Announcing the 2020-2022 Learning Sciences Exchange Fellows

Today the Jacobs Foundation, New America, and the International Congress on Infant Studies announce the second cohort of Learning Sciences Exchange (LSX) Fellows—a group of talented mid-career professionals hailing from one of five sectors: journalism, entertainment, research, policy, and social entrepreneurship. For the next two years, these fellows are charged with leveraging their collective expertise to produce new and creative means of promoting early learning to help young children and families thrive.

This opening day of their fellowship marks a significant expansion of the Learning Sciences Exchange (LSX), which started in the summer of 2018 as a first-of-its-kind fellowship program designed to disseminate and apply scientific knowledge about what helps to develop young children’s learning. The first cohort of LSX Fellows featured 12 researchers, policy influencers, journalists, and entertainment producers from Europe and North America. Fellows worked in three interdisciplinary groups over two years to produce innovative projects including public service announcements, parent-child activity cards and animated messages, and the first in a new series of children’s books. Their projects will be showcased at the upcoming virtual LSX Summit on August 26, 2020.

This new class of fellows includes professionals from a fifth sector: social impact entrepreneurship. By including experts from the world of socially conscious startups and entrepreneurship, LSX is aiming to help fellows and their cohorts learn new methods for scaling up innovations—whether they be supporting children at home with families; in early learning centers such as child care centers and pre-K programs; through children’s everyday interactions with adults and peers; or within policy sectors that support families, educators, and young children.

The 2020-2022 LSX Fellows are:

Journalism

Lilian Anekwe, Assistant news editor, New Scientist

Jack Graham, Freelance policy reporter

Annie Murphy Paul, Book author, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Social Entrepreneurship

Puja Balachander, CEO and Founder, Devie

Tammy Kwan, Co-Founder and CEO, Cognitive Toybox

Jakub Slawinski, Growth and Sales Freelancer

Research

Judith Danovitch, Associate Professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of Louisville

Elizabeth Gunderson, Associate Professor of Psychology, Temple University

Medha Tare, Director of Research, Learner Variability Project, Digital Promise

Entertainment

Jeff Kleeman, President, A Very Good Production

John Sessler, Learning and Innovation Consultant

Ariel Zekelman, Senior Product Manager, Osmo

Policy

Brenda Bushouse, Associate Professor of Political Science and Public Policy, University of Massachusetts Amherst

Cathy Mitchell, Head of Market Insight and Analysis, Heriot Watt University

Emmy O'Dwyer, Director of Early Childhood Workforce Development and Innovation, LA Dept of Education

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 Zurich that funds global research on learning and development.

We extend a hearty welcome and congratulations to the 2020-2022 LSX Fellows. In the coming months and years, we look forward to sharing the exciting projects, ideas, and experiences generated in this unique fellowship program.

For more about LSX and to read articles by the first cohort, see our Learning Sciences Exchange page.

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