Tessa Jolls, an important figure in media literacy education, passed away on March 31, 2025.

This tribute was written by Diana Maliszewski and read at the UNESCO Media and Information Literacy Alliance, North American / European Chapter meeting on May 2, 2025.

Photo from IMLRS-4 in 2022

(This photo was taken June 28, 2022 in Madison, Wisconsin, USA. Tessa is the fourth person from the right. I am standing on the far right.)

I don’t remember when I first heard of Tessa Jolls. I knew I heard of her long before I had the fortune of meeting her. Canadians in-the-know are proud of their media literacy heritage, so it takes quite a bit to impress Canucks. Tessa was impressive. She’s been in the business of making a more media literate society for a long time, and possessed a zeal for the subject that belied her age. The Center for Media Literacy and the Consortium for Media Literacy were and are incredible legacies to leave behind. Carol Arcus, the most recent IC4ML Jessie McCanse winner, said of her fellow award recipient, “Tessa was a quiet, modest cheerleader for media literacy. She helped map out the history of global media literacy for UNESCO and was a great supporter of the Association for Media Literacy. She was, for want of a better, more eloquent term, a good person.”

Photo from Global Media Education Summit 2023

(This photo was taken March 4, 2023 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Tessa is the second person from the left. I am the second person from the right.

Tessa was a globetrotter and knew how to navigate both the individual states within her home country with all their policies and legislation, as well as countries around the world. She made friends while making an impact. As Neil Andersen, president of the AML, remarked: “the media literacy community has lost a valuable warrior.”

As someone relatively new to the global media literacy network, Tessa welcomed me and made me feel like I belonged in these conversations, even though I am an elementary school teacher. She respected and appreciated expertise of all types. It is unfortunate that I did not have more time to interact with and get to know Tessa the person as well as Tessa the legend, but both will continue to reside in the hearts and minds of media literacy advocates everywhere.