Jessica Wyers, Ph.D., is a media and public affairs expert with a passion for positively advancing society’s relationship with technology and media. As an educator at heart, she has taught in the primary and secondary classroom as well as at the university level. Jessica is a former freelance producer working on local commercials and marketing campaigns while running a small photography company.
In 2011, Jessica received her degree in mass communication and digital media from West Texas A&M University. After spending time in production, she completed her master’s degree in digital media studies from the University of Houston-Clear Lake (2017). It was during this time that Jessica was also accepted to Teach for America and truly began her career in media literacy education as a 3rd-grade teacher. She started noticing the crucial relationship between her students and digital media, but also how the technology could be leveraged for their benefit. This led her to complete doctoral studies in media and public affairs where her research has focused on media literacy education and policies.
Jessica was awarded the Hamilton Research award in 2021 to advance her dissertation research. She is exploring media literacy and technology curricula from across the country to better understand and identify areas of growth and opportunity for better media literacy education in public schools.
Jessica is currently based in Louisiana, teaching at Louisiana State University, and visits her niece and nephew in Texas as often as she can with her yellow lab, Skipper.