Media Literacy Now is proud to name Tamara Sobel, J.D., as our new National Advisor for Health Education & Media Literacy. Tamara formerly served as Media Literacy Now’s Massachusetts Director of Legislation, Policy, & Community Organizing, promoting media literacy legislation and policy and working with other state chapter leaders on advancing their own policy initiatives.

Tamara Sobel, above right, mentoring and training an advocate in Florida in collaboration with the Miss America organization.

Tamara is a former public interest lawyer, and currently a consultant to nonprofit organizations and advocacy campaigns. She is the Founder of the Girls, Women & Media Project, one of the first organizations focused on activism and education to raise awareness and improve images of girls and women in the media. She is a Certified Sexuality Educator, and a regular columnist for Psychology Today.

As an MLN state leader, she worked with the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education on revisions of the health education guidance frameworks for K-12 health teachers to include how media affects young people’s physical and mental health. In addition, she helped get the civics education reform bill passed in 2018, which included a media literacy requirement as it relates to history and civics, and  played a key role in putting media literacy into the state’s social studies frameworks. She worked with coalitions and legislators on other bills to address eating disorders prevention, body image, and media literacy education. She has also been a featured speaker at state, regional, and national conferences on media literacy.

Because national health education organizations are currently in the process of revising standards for K-12 health educators across the country, Tamara is opening channels of communication with these organizations to provide input on media literacy and health as they update teacher guidance.

“It’s so crucial for young people to understand how media use influences them in everything from the food they choose to eat, to the healthy or unhealthy habits they may develop (like vaping or smoking), to their mental health, or the way they view and use their own bodies,” Tamara said. “I look forward to having the opportunity to work on health education on a national scale to incorporate media literacy as it relates to students’ health and well-being.”

“Tamara has been a media literacy champion for many years in Massachusetts and her leadership was pivotal in advancing media literacy in Massachusetts’ schools,” said Erin McNeill, founder of Media Literacy Now. “We’re thrilled that she is now working on a national scale to ensure media literacy finds its way into health education classrooms around the country.”

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