2025 Media Literacy Award Winners

ELIZABETH THOMAN SERVICE AWARD
Honoring Tessa Jolls
President and CEO, Center for Media Literacy

Tessa Jolls is President and CEO of the Center for Media Literacy, a position she has held since 1999. She also founded the Consortium for Media Literacy, a nonprofit which provides research and a quarterly leadership publication. Jolls was awarded the 2020 NATO Fulbright Research Award in Brussels, as well as Visiting Scholar positions at American University/Brussels, UCLouvain, and the University of Latvia Faculty of Social Sciences. She also served as a 2019 Fulbright Specialist for a two-week assignment in Bulgaria.

In 2015, Jolls received the Global Media and Information Literacy Award, in recognition of her work in Media and Information Literacy and Intercultural Dialogue, from the UNESCO-initiated GAPMIL, in cooperation with the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC). In 2014, Jolls was honored with the International Media Literacy Award by Gateway Media Literacy Partners; in 2013, she was recognized with the Jesse McCanse Award for Individual Contribution to Media Literacy by the National Telemedia Council. She was invited to attend the Stanford Graduate School of Business Executive Education, WICT Senior Executive Summit in March, 2018.

ELIZABETH THOMAN SERVICE AWARD
Frank Baker
Founder, Media Literacy Clearinghouse

Frank W Baker is a media literacy education consultant. For more than 20 years he has trained teachers to help them understand how media literacy can and should be incorporated into instruction. He manages the Media Literacy Clearinghouse website. He is the author of four books, the most recent of which are Close the Media and Media Literacy in the K-12 Classroom (2nd Ed). In 2019, Baker was recognized by UNESCO for his lifelong work in media literacy with the Global Partnership Alliance for Media and Information Literacy honor.

MEDIA LITERACY COMMUNITY AWARD
Olga Polites
New Jersey Chapter Leader, Media Literacy Now; Alliance Education Advisory Council Member, Alliance for Decision Education

For 40 years, Olga Polites taught high school English, and for 24 years she taught college composition. Her interest in media literacy education began as a search for better ways to prepare students to navigate our complex media world and become more civically minded citizens. In 2022, Olga advocated for an information literacy bill for all K-12 students that was signed into law by Governor Murphy. This led to her involvement with the nonprofits Media Literacy Now and The Alliance for Decision Education.

During the last two years, she has been working with school administrators to provide educators with guidance on how to implement digital media literacy skills in their lessons. The “crash course” is a distillation of a chapter she wrote for the book, We Can Teach That: Information Literacy for School Librarians, published in 2024.

New Jersey legislators continue to prioritize students’ well-being by proposing cell phone, social media, and AI legislation, which she will lend her support for and hopes to see become law.

MEDIA LITERACY RESEARCH AWARD
Jon Wargo
Associate Professor of Educational Studies, University of Michigan

Jon M. Wargo, Ph.D. is an associate professor of educational studies in the Marsal Family School of Education at the University of Michigan. An award-winning educator and internationally recognized scholar, Wargo’s scholarship interrogates the role of media and technology as it intersects with literacy learning. Interested in how youth leverage critical literacies to advance civic participation and social action, his research documents young peoples’ ingenuity and innovation with technology across school and society. Fueled by his experiences as a queer, multi-ethnic, first-generation college graduate and elementary educator, his work is informed by longstanding commitments to educational equity, social justice, and community activism. Dr. Wargo teaches undergraduate and graduate courses focused on cultural studies, literacy, and the learning sciences. In addition to numerous leadership roles in the field of literacy studies, he also serves on the advisory board for several minoritized youth-serving organizations.

MEDIA LITERACY TEACHER AWARD
Sequoyah Wharton
Education Innovator, Media Literacy Advocate, & Champion for Student Voice

Dr. Sequoyah Wharton is an accomplished educator, media specialist, and passionate advocate for innovative and culturally responsive learning. With a dynamic career spanning high school and higher education, Dr. Wharton has championed the integration of digital storytelling, visual arts, and play-based learning methodologies to enhance student engagement and academic outcomes, particularly among diverse and underserved communities. Recognized as a the 2025 – 2026 Albert Einstein Distinguished Educator Fellow, 2025 Discovery Education Educator of the Year, and a recipient of the 2024 Long Island School Hero’s award from the Long Island Coalition against Bullying, Dr. Wharton’s work empowers students and educators alike through creativity, equity, and global education.

MEDIA LITERACY YOUTH AWARD
Jayden Junaid
Founder, The Mirror Effects; Community Action Co-Lead, New Jersey Student Climate Association; Student, Old Bridge High School

Jayden Junaid is a 17-year-old senior at Old Bridge High School in New Jersey. She is the founder of The Mirror Effects, a youth-led initiative that equips students to think critically about media, legislation, and civic narratives through workshops and peer-to-peer education. In addition, she serves as the Community Action Co-Lead for the New Jersey Student Climate Association (NJSCA), organizing projects that engage youth in climate literacy and community action. At school, Jayden is captain of the Afro beats team and step team, where she uses performance as both celebration and education, sharing African culture with her peers and challenging stereotypes through art. Whether leading policy discussions, coordinating climate events, or choreographing routines, Jayden consistently works to create spaces where young people can learn, reflect, and express themselves. As a Nigerian American student leader, she is passionate about bridging culture, advocacy, and media literacy to help her community become more informed and empowered.

MEDIA LITERATE MEDIA AWARD
Ben Bradford
Creator and Host, Engines of Outrage

An award-winning public radio journalist, Ben is the creator, producer, and host of the hit narrative podcast series Landslide, the Audible Original Of The People, and the upcoming weekly series Are We Doomed?. Ben previously reported for Marketplace, the nation’s most popular business program, and covered California politics for Capital Public Radio and NPR stations across the state. His work has been recognized with Signal Awards, a New York Festivals Gold Medal, and a National Edward R. Murrow award, and by the Public Media Journalists Association, among others. His reporting has also aired on NPR, the BBC, and Bloomberg Radio, as well as in TIME and newspapers around the country.

MEDIA LITERATE MEDIA AWARD
Morgan Sung
Host, Close All Tabs

Morgan Sung is a tech journalist and host of Close All Tabs from KQED, a podcast of weekly deep dives into how the internet shapes real life. She previously reported for TechCrunch, NBC News, and Mashable, where she wrote about the creator economy, disinformation through memes, and how tech policy and digital culture collide. She lives in Los Angeles with her two cats and many unfinished knitting projects.

MEDIA LITERATE MEDIA AWARD
Corporation for Public Broadcasting

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting is a private, nonprofit corporation created by Congress in the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967. It is the steward of the federal investment in public media and ensures a healthy and vibrant public media service. CPB is the largest single source of funding for public radio, television, and related online and mobile services in the U.S. For less than a cup of coffee per American per year, CPB provides critical operational support for more than 1,500 locally managed public television and radio stations that reach virtually every household in the country. It helps support the production of broadcast and digital content for delivery on multiple media platforms. CPB does not own, operate, or control broadcast stations, and CPB does not produce or distribute programming. Unlike in other countries, public media in the U.S. is locally based, with local stations deciding how to best serve their communities.