Ms. Jane Tallim

Much of Jane’s career has focused on enhancing the physical and mental wellbeing of children and youth.

A former secondary teacher, Jane first joined MediaSmarts (then known as Media Awareness Network) in 1995 and is an internationally recognized expert in media-education and digital literacy. As MediaSmarts Director of Education, Jane developed many of its award-winning media literacy resources and programs on a wide range of media-related topics and has extensively promoted a media literacy approach to addressing issues relating to children, youth and media.   

Jane has considerable experience as a community researcher and since 2000 has been involved in all three phases of MediaSmarts’ ongoing research on young people’s use of and attitudes towards networked technologies -- Young Canadians in a Wired World. Jane also represents MediaSmarts as a research partner on the e-Girls project, to create and disseminate new knowledge about the benefits and risks girls and young women face as a result of using digital media for self-exposure. 

In 2005 Jane left MediaSmarts to join Ontario's Provincial Centre of Excellence for Child and Youth Mental Health at CHEO. As the Centre’s Program Leader for Youth Engagement and Strategic Education, Jane acted as adult ally for a number of youth-led initiatives designed to empower young people in developing mental health awareness activities and to facilitate their having a greater voice within the child and youth mental health sector. 

Returning to Media Awareness Network in January 2008, Jane now leads this organization as its Co-Executive Director.