Sustainable Media Center Expands Board of Advisors with Parent Advocates and New Gen Z Leaders

SMC adds parent advocates Toney and Brandy Roberts and Gen Z leaders Maddie Freedman and Logan Mercer to advance youth power in social media reform.

NEW YORK, NY, UNITED STATES, December 15, 2025 /EINPresswire.com/ -- The Sustainable Media Center (SMC) today announced new members joining its Board of Advisors, including leading parent advocates and rising Gen Z movement builders. The appointments deepen SMC’s mission to rebuild the digital public square with shared power, lived experience, and youth-led leadership.

New Board of Advisors Members

Toney and Brandy Roberts — The Roberts family became national advocates after losing their 14-year-old daughter, Englyn, to suicide following exposure to self-harm content on Instagram. Englyn was “the baby” in a large family and the center of their world. When Toney and Brandy learned that the method she used mirrored a simulated hanging video circulating on the platform, grief became purpose. Through Parents for Safe Screens and ongoing litigation, they have testified, organized, and mobilized families demanding accountability from tech companies and lawmakers. Their lived experience brings moral force to SMC’s work and stands as a reminder that reform is not theoretical — it is urgent. They join the SMC Board of Advisors.

Maddie Freedman — Freedman is one of the most influential young civic strategists in the national youth online safety movement. As a cofounder of NoSo, a youth-led organizing hub advancing safer platforms and accountability, she has helped turn digital harm into a legislative priority, connecting advocacy coalitions, researchers, policymakers, and student networks to accelerate reform. Maddie is known for translating grassroots urgency into governance design and pushing institutions to treat youth as co-authors, not decoration. Her work amplifies the core belief behind SMC’s mission: solutions must be designed with the generation living the consequences. She joins the SMC Gen Z Board of Advisors.

Logan Mercer — Mercer has been a driving force in student-led organizing around digital rights, mental health, and institutional accountability. His work focuses on shifting power by asking who gets to decide what safe technology looks like. Logan has helped design youth-centered governance spaces, advised advocacy networks, and challenged systems that dismiss young users’ expertise. He joins the SMC Gen Z Board of Advisors.

SMC’s work begins with a simple premise: social media became the public square without accepting the responsibility that comes with shared civic space. What emerged was not a commons, but a marketplace of attention — one that rewarded harm rather than safety. Young people have borne the cost of that system. The Sustainable Media Center exists to challenge this model and help build something better: a public square designed on purpose, with standards for safety, transparency, accountability, and shared power.

“These new leaders reflect the reality that lived experience is strategic expertise,” said Steven Rosenbaum, Executive Director of the Sustainable Media Center. “Maddie and Logan have helped define how youth voice becomes governance, not optics. Toney and Brandy turned unbearable loss into national action. Their leadership strengthens our mission and accelerates our work.”

The Sustainable Media Center continues to expand initiatives linking youth empowerment, AI, accountability, policy reform, and civic infrastructure — including Actv8.Media, the Safe Social Media Certification project, and development of a social intelligence framework to help platforms measure and improve behavior.

Emma Lembke, Director of Youth Engagement at SMC, added: “Young people need more than seats. They need agency and influence. Maddie and Logan have been leading that shift. And families like the Roberts remind the country why reform cannot wait. This advisory group reflects the future we are building.”

Together, these new advisors will help guide SMC’s programs, partnerships, and strategy as the organization scales its work with policymakers, technologists, youth movements, researchers, and brands committed to creating safer digital systems.

Press
SustainableMedia.Center
Press@sustainablemedia.center

Legal Disclaimer:

EIN Presswire provides this news content "as is" without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the author above.