Who We Are

Connecting to Protect is a world-first global initiative to tackle children and young people’s online pornography access, focussing on mental health and safety consequences.

Our global steering committee of experts and stakeholders are addressing this global public health issue commencing with a summit—a gathering of like-minded individuals who share a common goal to mobilize a global coalition and launch a resource and research hub.

All individuals involved with Connecting to Protect are actively engaged in their own countries, recognize the importance of international action, and value the opportunity to learn from other professionals addressing the same challenges in different legal and cultural contexts.

Meet Our Team

Dr. Jocelyn Monsma Selby

Co-Chair and Co-Founder

Dr. Jocelyn Monsma Selby is the Chair of Connecting to Protect - a public health response to address the mental health and safety consequences of children and young people accessing online pornography.

Jocelyn's career in Mental Health has spanned over 40 years in the Calgary community, as a chairperson and vice-chair building several community organizations, including an international school.

Jocelyn has been a long-term member of the Dean's Advisory Circle to the Faculty of Social Work at the University of Calgary which has a presence on several university campuses throughout the Province of Alberta. She has received the honour of "Distinguished Graduate" from the Faculty of Social Work at the University of Calgary both is 2010 and 2017 and been nominated for the Lieutenant Governors "True Leadership Award" for her work in the community.

Jocelyn has worked in a variety of therapeutic roles including the Calgary Police Service, University of Calgary & Bank of Montreal. She is known for her success in working with very difficult cases and is a highly regarded addiction treatment specialist who has managed treatment programs for adolescents and adults and supervised the clinical work of therapists who provide addiction treatment throughout Canada and the United States.

Jocelyn currently manages Monsma Counselling - a Continuing Care outpatient treatment program for addiction, specializing in forensic assessment of individuals with problematic sexual behaviours. During the past several years she has completed doctoral research in the assessment of problematic sexual behaviours and researched the harm caused by children's unfettered access to legal online pornography. Jocelyn has presented internationally on Crisis Intervention, Workplace Wellness and Addiction.

Liz Walker

Co-Chair and Co-Founder

Liz Walker is an educator and advocate responding to porn harms, and is dedicated to culture-shifting initiatives that equip children & young people.

Liz provides schools and community education as Managing Director of Youth Wellbeing Project: promoting safe & healthy relationships free from tech & sexualised harms through research-based education. Initiatives include IQ PROGRAMS, a whole-school educational package designed to equip educators for the task of supporting kids and teens to author their future; and Porn Resilient Kids: equipping families for tricky conversations through children’s books and resources.

Liz is also Co-Chair of Connecting to Protect: a Global Response to Address the Mental Health and Safety Consequences to Children and Young People Accessing Online Pornography. Previous roles include co-founding the Australian registered health promotion charity eChildhood. Key focusses included progressing Age Verification forward in Australia and collaborating to develop a public health approach to mobilise responses that reduce the harms of pornography on children and young people. Additionally, Liz facilitated parent education for four years as Director of Health Education at Culture Reframed: the global lead in solving the public health crisis of the digital age.

Considered a global leader in responding to pornography harms, throughout Liz’s career she has contributed to numerous public health and child safety initiatives. Liz regularly provides consultancy to government, non-profit, and professional organisations.

Tamara Newlands

Co-Founder and Working Group Member

Tamara Newlands is a sexuality educator, speaker, consultant, co-founding member of Connecting to Protect, and co-founder and Executive Director of eChildhood, and is currently studying in the field of social impact. Tamara has a proven track record in developing and delivering sexuality and relationship education for schools, parents, and youth. Tamara’s corporate background is in international HR, Project Management, Business Management, and Culture and Financial Services. Tamara’s expertise extends to human development, rites of passage, sexuality education, strategic planning, and has successfully run her own coaching business for the past 9 years.

Meet our International Advisors

John Carr O.B.E.

Technical Advisor

John Carr writes and consults about internet safety and security. He is one of the world’s leading authorities on children's and young people’s use of the internet and associated new technologies.

Based in London John works extensively across the UK and in many parts of the world. More recently John has also been working on issues of digital inclusion, particularly around older people's use of technology.

