“Understanding the human experience is at the core of everything I do.”
Christina Malik Dodson is a researcher, educator, and strategist whose work explores how media, technology, and culture shape the way people think, behave, and make decisions.
Her career spans leading advertising agencies, academia, government-funded research, and policy, giving her a unique multidisciplinary perspective on the intersection of consumer psychology, media effects, and human behavior.
Christina began her career in brand strategy and account management at agencies including Ogilvy, Deutsch, and the VIA Agency, where she worked with global brands and developed a deep interest in the psychology behind consumer and media behavior. She went on to earn her PhD at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where her interdisciplinary research focused on how media and digital environments influence health beliefs and behaviors among adolescents and young adults.
She has served as a co-investigator on seven NIH-funded research projects, published more than 25 academic articles and book chapters, and presented her research nationally and internationally. Her work has also taken her into classrooms, schools, and communities, where she has led workshops and developed evidence-based media literacy initiatives for students, educators, and families. She is the North Carolina state advocacy lead for Media Literacy Now working to advance media literacy education through advocacy, coalition-building, and policy change.
Christina brings together research, strategy, and real-world experience to make complex ideas accessible and actionable. Her work is grounded in a simple premise: to understand the impact of media and technology, we first have to understand the people at the center of them.
My Why
I’ve been a pop culture and media junkie since my first Barbie doll and Blondie vinyl. At seven years old, this suburban New Jersey girl packed her Wonder Woman backpack—with Barbie tucked inside, of course—and announced that she was moving to Los Angeles. It took another 15 years to make that dream a reality, but at 22, I packed up my car and drove cross-country to the heart of the entertainment industry. After dabbling in casting and costume design, I found my passion—and my career—in advertising. And, in a full-circle moment, I even got to fulfill the dream of my seven-year-old self by working on the Barbie account at Ogilvy.
Insatiable curiosity, a love of research, and perhaps a slightly unhealthy relationship with caffeine led me to continue my studies at the University of Southern California while working full-time in advertising. It was there that I was introduced to media literacy education. The world was very different then. Social media didn’t exist, AI was still the stuff of science fiction, and the digital media landscape looked nothing like it does today. While the technology—and the challenges—have changed dramatically, much of the underlying work remains the same: helping young people thinking critically about and make sense of the media they consume and create. As a kid who was taught to question everything and always ask “Why?,”media literacy felt like home.
Since 2012, my “why” has become even more personal. I’m the mother of three amazing tweens and teens. They question everything. They always ask “Why?,” I couldn’t be prouder. Being a parent has brought my professional work into sharper focus, giving me a front-row seat to how media and technology shape the way young people learn, think, and navigate the world. It has deepened my commitment to empowering youth—including my own children—to think critically, make informed decisions, and lead in a world I cannot yet imagine.