She is also the co-founder of the Digital Youth Network and part of the founding team of YOUmedia at Chicago Public Library through support of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. Dr. Pinkard is the recipient of a 2010 Common Sense Media Award for Outstanding Commitment to Creativity and Youth, the Jan Hawkins Award for Early Career Contributions to Humanistic Research and Scholarship in Learning Technologies, and an NSF Early CAREER Fellowship. Dr. Pinkard's research focuses on the design of tools, curriculum, and social practices to develop students' digital literacies both in formal and informal spaces. She serves on the Advisory Board of the Joan Ganz Cooney Center. She holds a B.S. in Computer Science from Stanford University, an M.S. in Computer Science from Northwestern University, and a Ph.D. in Learning Sciences from Northwestern University.