featured Experts

Yalda T. Uhls, MBA, Ph.D

Senior Advisor for Youth Development at Common Sense Media 

Yalda T. Uhls, MBA, Ph.D

Senior Advisor for Youth Development at Common Sense Media 

Dr. Uhls' experience as a former Hollywood executive and current expert on child development and media gives her a unique and important perspective on digital media use on children’s development. As a trained scientist she understands the research,  and as a mom of digital teens, she knows what works and relates to the reality of being a 21st-century parent. Her book Media Moms & Digital Dads: A Fact-Not-Fear Approach to Parenting in the Digital Age offers parents guidance on how best to manage screens and media for their children.

For the last 20 years, Dr. Cash has focused her mental health practice in the emerging field of internet and video game addiction. In 2009 she co-founded reSTART: Center for Digital Technology Sustainability, the first treatment center of its kind. Hilarie is a speaker, teacher, and author and has appeared across media, including NPR, CNN and The New York Times. Dr. Cash was featured in Werner Herzog ’s documentary Lo and Behold, Reveries of the Connected World. She is a co-author of Video Games and Your Kids: How Parents Stay in Control. 

Hilarie Cash, Ph.D, LMHC

Co-Founder and Chief Clinical Officer of the reSTART Center for Digital Technology Sustainability

Hilarie Cash, Ph.D, LMHC

Co-Founder and Chief Clinical Officer of the reSTART Center for Digital Technology Sustainability

As a pediatric occupational therapist for the last 30 years, Cris has witnessed dramatic changes in how children play, resulting in rising levels of obesity, developmental delay, and mental disorders. She leads workshops across North America to help parents, teachers and health professionals navigate many topics including sensory integration, attention, motor development, attachment, early intervention, and technology overuse. Cris authored the book Virtual Child – The terrifying truth about what technology is doing to children.

Cris Rowan

Pediatric Occupational Therapist

Cris Rowan

Pediatric Occupational Therapist

Dr. Brown is an internationally recognized expert on the treatment of addicts and their families. She is a renowned researcher and widely acclaimed author of 11 academic and popular books on addiction and recovery, her most recent being Speed: Facing Our Addiction to Fast and Faster -- and Overcoming Our Fear of Slowing Down. She is a licensed psychologist with more than 35 years of clinical experience, a researcher, a consultant and a frequent lecturer in the field of addiction.

Stephanie Brown, Ph.D 

Founder and director of The Addictions Institute, Menlo Park, CA

Stephanie Brown, Ph.D 

Founder and Director of The Addictions Institute, Menlo Park, CA

Tim Burns’ background includes over thirty years of experience as a high school teacher, counselor, First Offender Program facilitator, adolescent and family drug-treatment program director, university instructor, and professional development specialist.  He is a world-renowned speaker on topics related to neurological development, mind-body integration, and stress management. Tim is the author of several books including Our Children, Our Future 

and From Risk to Resiliency.

Educator, Author, and Lecturer

Tim Burns

Tim Burns 

Educator, Author and Lecturer