Meet the Team
Allyson Snyder, MS, PhD
Lead Investigator
Sofia Rhea, MA
AFFILIATE INVESTIGATOR
Megan Plunkett, MFA
Specializing in interactive media design and youth development, Dr. Snyder designs and evaluates new media for children and teens. She has collaborated with both corporate partners (Lingokids and Disney Jr.) as well as community partners (SMUD Museum of Science and Curiosity and the Early Childhood Lab School) to conduct this work.
Dr. Snyder emphasizes translational, actionable findings to help parents, educators, and children themselves understand how to use media in support of healthy development.
With a focus on entertainment media, social connection, and media design, Sofia works directly with teenagers to understand their media landscapes. She translates teen insights into actionable steps for parents, media makers, and educators.
Sofia leads junior lab member training and works closely to support our community partnerships.
AFFILIATE DESIGNER
Centering her digital designs in visual and interactive experiences, Megan explores how even the smallest design choices can shape how people develop, learn, create, and connect. She is particularly interested in how design and technology shape the human experience.
Rachel McKenzie, MA, PhD
AFFILIATE RESEARCHER
Katherine Ong, BA
Dr. McKenzie's focus on experimental studies, including research on generative AI use for social support, guides her interest in understanding how to support college students' mental well-being. She serves as a consultant and collaborator for the lab with her input on experimental methods, generative AI chatbot development, and well-being measures.
AFFILIATE DESIGNER
Katherine Ong is a Minneapolis-based UX designer at Target. She graduated from UC Davis with a BA in design and cognitive science. While at UC Davis, Katherine worked as a research assistant with Dr. Snyder. She brings a human-centered approach to research and design, creating better digital experiences for learners and shoppers alike.
How We Started
From lecture halls to design spaces, we've been listening to youth to create developmentally supportive media that they actually want to use.
The Youth Media and Development Lab began as an informal partnership between Dr. Allyson Snyder and Sofia Rhea while at the University of California, Davis. Together, Sofia and Allyson have mentored over 40 undergraduate student researchers and have collected data from over 2,000 children and teenagers.
The lab includes both social science researchers and designers to create high-fidelity media for experimental testing and to take a public-facing approach to the research. We prioritize youth voices through co-design sessions, youth feedback panels, and youth advisory boards.