Contributors

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Host

Melanie Hempe, BSN

Melanie Hempe, BSN, received her bachelors of Nursing from Emory University. She helps families avoid problematic screen use—video games, social media, pornography—in their kids’ lives. Through ScreenStrong, she provides easy education on brain development, the effects of screen use on kids, and solutions for parents who desire to free their kids from screen addictions. She helps parents reclaim their kids by delaying the use of toxic screens and reconnecting families.

https://screenstrong.com
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Co-host

Mandee Hamann

Mandee Hamann is a businesswoman and a former Early Childhood/Elementary pastor with an additional ten years of youth ministry experience alongside her husband, Jeremy. After her family struggled with toxic screen issues, Mandee became a ScreenStrong Ambassador and is committed to spreading ScreenStrong's message. She lives in Iowa with her husband and three children. Mandee has been working with ScreenStrong since 2020.

https://screenstrong.org/

Guests

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Guest

Anna Lembe

Anna Lembke is professor of psychiatry at Stanford University School of Medicine and chief of the Stanford Addiction Medicine Dual Diagnosis Clinic. A clinician scholar, she has published more than a hundred peer-reviewed papers, book chapters, and commentaries. She sits on the board of several state and national addiction-focused organizations, has testified before various committees in the United States House of Representatives and Senate, keeps an active speaking calendar, and maintains a thriving clinical practice.

https://www.annalembke.com/
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Guest

Dr. Adriana Stacey

Dr. Stacey is a general psychiatrist. Her work is mostly concentrated with teens and college students. She has a specific interest in how smartphones affect the mental health of children. Dr. Stacey’s insights in regard to technology use have been featured in the Washington Post and on the Today Show. Dr. Stacey has a Bachelor of Science in Biology from the University of Alabama and an M.D. from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. She completed her psychiatry training at the University of Wisconsin.


Dr. Stacey enjoys speaking to groups of kids/teens, parents, teachers, and health care providers. She lives in Fayetteville, Arkansas, with her husband and four children.

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Guest

Dr. Leonard Sax

Dr. Leonard Sax MD PhD attended public schools in Shaker Heights Ohio from kindergarten through grade 12. He enrolled in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge Massachusetts in the fall of 1977; he graduated Phi Beta Kappa from MIT in January 1980, at the age of 19. He then went on to the University of Pennsylvania, where he earned both a PhD in psychology, and an MD. He did a three-year residency in family medicine in Lancaster Pennsylvania. Dr. Sax has been continuously certified by the American Board of Family Medicine since 1989.

https://www.leonardsax.com/

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Guest

Dr. Nicholas Kardaras

Dr. Nicholas Kardaras is an Ivy-League educated psychologist, an internationally renowned speaker, and one of the country’s foremost addiction experts.  He is the CEO and Chief Clinical Officer of Maui Recovery in Hawaii and Omega Recovery in Austin, Texas. A former Clinical Professor at Stony Brook Medicine in NY where he specialized in teaching the neurophysiology and treatment of addiction, he has also taught neuropsychology at the doctoral-level and has worked closely in developing clinical protocols with Dr. Howard Shaffer, Associate Professor at Harvard Medical School and the Director of their Division of Addiction.

Dr. Kardaras is the author of the best-selling "Glow Kids" (St. Martin's Press, 2016), the seminal book on the clinical, neurological and sociological aspects of Technology Addiction (Smart Phones, Video Games, Social Media, etc.).

https://www.drkardaras.com/
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Dr. Richard Freed

Richard Freed, PhD, is a psychologist and author who has been featured in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Atlantic, on NPR and CNBC, and in other media outlets. Dr. Freed is a leading expert on Silicon Valley’s use of persuasive design (psychological manipulation) in social media, video games, and online videos and how that affects children’s health. 

https://www.richardfreed.com/
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Dr. Victoria Dunckley

Victoria L. Dunckley, M.D., is an integrative child, adolescent, and adult psychiatrist with twelve years of clinical experience in both the public and private sectors.  An active blogger for Psychology Today and speaker to both parents’ groups and clinicians, she emphasizes the impact of lifestyle factors on mental health, particularly the effects of overstimulating electronic screen media on mood, cognition, and behavior.  Dr. Dunckley has been interviewed on various television and radio programs regarding her integrative approach and has contributed as a mental health expert for the Today Show and NBC News.  In 2011, Dr. Dunckley was named one of America’s Top Psychiatrists by the Consumer Research Council and won several patient care awards, including Vitals.com’s Patient’s Choice and Compassionate Doctor awards.

https://drdunckley.com/

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Guest

Lt. Col. Dave Grossman

Lt. Col. Dave Grossman is an internationally recognized scholar, author, soldier, and speaker who is one of the world’s foremost experts in the field of human aggression and the roots of violence and violent crime.  

 

Col. Grossman is a former West Point psychology professor, Professor of Military Science, and an Army Ranger who has combined his experiences to become the founder of a new field of scientific endeavor, which has been termed “killology.”  In this new field Col. Grossman has made revolutionary new contributions to our understanding of killing in war, the psychological costs of war, the root causes of the current "virus" of violent crime that is raging around the world, and the process of healing the victims of violence, in war and peace.  

https://www.grossmanacademy.com/

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Guest

Tom Kersting

Tom Kersting is a nationally renowned psychotherapist, author and television contributor.  He is the author of Disconnected: How to Protect Your Kids From the Harmful Effects of Device Dependency.  His latest book, Raising Healthy Teenagers: Equipping Your Child to Navigate the Pitfalls and Dangers of Teen Life comes out in February of 2023. 

 

Tom is a regular, guest expert on many national television news and talk shows where he offers insight and advice about parenting, relationships and wellness. He has hosted shows for A&E Network, Food Network and Oprah’s Wellness Network.  Tom is the founder and owner of Valley Family Counseling Center in Park Ridge, NJ

https://www.tomkersting.com/