January 28, 2025 @ 8:15 am – 2:30 pm

REGISTRATION CLOSED

Registration: 8:15 – 8:45 am
Conference: 8:45 am – 2:30 pm

Attend In Person or Via Zoom

Southeastern Regional Vocational Technical High School
250 Foundry St.
South Easton, MA 02375

Speakers
  • Michael Rich, M.D., M.P.H., Director and Founder, Digital Wellness Lab; Co-Director and Founder, Clinic for Interactive Media and Internet Disorders (CIMAID);
    Associate Professor of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School
  • Maddie Freeman, Founder, NoSo November
  • Kathleen Mackenzie, Ed.D., LICSW, CMHIMP, Coordinator of Clinical and Behavioral Services, New Bedford Public Schools
  • Susan Reynolds, M.Ed., Co-Founder, LookUp.live
Description

Today’s children and adolescents are spending more time on screens than in school. This conference will address whether students’ use of social media and smartphones is contributing to a rise in childhood anxiety and depression. Presenters will discuss how students’ use of social media and smart phones affects children’s development, academic performance, and physical and mental health. Participants will learn positive strategies to optimize positive use of social media and smartphones and to mitigate the negative effects.

About the Speakers

Michael Rich, M.D., M.P.H., (he/him) is recognized globally for his acclaimed work as a pediatrician, child health researcher, and children’s media specialist. He is the Founder and Director of the Digital Wellness Lab whose mission is to understand and promote positive and healthy digital media experiences for young people, from birth through young adulthood. Dr. Rich is also the Founder and Co-Director of the Clinic for Interactive Media and Internet Disorders (CIMAID), the first evidence-based clinical program designed to address Problematic Interactive Media Use (PIMU) in children, adolescents, and young adults. Using a multidisciplinary approach, Dr. Rich works with young people and their families to help them to adopt and sustain healthy approaches to engaging with interactive media and technology. 

Dr. Rich received his M.D. from Harvard Medical School and his M.P.H. from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. He completed his internship, residency, and fellowship at Boston Children’s Hospital. Dr. Rich is a Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Society for Adolescent Medicine and is board certified in Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.

Maddie Freeman (she/her) is a changemaker, a digital wellbeing advocate, and a Bachelor of Business Administration degree-holder from University of Colorado Boulder. Maddie’s endless passion and dedication to digital wellness is rooted in her own mental health journey, deeply intertwined with her immense loss of 10 friends to suicide in her Colorado community. Through grief, she was driven to prevent this from happening to the next generation. In 2020, she wrote a petition that garnered 13,000 signatures in two days, shifting the narrative around mental health care for teens at local school districts. At 19 years old, she began ideating, designing, and piloting five innovative mental health initiatives in the span of a year. NoSo (No Social Media November) was one of the ideas, and it stuck; students were alerting us to how much it improved their wellbeing. This idea sprouted into a national initiative that would grow exponentially over the next five years. Maddie continues to be fueled by directly impacting thousands of students annually. Today, after many successes at pitch competitions, Maddie is recognized for founding NoSo as a Social Dilemma/LookUp Innovator grant winner, a Young Innovator in Behavioral Health awardee, and a Watson Institute Fellow.

Kathleen Mackenzie, Ed.D., LICSW, CMHIMP,  (she/her) is an award-winning Clinical Social Worker, Certified Integrative Mental Health Professional, Coordinator of Clinical and Behavioral Services for New Bedford Public Schools and Senior Lecturer in Behavioral Science and Applied Nutrition at Northeastern University. She has written for Psychology Today and speaks nationally and internationally on the topic of youth mental health. Her knowledge is based on 30+ years of clinical work and a lived experience of recovery from bipolar disorder. Her message is one of hope and she shares concrete, science-based strategies related to mental health recovery and resilience. Dr. Mackenzie is also a strong advocate for equitable access to complementary, alternative treatments for all.

Susan Reynolds, M.Ed., (she/her) has over 20 years of experience in academic technology and digital wellbeing. In 2007, Susan founded ABC Legacy: Atoms to Bits Children’s Legacy, which generated the Look Up Foundation, committed to empowering teens and college students to join together to change their relationship to technology. As a teacher whose passion has always been to inspire her students to become change agents, she hopes to empower the next generation to find and implement these solutions. 

Membership Information

Most MPY webinars are available ONLY to current staff from member districts and organizations. Public school memberships include police and fire personnel. Former and retired employees and members of committees, including but not limited to, PTO/PTA, PAC, School Improvement Councils, Health Councils, Drug/Alcohol Councils, and school volunteers, are not considered MPY members.

PDPs and CEUs

MPY is an approved Professional Development Provider through the Massachusetts Department of Elementary & Secondary Education (Provider No. F20180079). Professional Development Points (PDPs) are offered for most MPY professional development webinars. PDPs are issued in 10 hour increments, per DESE requirements.

Continuing Education Units (CEUs) are available for clinical staff through the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) and the Massachusetts Mental Health Counselors Association, Inc. (MaMHCA). The NASW and the MaMHCA approve each event individually. CEUs may be given in hourly increments.

To receive PDPs and CEUs, participants must pass the quiz. The PDP quiz will be made available only to participants who have registered for and attended both conferences.

Event Cancellation Policy

If you are unable to attend a MPY webinar you must cancel, through Bonnie Mullen at bonnie@mpyinc.org, one business day before the webinar.

For MPY hybrid conferences, the date in-person registration closes will be posted on MPY’s website. Virtual conference registration will close one business day before the hybrid conference. You cannot cancel or switch your registration from in-person to virtual after in-person registration closes. Please email Bonnie Mullen at bonnie@mpyinc.org with any questions regarding registration.

  • Enrollment in this course closed on 01/28/2025.

Registration: 8:15 – 8:45 am
Conference: 8:45 am – 2:30 pm