Dimitri A. / Hale Christakis

Dimitri A. Christakis, MD, MPH., is the George Adkins Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Washington, the Chief Health Officer at Special Olympics International, Editor in Chief of JAMA Pediatrics, and Chief Science Officer at Children and Screens: Institute of Digital Media and Child Development. He has devoted his career to investigating how early experiences impact children and to helping parents improve their children’s early learning environments. He and his colleagues in the Christakis Lab have made a number of landmark findings, including discovering that young children who watch TV are more likely to develop attention problems and other health and behavioral issues. He is the author of more than 250 original research articles, a textbook on pediatrics, and co-author of the book, The Elephant in the Living Room: Make Television Work for Your Kids. He has appeared on CNN, NPR, Today, CBS News, ABC News, and NBC News and was recently featured as a TEDx speaker. 

Lauren Hale, Ph.D., Professor of Family, Population, and Preventive Medicine; Core Faculty, Program in Public Health; Renaissance School of Medicine, Stony Brook University, studies the social patterning of sleep health and how it contributes to inequalities in health and well-being with current or previous funding from NICHD, NIDDK, NHLBI, and NIA in addition to private funding. Dr. Hale has more than 160 publications in peer-reviewed journal articles. She serves on the Board of Directors (recently as Chair) of the National Sleep Foundation and is the founding Editor-in-Chief of the journal Sleep Health as well as the Scientific Advisory Panel of the Pajama Program and Children and Screens: Institute of Digital Media and Child Development.