Advisors
Dr. Stuart Brown
Founder, National Institute For Play
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
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
Dr. Maarten Koeners
Co-Founder of InnoPlay
Maarten has a PhD in medical biology and over the last 5 years has become passionate about strengthening the link between learning and joy through play. As a senior lecturer at the Medical School at the University of Exeter, Maarten integrated insights in the neuroscience of play and design thinking with his academic practice – which has been celebrated by receiving and Educational Incubator Fellowship, the Personal Tutor of the Year Award (2023) and The Areus Award for Most Inspirational Teacher (2024).
Furthermore, Maarten has co-lead the Kinder Exeter Festival and lead the Festival of Compassion to co-create prosocial spaces promoting compassion and playfulness - thereby enabling creative and innovative thinking.
Together with Adam Lusby, Maarten has co-founded InnoPlay to enable individual and institutional innovation through design, play, story – and joy!
Adam Lusby
Co-Founder of InnoPlay
Adam has spent the past decade dedicated to exploring the intersections of innovation, technology, and the idea of a regenerative circular economy. He enjoys creating engaging workshops that challenge participants to acquire and apply new knowledge through hands-on experiences.
As a Senior Lecturer in Entrepreneurship at the University of Exeter Business School, Adam serves as academic lead on two cutting-edge innovation spaces, the Skydeck and the CQ, where students can experience the power of innovation and entrepreneurship first-hand.
Adam co-founded InnoPlay, which leverages the power of play and design to drive innovation in education and beyond, and Regenovate, a new type of agency that helps organisations build their capacity for regenerative growth.
Stephanie Dreux
Head of Community Activation
IDIA (The Institute for Digital Inclusion Acceleration)
Stephanie leads the community engagement and strategic partnership initiatives for IDIA (The Institute for Digital Inclusion Acceleration), a non-profit dedicated to improving the quality of life for people around the globe through digital inclusion.
Our mission is bold but simple: to eliminate the digital divide – the gap between those who have affordable access, skills, and support to effectively engage online and those who do not. We are co-creating communities in which every individual, regardless of their background, can thrive in the digital age.