John is or has been a Senior Expert Adviser to the United Nations (International Telecommunication Union), an Expert Adviser to the European Union and the European Network and Information Security Agency and has been an adviser to the Council of Europe in relation to the online aspects of the Lanzarote Convention. He acts as an adviser to the UK Government on matters connected with domain name registrations in relation to the remit of the Public Safety Working Group of the Governmental Advisory Committee of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).

John is Technical Adviser (Online), to Bangkok-based global NGO ECPAT International, Expert Adviser to the European NGO Alliance for Child Safety Online (eNACSO), which is administered by Save the Children, Italy, and Secretary of the UK's Children's Charities' Coalition on Internet Safety (CHIS).

Dr. Gail Dines

Content Advisor

Dr. Gail Dines is Founder & President of Culture Reframed, and Professor Emerita of Sociology and Women's Studies, Wheelock College, Boston. Having researched and written about the porn industry for more than 30 years, Dr. Dines is internationally acclaimed as the leading expert on how pornography shapes our identities, culture, and sexuality. She is a consultant to governmental agencies in the U.S. and abroad, including the UK, Norway, Iceland, and Canada. In 2008, she co-founded the nonprofit Stop Porn Culture. As board chair, she elevated Stop Porn Culture’s international profile and helped it to develop into today's Culture Reframed.

Dr. Dines is co-editor of the best-selling textbook Gender, Race and Class in Media. Her book Pornland: How Porn Has Hijacked Our Sexuality has been translated into five languages and adapted into a documentary film. Dr. Dines is a regular guest on television and radio, including shows on ABC, MSNBC, CNN, BBC, CBC, FOX, and National Public Radio. She has appeared in The New York Times, Time, Newsweek, The Guardian, Vogue, Marie Claire, Cosmopolitan, and The Huffington Post. She is also featured in documentaries, such as The Strength to Resist: Media's Impact on Women & Girls, Mickey Mouse Monopoly, and The Price of Pleasure: Pornography, Sexuality & Relationships.

Dr. Marc Potenza

Psychiatry Advisor

Professor of Psychiatry, in the Child Study Center and of Neuroscience; Director, Center of Excellence in Gambling Research; Director, Yale Program for Research on Impulsivity and Impulse Control Disorders; Director, Women and Addictive Disorders, Women's Health Research at Yale.

Dr. Potenza is a board-certified psychiatrist with sub-speciality training and certification in addiction psychiatry. He has trained at Yale University receiving
a combined BS/MS with Honors in Molecular Biochemistry and Biophysics and a PhD in Cell Biology, the latter concurrent with the MD through the Medical Scientist Training Program.

He completed internship, psychiatric residency and addiction psychiatry fellowship training at Yale. Currently, he is a Professor of Psychiatry, Child Study and Neurobiology at the Yale University School of Medicine where he is Director of the Problem Gambling Clinic, the Center of Excellence in Gambling Research, and the Women and Addictive Disorders Core of Women's Health Research at Yale, and Senior Scientist at the Connecticut Council on Problem Gambling.

Marc is on the editorial boards of fifteen journals (including editor-in-chief of Current Addiction Reports) and has received multiple national and international awards for excellence in research and clinical care. He has consulted to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, National Registry of Effective Programs, National Institutes of Health, American Psychiatric Association and World Health Organization on matters of addiction.

Dr. Jackie Seippert

Social Work Advisor

Dr. Siepert is a retired Dean & Professor at the University of Calgary, Faculty of Social Work.

For a number of years before pursuing his PhD, Jackie Sieppert worked at the Faculty of Social Work as a sessional instructor, teaching computer skills and statistics. He rejoined the Faculty as an assistant professor in 1993, teaching courses in program evaluation, research, organizational practice, and social policy. Since that time he has also served as PhD Coordinator and Associate Dean, Research and Partnerships.

Dr. Sieppert’s research interests include community development with seniors, dynamics of successful collaboration, and digital storytelling. For the last six years, he has been a member of the Elder Friendly Communities Program and has helped initiate projects such as the Downtown Community Initiative. He took particular pleasure in developing new projects on behalf of the Faculty.