Alex Chisholm produces research-based transmedia properties for entertainment and education. As Executive Director and a founding member of the Learning Games Network, he oversees the organization’s program development and collaborations with multiple partners.

In recent years, he has developed and managed several projects with NBC Universal, including iCue with NBC News, and the online games for NBC Olympics. Between 2007 and 2010, Chisholm oversaw the production of The Forgotten World, an online story and game application to help Chinese middle school students learn English; he also managed the implementation of the application, including materials development and teacher training for an evaluation by the U.S. Department of Education. Extending this work, Chisholm is Executive Producer of Xenos-ISLE (Integrated Social Learning Environment), an open education resource funded by the Hewlett and Gates Foundations to support a broad range of single- and multi-player language learning games.

Over the past 10 years, Chisholm has collaborated on research, product, and program development with Microsoft, Electronic Arts, Sony Pictures Imageworks, LeapFrog, NBC Universal, Children’s Hospital Boston, SLAMDiabetes, BrainPOP, Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and the Hewlett, Gates, and MacArthur Foundations. He holds a B.S. from Cornell University.

Amabel Luers is a British and Italian native who has lived and worked in several European countries. She obtained her undergraduate degree with honors from Oxford Brookes University in Languages for Business and her Masters with distinction in Translation and Interpreting from the University of Westminster, in London. Amabel has been working for the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime since July 2010 as a translator and editor and has taught intensive English for Business courses to EFL students. Amabel is fluent in French and Spanish, as well as Italian and English and she is currently learning Mandarin. She is passionate about social justice issues and enjoys travelling and learning about other cultures.

Amabel is collaborating with LGN to develop Xenos-ISLE.

An elementary and middle school teacher for many years, Andrea Gardner is a certified Smartboard trainer, a certified field trainer and collaborator on the development of Verizon Thinkfinity online courseware, a trainer for the Massachusetts Elementary School Principal’s Association and a regular presenter in professional development programs for school educators. Recently she has teamed up with Glogster EDU to be an independent contractor to help present and sell their unique education solutions to teachers, schools, and districts across the country. She has served as a math teacher, a K-5 technology classroom teacher and as a technology coach for administrators and teachers on the implementation of a school level data management system to support summative and formative assessments in the Boston Public Schools. For the past 5 years she has served as an instructional technology teacher in the Westford Public School in Central Massachusetts. In this position Andrea works with classroom teachers to integrate technology in their pedagogical practice and their implementation of the regular curriculum. Her professional interests include the integration and appropriate use of information and communications technology (ICT) tools in classroom instruction and the use of ICTs in formative evaluations. Andrea graduated from West Chester University with a degree in education and holds a masters degree in Instructional Technology from Lesley University.

Christine Chiang is a seasoned software professional. She has built and managed enterprise applications and consumer products for the past 14 years. She has served in senior management positions at Idiom Technologies and OutStart Inc and has worked with customers including eBay, Oracle, Adobe, Autodesk, TiVO and McDonald’s.Christine received her MBA from F.W. Olin Graduate School of Business at Babson College and her undergraduate degree in Business in Management from Central University in Taiwan.

Dan Roy is designing a multiplayer game to teach English to Spanish-speakers. Before joining the Learning Games Network, he was working on this same project as a member of the MIT Education Arcade. Previously, Dan was a designer at a stealth-mode learning games startup somewhere in the San Francisco Bay Area and at Muzzy Lane Software, where he worked on Making History: The Calm & The Storm. While a graduate student, he worked at the Education Arcade on The Lure of the Labyrinth. He holds an S.M. in Comparative Media Studies from MIT and a B.S. in Computer Science from UMass Amherst.

Danny Fain has been a STEM teacher and gameful educator for more than a dozen years at the middle- and high-school level. He has pioneered and facilitated the use of innovative digital games in a variety of classroom settings. Most recently, among a student population with moderate learning disabilities, Danny coordinated the participation of science classes in two game-based research studies, and taught the basics of game/simulation design. He contributed as a team leader and coach in the LGN Game Design summer camps of 2010 and 2011. Before becoming a teacher, Danny worked as a software engineer, designer, and manager at an industry-leading CAD/CAM software firm, where he championed improved venues for internal communication and collaboration within the development organization. Danny earned his SB in Geoscience at MIT, and also completed the Teacher Education Program there.

