Shelley Pasnik, EDC Senior Vice President for External Affairs, is a nationally recognized expert in the thoughtful integration of digital media to promote school readiness, school success, and workforce readiness. A long-time leader of EDC’s Center for Children & Technology, she has conducted policy-influencing studies, launched and led innovative educational R&D, and cultivated high-profile public-private partnerships both in the U.S. and globally. These include collaborations with the American Museum of Natural History, Apple, Bank Street College of Education, Boston Children’s Museum, Carnegie Hall, Cisco Education, Exploratorium, Fred Rogers Productions, GBH, Google, IBM, Intel Corporation, MIT Media Lab, National Geographic, NYSCI, PBS, Sesame Workshop, WNET, and many others.

In close collaboration with the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Shelley led the research program for Ready To Learn, the U.S. Department of Education’s signature investment in PBS KIDS. She is the editor of Getting Ready to Learn: Creating Effective, Educational Children’s Media (Routledge) and is regularly quoted in news outlets, including The New York Times, BBC, Newsweek, The Washington Post and its “Impromptu” podcast, Financial Times, EdSurge, Axios, the Christian Science Monitor, EdWeek, and the Wall Street Journal MarketWatch.

Recently, Shelley’s op-ed “Millions of Kids Learn Through Public Media. Why Take That Away?” was published by The 74. In 2019, she co-authored Integrating Technology into Early Learning: Promising Practices and Checklist with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which was widely distributed by the National Association for the Education of Young Children. She has served on advisory boards, including Apple ConnectEd, the Joan Ganz Cooney Center, and Global Action Project.

Shelley’s career began at the Center for Media Education, during which time, she testified before the Federal Communications Commission and the Federal Trade Commission on children’s media policy. She holds an MA from the University of Maryland, College Park.