PLAY, LLC is the brainchild of Dr. Vanessa Elaine Greenwood (formerly Domine), currently a full professor in the School of Communication and Media in the College of the Arts at Montclair State University (previously in the College of Education and Human Services). Dr. Greenwood holds BA and MA degrees in Communication Studies from San Jose State University and a Ph.D. in Media Ecology from New York University’s Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development. In 1999 Dr. Greenwood established Project Literacy Among Youth (PLAY) to help educators renew schooling through media literacy, technology planning, curriculum integration, and creating professional learning communities.
On a national level, Dr. Greenwood has served on multiple boards and has been called on to speak as an expert in the field of educational technology, teacher education, and media literacy. She is a founding editorial board member of the Journal of Digital and Media Literacy. She has also served on the Board of Directors of the National Association for Media Literacy Education (NAMLE) from 2009-2013 where she served in multiple roles (e.g., 1st Vice President, Co-editor of the Journal of Media Literacy Education, Conference Program Chair). In 2013 she was honored with the NAMLE Meritorious Service Award for her efforts in promoting media literacy education in the United States.
Dr. Greenwood marries the global (macro) push for digital, media and information literacies with the localized (micro) efforts of community and non-profit organizations, schools, religious organizations, libraries, universities, government agencies and media professionals. In doing so, she has worked with a broad constituency of individuals and organizations, including the Aspen Institute, the Center for Children and Technology, the Center for Media and Information Literacy, the Knight Foundation, the Annenberg Innovation Lab at University of Southern California, the Family Online Safety Institute, and FHE 360. She also served briefly as an expert blogger for Noodle.com.
Dr. (Domine) Greenwood is the author of numerous academic journal articles and books, including Rethinking Technology in Schools: A Primer (2009, Peter Lang), Healthy Teens, Healthy Schools: How Media Literacy Education Can Renew Education in the United States (2015, Rowman & Littlefield) and Navigating Media Literacy: A Pedagogical Tour of Disneyland (2020, Myers Press).
You can read more about her other projects at www.vanessagreenwood.us.