Advisors
Dr. Stuart Brown
Founder, National Institute For Play
Keynote Speaker Dr. Stuart Brown has dedicated much of his career to the study of human play: what it is, how it affects our health, and the devastating consequences if it is suppressed. His early scholarly research on violence, thirty-five years of clinical practice, independent scholarship, and rich relations with play scholars have convinced him that we are “built to play and built by play.”
Books: Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul
Gary Ware
Founder, Breakthrough Play
Gary Ware has nearly a decade of experience as performer in improv theatre. He assists teams with unlocking creativity, confidence, and sparks collaboration with experiential methods proven to drive peak performance.
Gary spent over a decade in the corporate world and originally pursued improv to master public speaking. He quickly discovered that combining improv and play could be a powerful solution to achieve various business challenges. Naturally, he created workshops for his team and other executives in his network to deepen relationships and improve creativity. Gary became obsessed on learning how to use play as a transformational tool and as a result, happily transitioned from marketing to pursue facilitation full time.
Books: Playful Rebellion: Maximize Workplace Success Through The Power of Play
Lisa Forbes, PhD, LPC, RPT
Assistant Clinical Professor, Counseling Program at the University of Colorado Denver
Co-Founder, Professors At Play
Lisa is a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) and a Registered Play Therapist (RPT). She has clinical experience working with abused children and adolescents, women and children at a domestic violence shelter, as well as adults, adolescents, and geriatric populations in inpatient psychiatric hospitals. Currently, Lisa is a full-time faculty member at CU Denver teaching mental health counseling and she maintains a small clinical practice doing play therapy with children 3 to 9-years-old.
Read Lisa’s paper from the Journal of Play In Adulthood
Forbes, L. K. & Craven, C., (2023) “15 play experts' vision for a more playful future”, The Journal of Play in Adulthood 5(2), 20-32. https://doi.org/10.5920/jpa.1326
Books: Professors at Play PlayBook: Real-world techniques from a more playful higher education classroom
David Thomas, PhD
Executive Director for Online Programing at University of Denver
Co-Founder of Professors at Play
David Thomas is the professor of fun. What makes something or someplace fun? How do we describe and understand fun? How can fun transform our classrooms and workplaces? This is what David does for, well, you know, fun. David has 25 years of experience advancing quality online courses, programs and degrees in line with organizational values and vision as well as enterprise data and business services. David sees technology as a long lever for meeting the evolving needs in higher education and the long-term success of the educational mission.
Books: Professors at Play PlayBook: Real-world techniques from a more playful higher education classroom
Stephanie Pierotti
Emcee & Director of ShapingEDU at ASU
Stephanie leads a global community of 4,000 education changemakers, including educators and students, plus education futurists, researchers, consultants, edtech developers, worldwide universities and education nonprofits. As part of UNESCO’s LearningPlanet Alliance, the ShapingEDU Community works collaboratively on projects to develop free resources aimed at helping lifelong learners thrive in the digital age. ShapingEDU also creates futures-focused in-person and online events that foster community “solutioneering”.