Our Staff

Michele Ybarra MPH PhD, President and Research Director.
Dr. Ybarra is a recognized researcher in technology-related health issues for young people. She has published extensively in the areas of youth violence, particularly Internet harassment and other types of online victimization, as well as sexual violence and dating abuse. She also is known for her contributions to research methodology as it relates to technology. Dr. Ybarra also has developed and tested multiple technology-based behavior change programs both domestically and internationally. Current projects include a national longitudinal survey of youth that aims to identify youth characteristics related to the emergence of sexual violence over time (R01 CE001543; R01 HD083072; U49/CE000206); the development and testing of a text messaging-based teen pregnancy prevention program for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and other sexual minority teen women (TP2AH000035); and the development and pilot testing of a relapse prevention program for people with schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder (R34MH108781).

Past projects include the development and testing of In This toGether, an HIV prevention program for young adults across Uganda (R34 MH109296); a multi-national survey of LGBT adults in eastern Africa to identify opportunities for technology-based HIV prevention / healthy sexuality programming (R21 MH109583); a national study of digital abuse, funded by Facebook; the development and pilot testing of BullyDown, a text messaging-based bullying prevention program for middle schools students, funded by HopeLab; the development and testing of Guy2Guy, a text messaging-based HIV prevention program for gay, bisexual, and queer teen men in the United States (R01MH096660); a survey of low income students in Cape Town, South Africa to identify opportunities to deliver technology-based HIV prevention programming (R03MH094238 ); CyberSenga, an Internet-based HIV prevention program for adolescents in Mbarara, Uganda (R01 MH080662); a national survey that endeavored to better understand the positive and negative experiences of LGBT and non-LGBT youth online via a national survey (R01HD057191); and the development and testing of StopMySmoking, a text messaging-based smoking cessation program among young adults in the United States (R21CA135669) and adult smokers in Turkey (R01TW007918).

Dr. Ybarra holds a doctorate in child mental health services research and evaluation from the department of mental health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, where she currently is Adjunct Assistant Professor. As a pre-doctoral fellow, she was an NIH National Research Service Award fellow, and a joint fellow of the American Schools of Public Health / Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Joseph R. Schwab, CEO and Director of Technology.
With over twenty years of professional experience in Interactive Design, Development and Advertising, Mr. Schwab has been at the forefront of online advertising and website development since the Internet gained prominence in the late 1990’s. Mr. Schwab has accumulated invaluable experience with world class brands including: Apple, Sony Playstation, MTV, Pepsi One, Nissan, Infiniti, Acura, Samsung, Olympus America, Experian, Kyocera, Namco, working with top advertising agencies including: TBWA/Chiat/Day, The Designory, Deutsch LA, Genex, Truth Agency.