at York University and a secondary teacher on the York Region District School Board (YRDSB). Her research interests include the critical examination of media, adolescent development, and the study of international students. She is passionate about exploring the gaps and discrepancies within media literacy curriculum. In doing so, she hopes to implement more relevant and focused education for adolescents, promoting responsible and successful navigation of these online spaces.

Huan Gao

Job Titles:

Assistant Professor at the University of Memphis College

Huan Gao is an Assistant Professor at the University of Memphis College of Education. She holds a Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Florida, specializing in Literacy Education with a concentration in Educational Technology. Her research centers on digital/media/information literacy development in the transnational context of migration and new literacies for a web-mediated world. Huan's research contributions have appeared in esteemed journals such as Linguistics and Education, Literacy Research: Theory, Method, and Practice, and the Journal of Information Literacy.

Iglika Ivanova

Job Titles:

Co - Program Chair, MediaEd Forum

Jocelyn Young

Job Titles:

Team Member With the
Webinar Series Manager

Jocelyn Young is a volunteer team member with the Media Education Lab. She also works with the International Research & Exchanges Board (IREX) supporting global programs that focus on media literacy and civic participation. She has previously worked in strategic communications for several nonprofits and holds a B.A. in Communication from the University of California, Davis, as well as an M.A. in Statecraft and International Affairs from the Institute of World Politics. Her graduate research included topics such as digital political communication and the history of extremist movements around the globe. Jocelyn also has a special interest in countering polarization, violent extremism, and democratic backsliding through media literacy and civic education. You can read more on her LinkedIn account: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jocelyn-young/