Announcing the 2022-24 LSX Fellows

Today the Jacobs Foundation, New America, and the internationally recognized research duo of Kathy Hirsh-Pasek and Roberta Golinkoff announce the third cohort of the Learning Sciences Exchange (LSX) Fellows. These top-level, mid-career professionals—in journalism, entertainment, research, education leadership, and social entrepreneurship—hail from eight countries, all focused on how to support children’s learning, from ages 2 to 12.

The fellows will be introduced at the LSX Summit, a public event that starts at 12 pm ET today—with speakers and fellows meeting in-person in Washington, D.C. and the entire event live-streamed online for an international audience.

“We are honored to welcome such a talented group of influencers to the LSX family. As our network continues to expand, LSX will continue to offer impactful solutions to the issues that families face around the globe,” Hirsh-Pasek said.

LSX started in the summer of 2018 as a first-of-its-kind fellowship program designed to break down professional siloes by bringing together fellows from different sectors to produce innovative projects that help to advance children’s learning. So far, the program has supported 27 top-level mid-career researchers, policy influencers, journalists, entertainment producers, and social impact entrepreneurs from Europe and North America. Fellows collaborate in interdisciplinary groups over two years (with the outgoing cohort having the added challenge of doing this almost entirely virtually during the worst of Covid pandemic). Fellows gained insights in how to communicate and apply the latest research—all the while building relationships across sectors that enable them to drive transformational ideas back in their own sectors and regions of the world.

The 2022-2024 LSX Fellows are:

Journalism

Jenny Anderson, freelance journalist, author, and podcast host (UK)

Mariam El Marakeshy, filmmaker and multimedia reporter (Egypt)

Benjamin Herold, education technology reporter, Education Week (USA)

Social Entrepreneurship

Emer Beamer, co-founder and program lead, Designathon Works (Ireland)

Elizabeth Kperrun-Eremie, CEO/Co-Founder, Zenafri Ltd (Nigeria)

Fernande Raine, founder, The History Co:Lab (USA)

Research

Andrea Paula Goldin, researcher and professor, Laboratorio de Neurociencia, UTDT & CONICET (Argentina)

Oana Negru-Subtirica, associate professor, Department of Psychology, Babes-Bolyai University (Romania)

Deena Weisberg, assistant professor, Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Villanova University (USA)

Entertainment

Bethany Koby, Chief Vision Officer (CVO) and co-founder of Fam Studio (UK)

Henry Samson Mafulul, Executive Director, The Jos Film Initiative (Nigeria)

Natasha Tarpley, Independent Writer/Entrepreneur, Author of Children’s Books (USA)

Education Leadership / Systems & Policy

Michelle Dinneen-White, Founder and Director, Play Smart Literacy (USA)

Jon Hutchinson, Director of Training and Development, Reach Foundation (UK)

Margaret Worthington-Smith, Research, Innovation and Development Strategist for the South African Department of Education E-cubed Programme (E³) (South Africa)

Biographies for fellows can be found on the Learning Sciences Exchange page along with videos and blogs that provide deeper insights into the fellowship program. This program is funded by the Jacobs Foundation, a philanthropy based in Switzerland that is active in promoting child development and learning through advancing evidence-based ideas for learning with the ultimate goal to transform the education system around the world.

To our new fellows, we extend a hearty welcome and congratulations. In the coming months and years, we look forward to sharing your exciting projects, ideas, and experiences generated in this unique fellowship program. You are among an ever-increasing network of talented individuals whose solution to real world problems profits from your interdisciplinary perspectives.

For more about LSX and to learn about the work of the first and second cohorts, see our Learning Sciences Exchange page.

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