Eric Klopfer is Associate Professor and the Director of the MIT Scheller Teacher Education Program and the Director of The Education Arcade. His research focuses on the development and use of computer games and simulations for building understanding of science and complex systems. His work combines research and development of games and simulations, from initial conceptualization, through implementation, piloting, professional development and end-user research.He is the creator of StarLogo TNG, a platform for helping kids create 3D simulations and games using a graphical programming language, as well as several mobile game platforms including location-based Augmented Reality games, and ubiquitous casual games. He is the author of “Augmented Learning,” a new book on handheld games and learning from MIT Press, and is co-author of the book, “Adventures in Modeling: Exploring Complex, Dynamic Systems with StarLogo.”

Heather joins the Learning Games Network with a background in design and administration. Her experience includes working at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, where she realized her interest in design and education. She earned her B.S. in Economics and Marketing from Bentley University.

Jennifer Groff is a former teacher and educational researcher whose work focuses on educational innovations and technologies, as well as system innovation and design. She has published several articles on unblocking innovation in education systems, transformation and design over educational reform, and the ‘whole-mindedness’ pedagogical approach, and is one of the authors in the new book 20Under40: Reinventing the Arts and Arts Education for the 21st Century—which selected submissions from 20 emerging arts education leaders under the age of 40. Groff is an advisor to the OECD Innovative Learning Environments project and most recently was a US-UK Fulbright Scholar at Futurelab Education in Bristol, United Kingdom, where she continued her work on system innovation and researched the use of console-games in Scotland’s schools. For her innovative teaching in the K-12 classroom, Groff was named a Microsoft Innovative Teacher Leader in 2005 and a Google Certified Teacher.

Jeremiah McCall has taught high school history for more than a decade, mostly at Cincinnati Country Day School. His first professional love is high school teaching, especially designing instructional approaches that will guide students to think as experts in disciplines. He is also a researcher/designer of learning environments that effectively incorporate simulation games to encourage critical inquiry. Gaming the Past: Using Video Games to Teach Secondary History (Routledge 2011), is his first book on the subject. He continues to research, write, and speak about the effective use of video games in the classroom.

McCall has a PhD in ancient history from Ohio State University. He wrote The Cavalry of the Roman Republic (Routledge 2001) and Sword of Rome: A Biography of Marcellus (Pen & Sword 2012). Currently, his historical research focuses on the ways that the past are represented in modern media. He has a book in the works on the representation of ancient battle in modern cinema and another planned on how video games model ancient empires.

McCall has a PhD in ancient history from Ohio State University. He wrote The Cavalry of the Roman Republic (Routledge 2001) and Sword of Rome: A Biography of Marcellus (Pen & Sword 2012). Currently, his historical research focuses on the ways that the past are represented in modern media. He has a book in the works on the representation of ancient battle in modern cinema and another planned on how video games model ancient empires.

Matt Walsh is Associate Professor of English at MassBay Community College. His interests include interdisciplinary curriculum design through learning communities and community reading initiatives; digital literacy; and lab-based pedagogy for developmental readers, writers and language learners. He is currently exploring learning science research of effective video game/computer game learning principles and the practical application of these principles for redesigning post-secondary language arts curriculum. He holds an M.A. in English & Creative Writing from Hollins University and a B.A. in English from Saint Michael’s College. He taught English in Niigata, Japan through the JET Program.

Matt is collaborating with LGN to develop Xenos-ISLE.

Michael is a producer and designer interested in transmedia storytelling, participatory culture, and user interaction. His work centers on designing integrated marketing and outreach campaigns for all LGN projects, developing game content and offline support materials, and building a broader community for game-based learning. He was previously a junior copywriter at the design studio yU+co. [lab], where he helped deliver interactive media experiences for the Hong Kong Government and Sino Group. In 2009, Michael founded 21st Century Boy, an website about creativity, culture, and media. He has also held stints at Gothamist, Abrams Media, and the South China Morning Post. Michael received his B.A. in English and American Literatures from Middlebury College in 2011.

Peter Stidwill is a digital producer who focuses on online learning products and educational gaming. He has worked for the UK Parliament as Senior Web Producer for Education where he was responsible for all online learning projects, including the multi award-winning games MP For A Week and MyUK. Peter has also worked for the BBC on a range of formal and informal education projects for both adults and children. These included the Digital Curriculum (BBC Jam), and Science and Nature Online, where he produced web content for the flagship TV science program, Horizon.Peter holds a B.A. and M.Eng. from Cambridge University (UK), where he also ran an online outreach initiative – an extension of his engineering masters dissertation in which he specialized in digital learning.

