Deb Levine, MA
Founder
Deb was Founder of Internet Sexuality Information Services (now YTH) and served as the organization’s Executive Director from 2001-2014. She has been a thought leader at the intersection of technology and health behavior change efforts since creating Go Ask Alice at Columbia University in 1993.
Under her leadership, YTH moved the field of sexual and reproductive health into the digital age with award-winning projects such as Circle of 6, STDTest.org and inSPOT. In partnership with San Francisco Department of Public Health, she launched the first application of SMS text messaging for public health behavior change in 2006, as documented in the American Journal of Public Health two years later.
Deb is known as a fierce pioneer in the field and is a renowned public speaker and media darling, as reported in the New York Times, USA Today, CNN, LA Times, NPR, Huffington Post and VICE, among others. She has received numerous awards and fellowships including a Jefferson Award for Public Service, a White House challenge award, and a Pop!Tech Social Innovation fellowship. She has authored over 25 peer-reviewed articles in professional journals.
She has a knack for breaking down silos in public health by bringing together unexpected stakeholders across disciplines and subject matter. With the organizational team in 2008, Deb launched the Sex::Tech Conference at San Francisco State, which at its peak hosted over 500 philanthropists, young people, clinicians and tech professionals from diverse fields.
Deb is now the Principal Thought Leader at her new company, Tech Strategies Consultants. You can follow her on LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/deblevine