Pixelkin's Advisory Panel

Community Outreach and Representation

Aina Braxton is the Program Manager at The Digital Future Lab at the University of Washington Bothell. She received her BA in Law, Economics, and Public Policy and a minor in Human Rights from University of Washington Bothell in 2012. She is an active member of Seattle’s performance art community, which informs much of the work she oversees at the lab. At the Digital Future lab she supervises the audio production team and leads the lab’s community development effort. She is interested in overlaps between performance art and digital technology as well as exploring new ways technology can be used as an instrument for education and social justice. This past summer she acted as project lead on a participatory action research project in Lake City, Seattle. The objectives of the project were to increase tech fluency amongst participants while identifying areas for future collaboration between the Lake City community and the University of Washington Bothell.

Game Design in Academic Programs

Mark Chen is Director of Pepperdine University’s Gameful Design Lab where he is promoting social change, activism, and personal agency through the development of expertise in gaming practice and game design. He is also helping faculty incorporate playfulness and game mechanics into course work, designing experimental and artistic games that explore moral dilemmas and human nature, and researching esoteric gaming practices. Previously, Mark taught courses in game studies, game design, and games for learning at the University of Washington, the University of Ontario Institute of Technology, and Pepperdine University and has presented overviews on the wide range of academic options in studying and making games. Mark is the author of Leet Noobs: The Life and Death of an Expert Player Group in World of Warcraft, which details how a new team learned to excel in WoW and how the team died in a fiery meltdown as expert practice moved towards tech-supported efficiency and surveillance and away from other forms of play. He earned a PhD in Learning Sciences/Educational Technology from the University of Washington and a BA in Studio Art from Reed College. You can read more about Mark on his blog at MarkDangerChen.net.

Psychology

Kelli Dunlap, PhD, first became interested in the interaction between video games and mental health while studying psychology as an undergraduate. She completed her honors capstone project on video games. She graduated with her Bachelor’s in psychology from American University. After graduation, Kelli pursued her doctorate in clinical psychology. Her research continued to focus on the relationship between mental health in the form of her doctoral dissertation, “Mediating Factors in the Relationship Between Video Games and Mental Health.” She has presented the findings from her empirical research at several video game conventions such as the Penny Arcade Expo. She has also published the article “Integration of Game Design and Theory into Group Psychotherapy with Veterans with Severe/Chronic Mental Illness” in the Games for Health Journal based upon her work as a doctoral student in the V.A.

In addition to her research, Dr. Dunlap completed her residency at a community mental health center where she worked with children and adolescents, as well as adults. Her integration of video games and video game culture into the therapy room helped her to quickly establish rapport and trust with clients. Dr. Dunlap used her knowledge of video games not only to rapidly build a therapeutic alliance, but to explain psychological constructs, model behaviors, and provide a space for her clients to feel empowered, competent, and safe.

K-12 Instructional Technology

Lucas Gillispie has been an educator for nearly 15 years, working as a high school science teacher for 10 years before taking a position as a district-level instructional technology and media coordinator in southeastern North Carolina. Lucas holds a MS in Instructional Technology from the University of North Carolina Wilmington where he completed thesis work researching the effects of a 3D video game on middle school students’ achievement and attitude in mathematics.

Games and Health

Wanda Gregory is a full-time lecturer at the University of Washington Bothell campus with a focus on game design, transmedia/digital storytelling, interactive media design and entrepreneurship. She was the Founding Director of the Center for Serious Play (renamed Digital Future Lab) at UWB.

Prior to teaching, Wanda worked extensively in the media industry beginning in print working at the Seattle Times where she launched a publication for high school students before moving into the toy and game industry. In this capacity she worked as Associate Producer for the Imagination Network a subsidiary of Sierra Online; Senior Director and Executive Producer of Online Media for Wizards of the Coast and Hasbro; Group Product Manager on the Xbox Live team; Executive Producer for Interactive Entertainment at Hidden City Games; and Vice President and Executive Producer for Flowplay.

Wanda is a three-time graduate of the UW, where she received a B.A. in English Literature, a M.B.A. from the Foster School of Business and a M.A. in Communications with a focus on digital media and online game communities. During this period she also worked as a research assistant at the Human Interface Technology Lab (HitLab) on the Seattle campus. Currently Wanda is finishing up her dissertation on connected health through the University College of Dublin.

Wanda has served on a number of boards in the Seattle area. She is currently on the advisory board to Foundary10.org, Play Works Studio and the Honors Department at the University of Washington. She is also acting creative director and part of the leadership team for Litesprite. In the past she has served on the board of trustees for Cornish School of the Arts, Powerful Voices, Reel Grrls and On the Boards.

Instructional Technology & Special Needs

Randy Kulman, PhD, is the Founder and President of LearningWorks for Kids, an educational technology company that specializes in using video games to teach executive functioning and academic skills. For the past 25 years, Dr. Kulman has also been the Clinical Director and President of South County Child and Family Consultants, a multidisciplinary group of private practitioners that specializes in assessment and interventions for children with learning disorders and attention difficulties. Additionally, Dr. Kulman is the author of numerous essays and book chapters on the use of digital technologies for improving executive-functioning skills in children. His current research projects include the development of a parent and teacher scale for assessing executive-functioning skills in children and a large survey study examining how children with ADHD and Autism use popular video games and apps. He is an advisor and occasional writer for Commonsensemedia.org and also writes columns for Inside ADHD and the South County Independent.  He is the author of two books;  Train Your Brain for Success: A Teenager’s Guide to Executive Functions and Playing Smarter in a Digital World.