FOUNDER
Belinha S. De Abreu, PhD., is a global media literacy educator. She served as an International Expert to the Forum on Media & Information Literacy for UNESCO's Communication & Information Section. Her research interests include media and information literacy education, educational technology, global perspectives, critical thinking, privacy & big data, young adults, and teacher training. Dr. De Abreu is the President of the International Council for Media Literacy (IC4ML) and is the founder of the International Media Literacy Research Symposium. She is the recipient of the 2021 National Association for Media Literacy Education's Media Literacy Research Award.
Dr. De Abreu’s work has been featured in Knowledge Quest, Cable in the Classroom, Civic Media Project, and various other publications. She is the author of Media Literacy for Justice: Lessons for Changing the World (ALA: Neal-Schuman, 2022), Teaching Media Literacy (ALA: Neal-Schuman, 2019), Mobile Learning through Digital Media Literacy (Peter Lang, 2017), author/co-editor of the International Handbook of Media Literacy Education (Routledge, 2017), as well as other books.
ASSISTANT/
ASSOCIATE
Ryan Farrington is Dr. De Abreu's assistant and also is a former student of, and Graduate Assistant to, her.
A graduate of the Educational Technology program at Fairfield University, Ryan currently works at Tabor Academy in Massachusetts in the role of Director of Library and Digital Learning and teaches one trimester-length course in the Computer Science department. Most recently, Ryan served as Inquiry Guide at Sandy Spring Friends School in MD. Ryan has also served as Director of both Media Services and Educational Technology at a large community college in Connecticut, and previously taught PreK through 8th grade library and technology skills, high school English, undergraduate courses in computer skills, and graduate level courses in Educational Technology and Media Literacy.
INTERNATIONAL CONSULTANT
Vitor Tomé is an international expert on Digital Citizenship Education (Council of Europe) and on Tackling Disinformation through training (European Commission), an invited researcher at CIES-ISCTE-University Institute of Lisbon (Iberian Media Research and Fact-checking Hub), a lecturer at Autonoma University of Lisbon (Communication Sciences), a teacher trainer (Portuguese Ministry of Education) and a journalist (CP1524).
Vitor is currently coordinating/co-coordinating projects such as: Digital Citizenship Academy, funded by Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation; Media Literacy and Journalism – Portuguese Journalists Union, and has earned a degree in Education, post-grads in ICT and in Journalism, a PhD in Education (Media Literacy), and a 6-year post-doctorate in Communication Sciences.