Sandra L. Calvert, Ph.D. Director

Sandra L. Calvert is a Professor of the Department of Psychology at Georgetown University and the Director of the Children’s Digital Media Center, a multi-site interdisciplinary research Center funded by the National Science Foundation (2001-2015). She received her doctoral degree from the University of Kansas where she worked with Dr. Aletha Huston and Dr. John Wright at the Center for Research on the Influences of Television on Children. Dr. Calvert is author of Children’s Journeys Through the Information Age (McGraw Hill, 1999), and co-editor with Amy B. Jordan and Rodney R. Cocking of Children in the Digital Age: Influences of Electronic Media on Development (Praeger, 2002).  She also edited, along with Barb Wilson, The Handbook of Children, Media, & Development (Wiley-Blackwell, 2008).  She has served on two committees for the National Academies, leading to two committee co-authored books: Food Marketing to Children and Youth: Threat or Opportunity (2006) and Youth, Pornography, and the Internet (2002).

Dr. Calvert’s interdisciplinary work in the information and technology area, spanning the fields of psychology, communications, linguistics, and education, seeks to improve the well-being of children and adolescents by bridging the gap between knowledge generation and knowledge application. For example, she examined social policy issues revolving around the Children’s Television Act, in which broadcasters are legally required to provide educational and informational television programs for children. At the Children’s Digital Media Center, she is currently examining the roles that media characters play in childhood obesity and early STEM learning.

Dr. Calvert is a fellow of the American Psychological Association, Association for Psychological Sciences, and the International Communication Association. She serves on advisory boards for the International Olympic Committee, the Joan Gantz Cooney Center, and PBS Kids Next Generation Media, and she provided technical assistance to Congress in the development of the Children and Media Research Advancement Act (CAMRA). She has consulted for Google, Facebook, Nickelodeon Online, Sesame Workshop, Blue’s Clues, Out of the Blue Enterprises, and Sega of America.

Click here to view Sandra Calvert’s full CV.