Sandra L. Calvert

Sandra L. Calvert is a developmental and child psychologist, whose scholarship illuminates the children's media area, including policy implications. Calvert is currently professor of psychology, Calvert is also the co-founder and Director of the Children's Digital Media Center, as well as by private foundations. Calvert served as chair of the department of psychology at Georgetown University from 2006 to 2009. She and her colleagues have been awarded more than $9.25 million in external funding to conduct research on children's media, including multiple collaborative grants from the National Science Foundation, the first of which was used to create the Children's Digital Media Center (CDMC). She has also given more than 250 invited papers and refereed presentations at professional conferences and meetings. the influence of gender roles in the media; the impact of video games on childhood aggression; the impact of marketing, including the role of media characters, and exergaming (video games that require movement) on childhood obesity; the role of media characters in mathematical skill learning; very early learning from media; and the role of production features (e.g., action, sound effects, dialogue) as representational tools to help children think about and understand content. She also served on two committees for the National Academies, in the pediatric obesity crisis, as well as on an American Psychological Task Force to examine the impact of violent video games on youth aggression.

Awards and honors American Psychological Association Fellow International Communication Association Fellow Erskine Fellow, University of Canterbury New Zealand National Research Council (United States) Associate Award Outstanding Young Women of America Phi Beta Kappa Psi Chi Honorary

Recent representative publications