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Rania Mankarious serves as the CEO of Crime Stoppers of Houston after starting as an intern in 2006. Mankarious, who moved to Houston from Boston in 2004, was introduced to Crime Stoppers shortly after. She immediately fell in love with the mission and was thrilled to take any open position. By 2013, Mankarious was named the organization’s Executive Director and by 2018, its first CEO.
During her tenure, Mankarious has worked with her team to create the first-ever Crime Stoppers of Houston Safe School Institute, Safe Community Institute, Glenda Gordy Research Center, Victim Services and Advocacy Program, a training program for all other Crime Stoppers organizations, and additional services now prominently listed on the Crime Stoppers website. Most notably, Mankarious led the charge to build “The Dave Ward Building, Crime Stoppers of Houston”. It serves as the first and only Crime Stoppers headquarters globally,
Mankarious is an expert in nonprofit management, program development, and all aspects of public safety. While she studies the entire landscape, her specific area of research and writing is focused on online safety. She is the author of “The Online World, What You Think You Know and What You Don’t,” and an active speaker to parents, communities, schools, and students and young adults across the country. Mankarious has written over 200 articles on family safety, school safety, and community safety. She’s contributed to The Buzz Magazines, and The Bark Blog, is a national adviser for Safe and Sound Schools, and serves on the Advisory Council for the Organization for Social Media Safety. Mankarious has been seen and heard on local and national radio, podcasts, and television, including ABC, CBS, NBC, the CW, FOX, Yahoo News, and across additional platforms as a legal, family, crime, mental health, and parenting expert. In September 2020, Mankarious and her team created The Balanced Voice Podcast, which has featured local and nationally recognized guests including Greg Kelley, Shepard Smith, Matthew McConaughey, Nancy Grace, Dave Ward, Tamron Hall, and others. To date, viewership is over 4 million.
Mankarious has received many honors including: CW39’s Winner of their Remarkable Women; Visionary Leader in the fight against human trafficking; Most Stylish People by the Houston Chronicle; Houston Business Journal’s Outstanding Nonprofit Business Leader; a Houston Hero by the International Chamber of Houston; Top 30 Most Influential Women of Houston; Houston Moms’ Blog “Houston Mom of the Year”; Houston Business Journal’s Women Who Mean Business; Houston Hero by the Houston Chronicle; Prime Living Reader’s Choice Award for Best Dressed Texan; Lights Camera Action’s Mother’s Day Honoree; and Houston’s 50 Most Influential Women.
Mankarious received a bachelor’s degree in Psychology, Theology, and Pre-Medicine from Boston College, a master’s degree in Marriage and Family Therapy from Gordon Conwell and a Doctor of Jurisprudence completed at the University of Houston Law Center. She is a proud wife and mother of three children and two Yorkies.
SESSIONS
Online & Student Safety in the Digital World
In this presentation, digital and family safety expert Rania Mankarious discusses the nexus between youth development, their engagement in the online world, inherent risks, the role adults play in ensuring the safety of students navigating the online space. Mankarious will address the lack of understanding parents and caregivers might have, and then provides a set of strategic and evergreen solutions to keep students safe in the digital age.What makes your perspective on this topic unique?: Most experts are repeatedly telling us how dangerous the online world is and how we should do everything to keep our kids off technology. While I agree with this message, it doesn’t give "real parents" raising kids in the "digital age" (especially in a post-Covid world) “actual advice". Parents, from what I’ve researched, are facing two things: (1) What I call “bad-news fatigue” and (2) a lack of real direction on how to keep kids SAFE - whether they are online for 5 seconds, 5 minutes or 5 hours. I tackle it all in a way that is unique and life altering for both children, young adults and their parents. I’ll give parents unique, evergreen tools they will understand and kids will buy into.
What is the most compelling story that should be told at this event about the topic you selected above: There is no real way to keep our children off technology. The reality is, technology offers wondeful tools for learning and connecting but also, multiple doorways for dangerous activity. That said, I share real life stories of kids making choices like Sammy Chapman who tragically lost his life after injesting one pill he purchased online, to Ava Grace Mejury and the stalker who made his way into her home, to real-life strategies from Fortune 500 Companies, celebrity powerhouses and even the everyday marketplace to create “4 Power Tools” that wil literally create a road-map to keep your childen and my children safe online.