Scot is the Creative Director of The Education Arcade and a research director in the MIT Comparative Media Studies Program. He is a designer of award-winning educational games, working in both academic and commercial environments, and his work has focused on what is authentically playful in challenging academic subjects. He has designed games for computers, handheld devices, and multi-player on-line environments. Scot is the creator of the acclaimed Zoombinis series of math and logic games, and has lead a number of projects in Learning Games Network and the Education Arcade, including Lure of the Labyrinth (math), Kids Survey Network (data and statistics), Caduceus (medical science), iCue (history and civics) and the Hewlett Foundation’s Open Language Learning Initiative (ESL).

As a former developer of administrative information systems, Becky Torrisi brings experience with a wide variety of administrative functions to her position as project manager. Torrisi understands the importance of efficiency in management and providing staff with the tools they need to succeed. She also is a believer in lifelong learning.

An art director with extensive experience in developing overall vision and artistic direction for high quality console and PC games, Brian Pelletier was instrumental in designing and developing games from inception to completion for more than 16 released titles during his 18 years with Raven Software. Additionally, Pelletier has served as creative director for three high profile projects and was responsible for art direction and aesthetic vision for eight highly acclaimed titles.

As a software engineer, Greg spends time both planning and implementing design strategies for solid, yet flexible, software solutions. Though the majority of his time is spent coding engine level and game play systems in games, he is no stranger to web services, database solutions, and client-server interactions which all enhance the game play experience.

As a 2-D and 3-D artist, Jason Palmer works on artwork and game design elements for projects related to biology and the life sciences. He currently is pursuing an associate’s degree in game art and animation from Madison Media Institute.

As a game developer, John Karczewski is tasked with the implementation of game systems and features. Karczewski previously worked on Saints Row: The Third and Red Faction Armageddon at Volition and holds a B.S. in computer science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

A developer using Ruby on Rails to write web applications that support the Educational Research area’s games. With a love of clean code, clocks, and procedural generation, I use these vices to smash audio, visuals, and human input together to give computers super powers.

An associate professor in UW-Madison’s Educational Communications and Technology division of the department of Curriculum and Instruction, Squire is co-director of the Games, Learning and Society Research Group. A former Montessori and primary school teacher, Squire also has served as research manager of the Games-to-Teach Project at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and co-director of the Education Arcade. He is an internationally recognized leader in games and learning, and the author of more than 50 publications on games and learning.

As an administrative assistant, Mark Ahrens is a jack-of-all-trades. He supports the education research group by helping manage the lab, providing human resources support and assisting the directors, among other duties. Ahrens holds a B.S. in Psychology from UW-Platteville and brings more than two decades of administrative experience in both for-profit and non-profit groups.

Ari Green, an aspiring game designer, plans to study Comparative Media and Management Science at MIT. Around the studio he tackles anything from game to website design, on both the visual and conceptual level. He’s been designing, sketching, and programming experiences since he was a youngster and truly has a passion for it. In addition to the work he does around the office, Ari has mentored participants in the Game Design Boot Camp that takes place over the summer. Some additional interests include tennis, reading, and building Rube Goldberg machines.

Ben is a rising high school senior from the Boston MetroWest area. An intern at LGN, Ben has an interest in art and graphic design, but a passion for photography. Ben has been interning at LGN for three years, and loves every minute of it. When not working at LGN or in school Ben enjoys bicycling, skateboarding, and hiking.

Bradford Allen is a home schooled high school junior. His interests include technology and social networking. He has participated in two LGN game jams as well as an MIT game design boot camp. He is currently working on LGN’s social networking project.

Harrison is a homeschooled freshman in Vermont. Harrison is working on trailers for the game Quandary.

Jacob Wellinghoff is a Computer Science major at Rochester Institute of Technology. His interests encompass anything with a power-source. He is prone to dismantling, modifying, scripting and on occasion successfully reassembling gadgets. He is fluent in Python, Java Ruby, PHP, Applescript and Span-ish. Jacob hails from the vibrant city of Las Vegas, Nevada. His software has been featured in MacWorld.

Jacob is a Flash and mobile developer for LGN.

Madeleine Allen is a rising freshman at the City College of New York, studying international development. She previously volunteered in India through Integrated Social Programs in Indian Child Education and hopes to continue working on various community development projects. She participated in LGN’s Lennon Bus Game Jam and joined LGN as a student panel member at the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations Forum in Doha, Qatar and is now working on outreach for the Create UNAOC project.