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Marieli Rowe Marieli Rowe is best known as the Executive Director of the National Telemedia Council (NTC), an organization she has led for over 50 years following her close association with its founders, Dr. Leslie Spence and Jesse McCanse. NTC is dedicated to the advancement of Media Literacy which is the ability to identify different types of media and critically understand messages contained in media of all forms. Media Literacy was initially an area of interest for her (even before this definition was well understood) as a result of the advent of television in the home in the late 1950’s. Marieli became concerned that people, especially children, were susceptible to being manipulated or misled by media sources if they could not recognize the differences between various sources and whether they contained fact or fiction. This led to a broad field of understanding media of all types, an area that has become increasingly important in the age of the internet, social media and explosive range of opportunities to gather information through other non-traditional sources.

NTC, which began in 1953, was previously known by other names including the Wisconsin Association for Better Broadcasts and the American Council of Better Broadcasts. Today, the organization has developed a worldwide following as a result of Marieli’s leadership along with support from many others. From various projects over the years such as “Kids 4” which gave youth an opportunity to participate in producing television shows, to satellite interconnects linking communities of children across the planet together at a time when satellite communication was in its infancy, to the publication of the first journal dedicated to the field. The journal, initially called “Better Broadcast News”, was renamed “Telemedium” and is today called The Journal of Media Literacy has been edited by Marieli since it’s first issue. The JML went to a digital mode at the end of 2018 after producing it’s 65th volume editions 1 and 2.

Marieli was also one of the founders and first President’s of the Friends of Channel 21, one of the first “friends of” organizations in the country supporting the PBS affiliate located in Madison through which she found yet another outlet to grow in understanding of media literacy and its importance.

Marieli Rowe, Mary Dorothy Theresa Lowens, née Löwenstein Rowe was born in Bonn, Germany in 1926. She was the son of Dr. Med. Prof. Otto Lowenstein and Marta Grunewald. She was their second child with her older sister, Anne Elizabeth born four years before. In 1933, the family removed to Nyon, Switzerland where she learned to speak French and in 1939, her father secured a post at New York University and the family immigrated to the United States. Marieli often said that her U.S. Citizenship was the most prized possession she ever had. The family arrived when Marieli was 13 years old and she spoke no English at that time being fluent in German and French. Marieli attended the Juilliard High School for music where she studied violin. She then attended Swarthmore College where she earned a degree in biology. While in college, she joined the outing club which hosted events with other universities. One of them was MIT in Boston and it was through this that she met her husband, John Westel Rowe (Jack). They were married in 1949. After graduation, they moved to Boulder, Colorado where Jack earned his master’s degree and their first son, Peter Willoughby Rowe was born. They then moved to Zūrich, Switzerland where Jack earned a Ph.D. at the ETH. While there, their second son, William Westel Rowe was born. On graduation, Jack secured a position with the Forest Products Laboratory in Madison, Wisconsin and they moved there in 1957. They purchased a home designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and executed by Marshall Erdman located in the Nakoma neighborhood. Soon thereafter, their third son Michael Delano Rowe was born. Marieli went back to college to earn her Masters in Education from Edgewood College in Madison in support of her work with NTC supporting teachers.