About The Winston Family Initiative
WiFi is a coalition of psychologists, educators, advocates, and neuroscience experts working to ensure healthy childhood development.
Through research-based solutions, WiFi is working to tackle teens’ addiction to “digital drugs” - smartphones - and address the potentially harmful effects of excessive device use on today’s youth.
Our Mission
Our mission is to protect teens’ healthy brain development by empowering parents and educators to tackle today’s youth mental health crisis through research-based solutions that ensure teens can thrive and live fully realized healthy lives.
Our Team
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Jim Winston Jr., founder of the Winston Family Initiative, is the father of two teenage boys and a psychologist in private practice with decades of experience in the field of addiction. He holds a B.A. and Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and a Masters of Letters from the University of Oxford. He began his career working with a drug program at a Federal Correctional Institution before moving to Florida to serve as the clinical supervisor of an adolescent sex offender treatment program run by the University of Miami. He is passionate about using science-based education to highlight the effects of digital technology on people, and adolescents in particular.
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Brill holds a bachelor’s degree from Florida International University and a MS in Curriculum and Instruction, specializing in early and middle childhood education, from Barry University. She is currently pursuing a postgraduate certificate in Mind, Brain and Teaching from Johns Hopkins University. Brill has shared her passion for teaching STEM in summer outreach programs in Miami. She serves as a teacher mentor, SEL committee member, Engineering club sponsor, as well as writing curriculum for the Winston Foundation. Brills’ partnership with UNC Chapel Hill has been her focus over the past three years. She has written an inclusive curriculum to educate teachers, parents, and adolescents about how the use of technology, and social media impacts relationships, behavior, and well-being.