About Us

We are a group of educators and scholars passionate about the practice of media literacy.

Our work combines years of experience within the media literacy practice and teaching with that of scholarship from the social science and humanities fields. We prioritize an integrative and collaborative process as key to our mission, and seek to bring together practitioners and scholars within the many subdomains of media literacy to build key learning targets and goals assisting educators and administrators with the implementing of media literacy education.

Our work is driven by the passage of Illinois Public Act 102-055, which requires media literacy education for all students at the high school level in Illinois.

Organizational Partners

Members

Join our coalition by filling out this short form – ILMLC Free Membership Form

Name		Institution	Title
Yonty	Friesem	Columbia College Chicago	Graduate Programs Director
Michael A.	Spikes	Northwestern University & Media Literacy Now	Illinois Chapter Leader
Jami	Rhue	Providence Englewood Charter School	Teacher-Librarian Media Specialist
Erica B.	Thieman	Illinois State Board of Education	Director of Standards & Instruction Department
Kimberly	Johnson	Illinois State Board of Education	English Language Arts Principal Consultant
Tony	Streit	National Association of Media Literacy Education (NAMLE)	President
Mary Jo	Matousek	Association of Illinois School Library Educators (AISLE)	Past-President
Bryan	Asbury	Illinois Communication & Theater Association (ICTA)	President
Sana	Jafri	Chicago Leanring Exchange	Executive Director
Kara	Thorstenson	Chicago Public Schools	Director of Libraries and Instructional Technology
Anna	Kim	Chicago Public Schools	Library and Digital Media Specialist
Sarah	Steiger	Chicago Public Schools	Library and Digital Media Manager
Mary Ellen	Daneels	DuPage County Regional Office of Ed	Director of Illinois Civics Hub
Isabelle	Hanson	KFVS-TV	Reporter/Multimedia Journalist, Anchor & Producer
Maaria	Mozaffar	The Law Office of Maaria Mozaffar	Principal Attorney
Kathleen	Beckman	FACETS	Director of Youth Programs
Christina	Pei	Chicago Leanring Exchange	Network Manager
Kristin	Ziemke	Chicago Council on Global Affairs	Emerging Leader
Felicia	Ulwelling	Chicago Public Schools	Teacher
Anthony	Zoubek	BHS U-46	Speech and Drama Team, Sponsor and Coach
Deb	Will	Zion-Benton Township High School	Librarian
Christy	Semande	Canton USD #66	District librarian
Heather	Danek	Minooka HS	English Teacher
Paula	Wyatt	Beaubien	LIbrarian
Rita	Bramble	Von Steuben	Librarian
Eric Currie	Currie	Hitch ES	Librarian
Cathy S.	Ruszel	O A Thorp Scholastic Academy	Library Teacher & Technology Teacher
Katie	Ewen	West Ridge Elementary	K-8 Library Teacher/ Librarian
Maria	Morales-Salazar	Acero, Torres Charter School	Bilingual Educator
Eyad	Zeid	Numerator	Sales Director
Natasha	Casey	Lincoln Land Community College	Professor
Dina	Khdair	DePaul University	Alumni
Sherida	Morrison	DePaul University	Adjunct Faculty
Lauren	Morgan	College of DuPage	Department Chair Professor
Denise	Nacu	DePaul University	Director
Spencer	Brayton	Waubonsee Community College	Director of Library Services
Anna M.	Wright	Illinois College	Assistant Professor
Grace	Choi	Handshake	UX Researcher
Katie	Paciga	Columbia College Chicago	Associate Professor
Ryan	McCarty	Niles Township High School District 219	Director of K8 Literacy

Founders

Yonty Friesem, Ph.D.

Yonty Friesem is director of the Media Education Lab and Associate Professor of civic media at Columbia College Chicago, where he founded two MA programs in Strategic Communication and Civic Media. Yonty’s work and research in civic media focus on the opportunities to improve social and emotional skills of students in formal and informal settings using media production as civic engagement. Apart from being an award-winning film producer, Yonty offers professional development for educators who want to drive social change in their community with their students using the power of digital media. Yonty’s publications in academic and professional journals include theory of empathic dialogs via media they call digital empathy, evaluation of various civic media programs, and explorations of implementing digital and media literacy in schools. Yonty received their Ph.D. in Education from the University of Rhode Island and MA in Leadership and Policy in Education from Tel-Aviv University.

Contact: yfriesem@colum.edu

Michael A. Spikes

Michael A. Spikes has been teaching, writing about, and developing curriculum on the subject of News Media Literacy and media production for more than 15 years. Currently, he is a Ph.D. candidate in the Learning Sciences at Northwestern University’s School of Education and Social Policy, and an adjunct professor at Columbia College Chicago. His research looks to connect cognitive, social, and learning environmental design theories to news media literacy pedagogy. Before joining Northwestern, Michael was a project manager for the Center for News Literacy at Stony Brook University where he led the build of its Digital Resource Center, an online repository of news literacy teaching and learning material. Michael also headed up a branch of the Center in the state of Illinois, where he developed teacher training materials and curriculum as part of a new Civics course mandate in the state. Michael continues his work with the center’s curriculum as a speaker, trainer, and consultant, most recently with the American Library Association. Michael has also held positions as a Media Studies instructor in both public and public charter schools in Washington DC, and was a member of the educational advisory team at the Newseum. He has also held roles as a media producer and editor for NPR, the PBS NewsHour, and the Kellogg School of Management.

Contact: michael@michaelspikes.com