Reaching Teens on the Digital Streets

Executive director of Net Family News, Inc., and co-director of ConnectSafely.org, Anne Collier co-authored a Parents' Guide to Facebook (fbparents.org) and MySpace Unraveled: A Parents' Guide to Teen Social Networking (Peachpit Press, 2006). She recently co-chaired the Online Safety & Technology Working Group in Washington, DC, which sent its report to Congress – "Youth Safety on a Living Internet" – in June 2010.

A seasoned interactive media expert, Maura Welch offers best-practice insight into how to successfully create, launch and integrate virtual goods campaigns in the evolving social game and mobile environment. As VP of Marketing and Content Development for WeeWorld, she leads the development of branded campaigns as well as marketing and monetization strategies. Prior to WeeWorld, Maura ran the development of interactive mobile ads at Mobot (now part of NeoMedia), helped Lycos launch a social networking site and worked with SkyGo (now part of Enpocket). An industry veteran and former Boston Globe columnist, she has spoken at numerous conferences, including Engage, Digital Hollywood, Digital Content Monetization and SXSW.

Anastasia currently leads the product development and marketing for Inspire USA's primary service, ReachOut.com, a digital space where teens and young adults can improve their understanding of mental health issues, develop resilience, build their coping-skills and increase help-seeking behavior. She has worked in media for the past 15+ years and helped launch youth oriented web and television properties for brands like Oxygen, AOL and Current TV before founding the influential youth marketing site Ypulse.com. Anastasia was one of the first graduates of the Medill School of Journalism's new media program at Northwestern University, where she earned an MSJ in 1999. Her first book about teens and technology called Totally Wired: What Teens & Tweens Are Really Doing Online was published by St. Martin's Press. She lives in San Francisco with her husband, daughter and 8-year-old Boxer.

Andrew Slack is a writer, producer, comedian, and creator/co-founder/executive director of the Harry Potter Alliance (HPA). Under his conception and leadership, the HPA inspires hundreds of thousands of Harry Potter fans to act as heroes in our world. With over 70 volunteers and 90 chapters the HPA has sent five cargo planes to Haiti, donated 90,000 books across the world, and made strides for human rights, LGBTQ, anti-poverty, and media reform advocacy. Praised by JK Rowling in Time Magazine and on her web site, Andrew has been featured on NPR's Morning Edition, NYT, the Chicago Tribune, Australia's Today Show, and hundreds of other publications. He has written for the LA Times, a cover story for CNN.com, and several times for the Huffington Post, which in January 2010 recognized him as the "Greatest Person of the Day" for his approach to activism that he has coined "cultural acupuncture." Andrew's "cultural acupuncture" inspired USC to start a MacArthur funded research project that has hailed Andrew's work as a premier model for civic engagement in the twenty-first century. Head of this study, USC's Provost's Professor of Communication, Journalism, and Cinematic Arts, Henry Jenkins says, "I have enormous respect for Slack as a thinker AND a doer -- someone who is reimagining what politics would look like in the 21st century, innovating on the level of rhetoric and tactics, on organizational structure and the deployment of new media tool and practices... he is going place where other social entrepreneurs have not been able to go, reaching communities that have been hard to mobilize in the past, directing their energies towards issues that broaden their sense of the world and that foster a sense of empowerment…” In his prior career as a comedian, Andrew performed at hundreds of colleges, produced three videos that have been seen more than eleven million times, and wrote comedy for the owners of the Red Sox, the bassist for Aerosmith, and William Shatner. Trained at an acting conservatory in London, Andrew has taught theater/creative writing workshops in both the US and Northern Ireland. A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Brandeis University, Andrew is dedicated to the building of a movement that harnesses the energy of popular culture, modern myth, and social media to transform our lives both personally and collectively.

Hilary Baris
Digital Media and Marketing, Director
The Partnership at Drugfree.org An interactive veteran with 15 years experience in media sales, advertising and marketing, Hilary Baris joined The Partnership at Drugfree.org in 2007 charged with creating and developing the organization’s first digital media and advertising presence to promote its critical online tools and resources. Hilary has secured between 9 billion and 15.5 billion pro bono banner impressions yearly, and has launched the organization’s first mobile, Video on Demand, virtual world and digital out of home campaigns that have driven traffic and resulted in above industry metrics. Formerly with Yahoo! Hilary was responsible for developing and managing strategic agency relationships, selling the Yahoo! suite of recruitment products as well as developing and executing channel marketing and promotional strategies. Among one of the first candidates to complete the IAB’s Certificate Program in Interactive Advertising, Hilary is also an active member of Advertising Women of New York and executive committee member where she has co-chaired the Advertising Age 2010 & 2011 Women to Watch event as well as the 2011 & 2012 Changing the Game Awards. Featured in industry publications including Media Post, Mobile Marketer, Direct Marketing News, Social Times and Y Pulse. Hilary has spoken at industry conferences and events including AdweekMedia's What Teens Want, IAB MIXX Conference, ANA Members Event and Media Post’s Mobile Insider Summit as well as SXSW Interactive. A graduate of the University of Rhode Island in Kingston, RI, Hilary and her husband Josh live in Bergen County, NJ