Passionate about fostering critical thinking, media literacy, informed citizenship, Mary Kate Lonergan serves as the Social Studies Curriculum Specialist at Fayetteville-Manlius Central Schools, after 16 years as an 8th grade and high school social studies teacher. She emphasizes media literacy as a core element of the social studies curriculum. Mary Kate is a KQED Media Literacy Innovator, acts as a Teacher Collaborator and consultant with Ithaca College's Project Look Sharp, and served as a mentor-coach with the Media Education Lab’s MediaEd Institute. As a PBS certified media literacy educator, Mary Kate has developed social studies and media literacy centered lesson plans featured on PBS LearningMedia, including other Ken Burns films.