Devorah Heitner
Devorah Heitner, PhD founded of Raising Digital Native to serve as a resource for schools and organizations wishing to cultivate a culture of responsible digital citizenship. She enjoys working with excellent public and independent schools across the United States. Her book, Screenwise: Helping Kids Thrive (and Survive) in Their Digital World (September 2016) is a guide for parents and educators to mentoring kids thoughtful engagement with technology.
Her social/emotional digital citizenship curriculum: Connecting Wisely: Social Emotional Insights and Skills for Plugged in Kids is used by many excellent public and independent schools. Dr. Heitner has a Ph.D. in Media/Technology and Society from Northwestern University and has taught at DePaul University and Northwestern University. Devorah has spoken many national and international conferences including TEDx, SXSWedu, NAIS and ISTE. She is delighted to be raising her own digital native, too.
Mark Ostach
Mark has been compulsively checking his phone for over a decade. He finally mustered up the courage to do something about it. A man of many interests and a wellspring of energy, he is on a mission to teach people healthy digital habits.
Mark holds degrees in neuroscience, psychology, technology, and even had a short stint at massage therapy school. He is determined to remind the world that human touch is the most powerful connection we have.
Having spent countless of hours contemplating how his online life impacts his mind, body, and spirit, Mark wants to make sure his life’s purpose isn’t jeopardized by the latest version of the iPhone 7.
Claire Mysko
Claire Mysko is the CEO of the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA) and an internationally recognized expert on body image, leadership, and media literacy. Prior to joining NEDA, she served as the director of the American Anorexia Bulimia Association and spearheaded the development of pioneering online communities at Girls Inc. and SmartGirl. She is the author of Does This Pregnancy Make Me Look Fat? The Essential Guide to Loving Your Body Before and After Baby and You're Amazing! A No-Pressure Guide to Being Your Best Self, an award-winning self-esteem manual for girls.
Dr. Luis Camillo Almeida
Dr. Luis Camillo Almeida is the Interim Department Chair of the Department of Integrated Marketing Communications, Multimedia Journalism and Media Production at Jackson State University and TEDx speaker. A systemic thinker and media critic. Dr. Almeida has served as a critic of technology in a number of national and international outlets including ABC-Jackson, TEDxPhoenixville, Voice of America (VOA), Indiana Gazette, Nightique, Metro Morning Live, and The Vindicator. Internationally, Dr. Almeida has been featured in the O Globo Newspaper, Radio CBN, Investmentos e Noticias (Brazil), and Voice of America (Nigeria). Dr. Almeida was also acclaimed by the Pittsburgh Tribune Review as “Newsmaker” for his work with technology. He received a PhD from Penn State University.
Darrell “Coach D” Andrews
Darrell Andrews is a nationally acclaimed education consultant, motivational speaker, and author of the books, The Purpose Living Teen-A Teen’s Guide To Living Your Dreams and The Parent As Coach-Developing A Family Dream Team. He was also a Blogger for McGraw Hill School Education. His story of education success, 5 Garbage Bags And A Dream was one of the top stories in the New York Times Best Selling Book, Chicken Soup For The African-American Soul.
He has trained and motivated thousands of schools, school districts and organizations throughout the United States, Canada and the Caribbean. His “Connecting Dreams To Education” training has helped hundreds of thousands of youth worldwide connect future career and life dreams to their current education (and choices.) Coach D received his CSP (Certified Speaking Professional) designation from the National Speakers Association. He is a regular presenter at conferences, school districts, workforce development organizations and education based events worldwide. He is also a highly sought after media guest. Most importantly, he has been happily married for 22 years and is the proud father of 4 amazing children.
Sam Pemberton, CEO of Impero (sponsor of the Digital Citizenship Summit)
Read all about Impero HERE.
Melissa Davis, Co-founder & CEO of GoEnnounce (sponsor of the Digital Citizenship Summit)
Read all about GoEnnounce HERE.
Katelyn Maloney Williams
Katelyn Maloney Williams is an international educator, passionate about social policy and youth media research. She currently serves as an administrator at Child Trends, a nonprofit research center dedicated to informing policies that improve children’s lives, where she oversees the competitive proposal development process and uses her former training in safeguarding children and other vulnerable populations to serve as a reviewer on its Institutional Review Board. A former teacher's aide in the Bronx and workshop performer for the Alzheimer's Poetry Project, Kate also serves as volunteer literacy coach with 826DC, helping ELL youth in the DCPS system find their writing voices.
Away from Child Trends, Kate has been affiliated with the University of Rhode Island's Media Education Lab and the Summer Institute in Digital Literacy. She is a trained media ecologist and has worked on youth development and education projects in Tanzania and Sri Lanka. She holds her M.Sc. from The London School of Economics, where she focused on ICTs for Development and conducted ethnographic research on the uptake of social media by Sinhalese youth. She has also helped support the LSE Media Policy Project, being the lead on North American legislative tracking and informing work that fed into both the Leveson Inquiry and the EU Kids Online project. Prior to returning to the United States, she was a grants officer for the British Red Cross Refugee Service, working with caseworkers to ensure that asylum-seekers could meet their basic costs of living and providing data collection on the British government’s Annual Survey of Refugees. Kate is an advocate for adopting programs that support self-driven inquiry, critical pedagogy, media literacy, and digital citizenship.
Anastasia Dedyukhina
Entrepreneur, coach, start-up mentor and Huffington Post blogger Anastasia Dedyukhina in the middle of a successful international career in digital marketing gave up her smartphone to start a digital detox business Consciously Digital. Using the latest neuroscience research, she mainly coaches tech and marketing people and companies around productivity and life balance in an age of digital distraction.
Anastasia is an affiliate member of a number of professional organizations, including The International Coach Federation (ICF), and is a mentor with Startup Direct, a governmental program supporting small businesses in the UK, and with Westminster Business Council in London.
Adam Pletter
Adam Pletter, Psy.D is a licensed clinical psychologist who specializes in the treatment of children, adolescents, and young adults. He received his doctoral degree from the George Washington University Professional Psychology Program and has been in private practice in Bethesda, Maryland since 2001.
In his iParent101 workshops, Dr. Pletter shows parents how to use the built-in restrictions of electronic devices paired with age-appropriate Digital Access Boxes™ so children can safely expand their access as they grow and demonstrate that they can handle themselves.
