Lisa Guernsey is director of the Learning Sciences Exchange (LSX) and a senior editor and strategic advisor in the Education Policy program at New America. She also leads the 1939 Library Sit-In Project, a New America initiative that started in 2022.
Guernsey’s writing and editing sits at the intersection of literacy (including digital and media literacy), equity in education systems (including libraries, schools, and digital environments), and the science of learning.
Guernsey led the Teaching, Learning & Tech team at New America from 2014 to 2021, and before that, from 2010 to 2015, she directed New America’s Early Education Initiative (now the Early & Elementary Education Policy program). In 2017, Lisa co-founded and continues to lead the Learning Sciences Exchange (LSX), a problem-solving platform with a fellowship program developed with Kathy Hirsh-Pasek at Temple University, Roberta Golinkoff at the University of Delaware, and the Jacobs Foundation.
Before coming to New America, Guernsey was a staff writer at the New York Times and the Chronicle of Higher Education. She has contributed to national publications including Scientific American, The Atlantic, the Washington Post, Newsweek, Time, Slate, ZERO TO THREE, and USA TODAY.
Guernsey is co-author, with Michael H. Levine, of Tap, Click, Read: Growing Readers in a World of Screens (Jossey-Bass, 2015) and author of Screen Time: How Electronic Media—From Baby Videos to Educational Software—Affects Your Young Child (Basic Books, 2012).
Guernsey has contributed to multiple books on technology and learning, including A Librarians’ Guide to Engaging Families in Learning (Libraries Unlimited, 2021), Exploring Key Issues in Early Childhood and Technology (Routledge, 2019), Family Engagement in the Digital Age (Routledge, 2016), and Technology and Digital Media in the Early Years (Routledge, 2014).
Guernsey has served on several national advisory committees on early education, including the Institute of Medicine's committee that led to the seminal 2015 Transforming the Workforce for Children Birth Through Age 8: A Unifying Foundation; the FIRST LEGO League advisory board; and the advisory board for the National Center on Parent, Family, and Community Engagement. She is currently on the CPB-PBS Ready to Learn advisory board, the University of Michigan Learning Sciences advisory board, the advisory board for the Maryland Center for Media Literacy and Education, and the board for ACT for Alexandria, a community foundation in Virginia.
Guernsey holds a master’s degree in English/American studies and a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Virginia. She lives in Alexandria and has two daughters. She is on LinkedIn and Threads.
