Conference kick-off event
“Media Literacy and the Implications
for Peace Around the Globe”
Wednesday, June 26
5:30pm – 7:30pm
PeaceTech Lab
2301 Constitution Ave NW, Washington, D.C.
*Cocktails and appetizers served.
PeaceTech Lab is located within the United States Institute of Peace. Please enter the building off of 23rd street (directly across from the State Department) and let security know you’re there for the NAMLE kick-off reception at PeaceTech Lab.
Join NAMLE for a cocktail reception to kick off the 2019 Conference at PeaceTech Lab’s new headquarters in the William J. Clinton Center for Peace and Technology! NAMLE’s Executive Director, Michelle Ciulla Lipkin, will start the evening with a welcome message before introducing guest speakers Sheldon Himelfarb, the President and CEO of PeaceTech Lab, and Stephen Adler, Editor-in-Chief at Reuters.
Presenters
Sheldon Himelfarb
President and CEO
PeaceTech Lab
Stephen Adler, Editor-in-Chief
Reuters
Michelle Ciulla Lipkin
Executive Director
NAMLE
About PeaceTech Lab
PeaceTech Lab reduces violent conflict using technology, media, and data to accelerate and scale peacebuilding efforts. An independent non-profit organization, the Lab brings together social scientists, data experts, business leaders, activists, and more to develop effective peacebuilding solutions.
“We can see very clearly: technology can be used just as effectively to promote peacebuilding as it has been used by others to promote hatred.” – Sheldon Himelfarb.
Research around issues like social media and hate speech serve to inform policymakers, data scientists, activists, and business leaders while also providing a foundation for predictive analytics and a proprietary platform for early warning of violence.
Sheldon Himelfarb
President and CEO
PeaceTech Lab
Sheldon began building PeaceTech lab at the United States Institute of Peace, where he was an advisor on the Technology Practice Leadership Team through the Corporate Executive Board, working with chief information officers from governments, universities, and multi-national corporations. Prior to this, he served as foreign policy adviser to a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the head of North American Documentary Development for Yorkshire TV, and the CEO/Executive Producer for Common Ground Productions, the media division of Search for Common Ground. He is an award-winning filmmaker, former commentator for National Public Radio (Sunday Morning Edition) and author of numerous articles on politics, popular culture, and conflict. He has managed peacebuilding programs in numerous conflicts, including Bosnia, Iraq, Angola, Liberia, Macedonia, and Burundi and received the Capitol Area Peace Maker award from American University.
He holds a doctorate from Oxford University and a bachelor’s degree in political science from Johns Hopkins University. He has held visiting or guest scholar positions at the Brookings Institution, Harvard University and the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University.
Stephen J. Adler
Editor-in-Chief
Reuters
Stephen J. Adler is Editor-in-Chief of Reuters, the world’s largest international news provider, where he oversees all editorial functions. Under his leadership, Reuters has received scores of top journalism awards, including six Pulitzer Prizes, while reaching billions of people daily with trusted video, text, pictures, and graphics.
Adler joined Thomson Reuters in 2010 as Senior Vice President and Editorial Director of the company’s Professional Division and was named Editor-in-Chief of Reuters the following year. Previously, he was Editor-in-Chief of BusinessWeek and a reporter and editor at The Wall Street Journal. There, in addition to managing investigative reporting teams and overseeing the Wall Street Journal Online, he co-taught the ethics and standards course required of all news employees. He was editor of The American Lawyer from 1983 to 1988 and began his career as a reporter at local newspapers in Florida.
Adler is chairman of Columbia Journalism Review’s board of overseers, vice chairman of the board of Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, and a member of the board of the Committee to Protect Journalists. He is a member of the International Media Council of the World Economic Forum, the Council on Foreign Relations, and the Gerald R. Loeb Awards board of final judges.
A graduate of Harvard College and the Harvard Law School, Adler is author of the book The Jury: Trial and Error in the American Courtroom, which won the Silver Gavel Award from the American Bar Association. With his wife, the novelist Lisa Grunwald, he was co-editor of three popular historical anthologies. He is a frequent speaker at journalism conferences, universities and public forums.
Michelle Ciulla Lipkin
Executive Director
NAMLE
Michelle Ciulla Lipkin is the Executive Director of the National Association for Media Literacy Education. As Executive Director, Michelle has helped NAMLE grow to be the preeminent media literacy education association in the U.S. She launched the first ever Media Literacy Week in the U.S., developed strategic partnerships with media companies such as Participant Media, Nickelodeon, and Twitter, and restructured both the governance and membership of the organization. She has also overseen three national conferences and done countless appearances at conferences and in the media regarding the importance of media literacy education. Since 2017, Michelle has advocated for greater media literacy education through CNN, PBS News Hour, NPR, The New York Times, and Al Jazeera English.
Michelle began her career in children’s television production, in various roles on both corporate and production teams. She earned both her undergraduate and graduate degrees from New York University. Michelle focused her grad work on children and television where she caught the “media literacy bug”. After graduate school, Michelle worked as a facilitator for The LAMP (Learning about Multimedia Project) teaching media literacy and production classes for Pre-Kindergarten to 5th grade students.
Michelle is currently an adjunct lecturer at Brooklyn College in the TV/Radio department where she teaches media crticism and media literacy.
Michelle also serves as a representative for NAMLE on the Council of Communication Associations and a judge for What’s Your Story? Youth Media Contest.