Fashina (Shina) Aladé is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Advertising & Public Relations and Adjunct Faculty in the Department of Human Development and Family Studies. Her research lies at the intersection of media effects, developmental psychology, and early childhood education, with a focus on young children’s comprehension of and learning from educational media. Dr. Aladé is the Associate Editor of the Society for Research in Child Development’s Social Policy Report, and her own work has been published in journals such as Media Psychology and the Journal of Children and Media and has won Top Paper awards from the International Communication Association and the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication. She has also worked with WTTW Chicago and MediaKidz Research and Consulting, Inc. on a variety of projects evaluating children’s television programs and online games. She earned her PhD at Northwestern University in Media, Technology, & Society, where she conducted research with the Center on Media and Human Development. She also holds an MA from Ohio State University and a BA from the University of Pennsylvania, both in Communication.

Dr. Aladé is passionate about elucidating the ways that media and technology can be used to positively impact the lives of children and families. As a community-engaged scholar, much of her research is conducted in partnership with community organizations. She often engages in outreach activities, such as professional development workshops for educators and creating tip sheets for children's television producers, to make sure that her research reaches the people who need it most: parents, educators, and children's media creators.