Ellen A. Wartella

Director, Center on Media & Human Development, Northwestern

Ellen A. Wartella studies the role of media and technology in children’s health and development. She is the Al-thani Professor of Communication Studies, and Director of the Center on Media and Human Development at Northwestern University. She also holds appointments in Northwestern’s School of Medicine, Department of Psychology and School of Education and Social Policy. She is the author or editor of 12 books and more than 200 book chapters, articles, technical reports and papers. She is editor of Social Policy Reports, a publication of the Society for Research in Child Development. She currently sits on the National Educational Advisory Board of the Children's Advertising Review Unit of the Council of Better Business Bureaus, the Board of the World Summit on Children and Media, the Board of Children and Screens Institute, the Board of the Public Good Projects that sponsors A Healthy America initiative, and the Board of Spoon, a foundation that brings nutritional training to caregivers in orphanages around the world. She is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Psychological Society and the International Communication Association, of which she was the president.