About the Media Literacy Awards
Every year, NAMLE strives to honor those individuals and organizations who have exhibited impactful service, practice, or efforts that have greatly impacted the media literacy community and beyond. Check out the full description of each of the awards here. This year’s awards to be presented during the 10th Annual U.S. Media Literacy Week.
Register to Attend the Award Ceremony
Simply register as a U.S. Media Literacy Week participant and you will gain access to all NAMLE-hosted events, including the Award Ceremony, which will be held on Thursday evening on October 24. We will be honoring community members with the awards below.
Meet this year’s winners:
ELIZABETH THOMAN SERVICE AWARD
Dr. Cyndy Scheibe
Executive Director, Project Look Sharp & Dana Professor, Dept. of Psychology, Ithaca College
Cyndy Scheibe is Executive Director of Project Look Sharp. She co-authored “The Teacher’s Guide to Media Literacy: Critical Thinking in a Multimedia World” (Sage/Corwin, 2012) with Faith Rogow and “Teaching Students to Decode the World: Media Literacy and Critical Thinking Across the Curriculum” (ASCD, 2022) with Chris Sperry. With a Ph.D. in developmental psychology from Cornell University (1987), she is also Dana Professor of Psychology at Ithaca College, teaching courses in child/adolescent development, media literacy, and scientific literacy, and coordinating the college’s interdisciplinary media literacy minor.
Cyndy was a founding board member of the National Association for Media Literacy Education and co-authored the original Core Principles of Media Literacy Education. She has given dozens of keynotes and presentations about media literacy education across the world and developed the successful online course, “Empowering All Students through Media Decoding for K-12 Librarians.”
MEDIA LITERACY COMMUNITY AWARD
Laura Donnelly
Founder, Latinitas, Lifetime Co-Agitator
Laura Donnelly is the founder of Latinitas, a STEAM education nonprofit that empowers young Latinas and their families through media and tech literacy programs. Launched in 2002 as a volunteer project at the University of Texas at Austin, Latinitas grew into a nationwide initiative, serving over 45,000 girls, teens, and non-binary students across the U.S. and beyond, with participants learning skills in writing, filmmaking, coding, robotics, and more. Under Donnelly’s leadership, Latinitas raised over $10 million, secured multi-year funding from JCPenney, and was honored with a STEM Barbie representing its mission. In 2023, Donnelly transitioned to her role as the Radical Consultant, helping other nonprofit founders and launching Street Genius, a program focused on empowering young boys through art and tech education. She also serves on the boards of KUT/KUTX-FM, the Latina Foundation, and The New Philanthropists. Prior to Latinitas, Donnelly worked in book publicity, managing national campaigns for notable figures like Maya Angelou, Michael Crichton, and former President Jimmy Carter.
MEDIA LITERACY RESEARCH AWARD
T. Philip Nichols
Associate Professor of English Education, Baylor University
T. Philip Nichols is an Associate Professor of English Education at Baylor University. He studies how science and technology condition the ways we practice, teach, and talk about literacy — and the implications of this conditioning for equitable public education and civic flourishing. He is the author of “Building the Innovation School: Infrastructures for Equity in Today’s Classrooms” (Teachers College Press, 2022) and co-editor, with Antero Garcia, of “Literacies in the Platform Society: Histories, Pedagogies, Possibilities” (Routledge, 2025).
MEDIA LITERACY PK-12 TEACHER AWARD
Dana Pike
Library Media Specialist
Dana Pike has been a dedicated educator for 24 years, with the past 10 years serving as a passionate library media specialist. Throughout her career, Dana has focused on fostering literacy, encouraging critical thinking, and supporting student engagement through innovative library programs such as Battle of the Books and STEAM education. Dana is committed to empowering students with media literacy skills and nurturing a lifelong love for learning. This award from NAMLE is a reflection of Dana’s dedication to education, the role of libraries, and media literacy in shaping informed, responsible citizens.
