Yael Warshel, Ph.D. is an award-winning scholar, author, photographer and speaker (Ph.D. University of California at San Diego, MA University of Pennsylvania, BA University of California at Berkeley). She works at the intersection between international media, child, and conflict zones analysis, practice and policy specializing in peace communication and disability advocacy.  She is President of the Association of Middle East Children and Youth Studies, immediate past Vice President of the American Institute for Maghrib Studies (North African Studies Association), a Stanford University-UC Berkeley John Gardner Fellow for Public Service, former professor of communication and international peace and conflict, and author of When Conflict Is Real: Reimagining the Study of Children, Youth and Media in International and Global Conflict Zones, upcoming book under contract with Stanford University Press, and 7-time award winning book, Experiencing the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: Children, Peace Communication and Socialization, published by Cambridge University Press.

Idan Shalev, Ph.D. is a leading expert on the biological impacts of early-life adversity serving on the Telomere Research Network (TRN) Steering Committee funded by the NIEHS and NIA and an Associate Professor in the Department of Biobehavioral Health at Pennsylvania State University and a faculty member of the Child Maltreatment Solutions Network. He focuses on how stress affects long-term health and development across the lifespan and identifies biological markers—such as telomeres and inflammation—that can help measure the toll of conflict on young people and inform targeted public health interventions. As co-convener of the Children, Media and Conflict Zones Lab led by Dr. Warshel, he collaborated to bridge biology, media and child development in support of empowering youth affected by war and displacement.

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Nina Spiegel, Ph.D. is a leading cultural historian whose work explores how performance, memory and gender shape collective identity in conflict-affected communities and Associate Professor at Portland State University. Her expertise in Israeli cultural history and gender dynamics honored as a finalist by Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature and the National Jewish Book Award offers a critical lens into how girls and boys experience and perform identity under political and social pressure. By integrating visual, archival and embodied methods her work complements Invisible Light’s mission to support and empower youth in conflict zones through holistic interdisciplinary insight.