Center for Scholars & Storytellers
Laurel Felt, PhD, currently serves as the Managing Director of ONG RAES, leading the OASIS Center in its mission to promote socially impactful storytelling in Africa and beyond. With a diverse background in education, research, and curriculum design, Laurel is a Senior Fellow and Collaborator at the Center for Scholars & Storytellers, known for designing learning solutions and conducting mixed methods research, including contributions to the Barbie Dream Gap Curriculum. As the founder of Laurel Felt Consulting, expertise in child development informs strategies for organizations focused on children and families. Previous roles include teaching at USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, project associate at the Norman Lear Center Media Impact Project, and curriculum design at Mattel, Inc. Laurel holds a PhD in Communication from the University of Southern California and has extensive experience in early childhood education and curriculum development.
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Center for Scholars & Storytellers
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The Center for Scholars & Storytellers (CSS), at UCLA, collaborates with leading scientists to provide research-based insights for content creators crafting authentic and inclusive stories for children (ages 2-9) and adolescents (ages 10-25). Our focus is on entertainment content that supports young people's social and emotional health and well-being, emphasizing changing ingrained cultural narratives around the critical issues of diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA), mental health, and inequality. CSS brings academic rigor and real-world entertainment expertise to every project we undertake. By partnering with more than 60 subject-matter experts, scientists, graduate students, research assistants, and academic collaborators worldwide, we help the entertainment industry reimagine and strengthen its content so that young people can thrive and grow. Our original research and valuable insights and tools have been featured in several major media sources such as ABC News, EdSource, NBC News, the New York Times, Today, and more. In just a few years, CSS has grown across all content sectors and is being used by some of the industry's most well-known names, including media companies (Disney, Paramount, Pixar), tech (YouTube, Google), gaming (Twitch, Ninja), public health (Surgeon General, LA County of Education), and consumer products (Mattel, Lego, Barbie). CSS was founded in 2019 by award-winning Dr. Yalda T. Uhls, a former senior film executive who subsequently received a Ph.D. in developmental psychology from UCLA. Dr. Uhls was recently named 1 of 9 DEI experts who are changing Hollywood. You can learn more about our work at scholarsandstorytellers.com or contact us directly here, https://www.scholarsandstorytellers.com/contact-us.