MEDIA LITERACY HIGHER EDUCATION TEACHER AWARD
Celeste Sepessy
Assistant Teaching Professor, Arizona State University
Celeste Sepessy is an assistant teaching professor and faculty director at ASU’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication. She works as a program manager at the ASU News Co/Lab, an initiative aimed at advancing media literacy via journalism, education and technology. She has taught courses in media literacy, news writing, community engagement reporting and digital audiences since 2014.
MEDIA LITERACY YOUTH AWARD
Karina Yue
Student, California School of the Arts
Karina Yue is a sophmore in Duarte, CA and attends California School of the Arts- SGV. As a nationally recognized changemaker, she dedicates herself to elevating storytelling and amplifying voices through mass media. Her work centers on bridging the gaps in education and fostering awareness. She serves as a creative councilmember for Chelsey Goodan and Hello Sunshine, leads statewide initiatives on GAB, and has been featured at UCLA Anderson Women’s Velocity Summit. With the digitial world continuing to evolve, Karina believes that media literacy is essential and is committed to supporting its development.
MEDIA LITERATE MEDIA AWARD
Pablo Herrera
Founder, Teens Media Network, Colectivo Piloto
Teens Media Network (TMN) is a media and education hub dedicated to advancing young people’s careers in pop culture and entertainment through global creative collaboration.
TMN engages youth in multimedia storytelling, focusing on contemporary culture, including music, film, fashion, and trends. Through partnerships with mentors and peers worldwide, TMN empowers the next generation of storytellers by providing hands-on learning experiences in photography, videography, writing, publishing, and content creation. Youth contributors produce and distribute original content for the network, amplifying their voices and shaping the narratives of today’s cultural and entertainment landscapes.
Founded by cultural promoter and entrepreneur Pablo Herrera, TMN is an initiative of Colectivo Piloto (CP), a nonprofit organization established in Barcelona, Spain, in 2004. CP is committed to fostering youth development and community engagement through inclusive multimedia storytelling, helping young creators gain industry experience and connect with audiences across borders.
MEDIA LITERATE MEDIA AWARD
Sue Ding
Director, Makeover Movie
Sue Ding is a filmmaker and visual artist based in Los Angeles. Her work explores race, gender, and diaspora through the lens of visual culture and place-based storytelling.
Sue directed the short documentary The Claudia Kishi Club, which premiered at SXSW and was acquired by Netflix, and an Emmy Award-winning episode of the docuseries “Artbound.” Her films can be found on PBS, The New York Times, and Vimeo Staff Picks, and have screened internationally at venues including IDFA, Antimatter, and Copenhagen Contemporary. In 2023, she was named one of Filmmaker Magazine’s “25 New Faces of Independent Film.”
MEDIA LITERATE MEDIA AWARD
Renée DiResta
Social Media Researcher and Author, “Invisible Rulers: The People Who Turn Lies Into Reality“
Renée DiResta is a social media researcher and the author of Invisible Rulers: The People Who Turn Lies into Reality, specializing in adversarial abuse online, ranging from state-run influence operations to spammers, scammers, and issues related to child safety. From 2019 to 2023, she served as the Technical Research Manager at the Stanford Internet Observatory, a multidisciplinary research initiative focused on the study of abuse in information technologies, teaching, and policy engagement.
Renée has advised Congress, the executive branch, and a range of academic, civic, and business organizations on technology and policy issues, including election security, information operations, generative AI, researcher transparency, and online safety for children. She led outside investigations into the Russia-linked Internet Research Agency’s multi-year campaign to manipulate American society and the GRU’s influence campaign during the 2016 U.S. election. A contributor to The Atlantic, Renée’s work has been featured in major publications like Wired, Foreign Affairs, and The New York Times. She has been a Presidential Leadership Scholar, an Emerson Fellow, a Truman National Security Project fellow, and a Mozilla Fellow.