Board of Directors

Carole is the founder of Global Kids–a not-for-profit organization committed to developing urban youth into successful students, community leaders and global citizens–where she served as Executive Director for twenty-one years. Since 2010 Carole has served Global Kids on the Board of Directors and as senior advisor. Carole has also served as Managing Director of the Foreign Policy Association and as coordinator of Women’s Studies and the Graduate Program in Women’s History at Sarah Lawrence College. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations; she was twice named a Purpose Prize Fellow by Civic Ventures; and she received the College of Notre Dame’s Service to Society Award. Carole began her career as a teacher of social studies and history.

Arnab is a producer at Disney: Playdom. He has worked in production and operations on platinum-selling video games, like Batman: Arkham Asylum and Lara Croft: Tomb Raider. And he conceived and led development on MTV’s mtvU GameORZ, an online portal for college students to showcase original flash games. Arnab has presented at the Game Developers Conference and at the Vancouver Film School. And he managed studio operations at SilverTree Media, a boutique video game developer with a focus on children. He has an avid interest in enhancing primary education for kids around the world by harnessing new media and game design techniques to build flexible, on-demand learning ecologies.

Peter is the CEO of Nolgong Powerhouse, a Korea-based company focused on the use of games and play in education. He is also an adjunct professor at Seoul National University and SungKyunKwan University. Before moving back to Korea in 2009, Peter managed Gamelab, a game development studio he co-founded in New York City. Peter has worked widely as a game designer, visual designer and game programmer. He has taught at New York University and Parsons New School for Design.

Franklin is the Managing Director and Director of Technology Programs at ITAC–Industrial and Technology Assistance Corporation of New York–a non-profit consulting and training organization focused on growing New York City’s high-tech sector. He has served as an advisor or Board member at venture capital firms, like GreenHills Ventures or NYCSeed, at tech start ups, like Gaia Power Technologies or Sollega, and at not-for-profit organizations, like Games4Change. Franklin recently participated in the development of an annual report to track New York State’s performance in the “Innovation Economy.” He worked with the Department of Homeland Security to develop the Critical Manufacturing NYC Regional Sector Coordinating Council, and he has served on Mayor Bloomberg’s Telecommunications Policy Advisory Group.

Steven is a Senior Partner at MasurLaw. He has over 16 years of experience working with digital media, entertainment, technology and venture companies. Since 1994 Steve has helped create and define a wide array of new business models and licensing schemes in music, film, mobile and wireless services as well as licensing and media delivery. He has helped clients organize, write contracts, work out complicated legal and business problems and pursue mergers and other strategic opportunities in competitive environments. Steve counts among his past and current clients some of the biggest names in digital media, games and mobile. In addition, he is a member of the Producers Guild of America (PGA)-New Media Council, on the Board of Directors of ITAC (New York’s Industrial and Technology Assistance Corporation) and on the Executive Board of the IAEL (International Association of Entertainment Lawyers). He previously chaired the New York State Bar Association's Venture and Technology Law Committee.

Jay is a Research Scientist at Intel Labs’ Interaction and Experience Research Group, where he heads a team of experience designers exploring the future of computing. His research interests include entertainment industry disruptions and their impact on personal and professional media; issues of image, identity and privacy vis a vis social networking and media personalization; and the communities of interest that arise around user-generated content. Jay has worked as a User Researcher for Microsoft Hardware, as a usability analyst and interaction designer with Aaron Marcus and Associates, with Motorola New Enterprises and with Doblin Group, a product strategy consulting firm. Jay has taught at the Illinois Institute of Technology and at the Interaction Design Institute in Ivrea, Italy.

Nichole is a Visiting Associate Professor in the College of Computing and Digital Media at DePaul University. She is the founder of Digital Youth Network and co-creator of Remix World, a social learning platform that connect’s learning opportunities in school, at home and beyond. In collaboration with the Chicago Public Library, Nichole also founded YOUmedia, a public learning space for high school students. Nichole is the recipient of a Common Sense Media Award, a Jan Hawkins Award, an NSF Early Career Fellowship and a research grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. She serves on the Advisory Board of the Joan Ganz Cooney Center and on a National Advisory Committee at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Her current research interests include pedagogical-based social networks, new media literacy learning outcomes and ecological learning models.

Now a full-time photographer, Sophie previously served as Director of Development for Demos, an international policy institute, and worked as a management and fundraising consultant, helping non-profit organizations to clarify their goals and strategies. Sophie studied philosophy at Sarah Lawrence College, and negotiation and dispute resolution at Harvard University.

Sally is an independent producer with a focus on massive, technology-intensive, collaborative event and games. She recently worked with NYU Movement Group to invent a large-scale motion capture game platform, called Squidball (patent pending). In 1991, she produced a Pong game for 5,000 people to play together with retroreflective "wands." Sally participated in the production of the Broadway musical The Color Purple and is the Executive Producer of the Peabody Award-winning documentary Between the Folds. Her interests include information visualization, analytics, and trends in technology and pop culture. She felts yak yarn, and her collection of pop-up and movable books is among the largest in the world.

Katie is the Executive Director of the Institute of Play. She is an active game designer and, as one of the Institute’s founders, a pioneer in applying game design principles to challenges outside the field of commercial game development. Katie is a professor in the Design and Technology program at Parsons the New School for Design and Director of the Center for Transformative Media. She lectures widely and writes extensively on game design, design education and gamer culture. She has co-authored or edited several books from MIT Press, including Rules of Play, a textbook on game design, The Game Design Reader and The Ecology of Games: Connecting Youth, Games, and Learning. Also, Katie was co-lead designer on Gamestar Mechanic, an award-winning online game with built-in game design curriculum. She has been involved in the design of slow games, online games, mobile games and big games in the commercial and independent games sectors around the world.

Eric is a Visiting Assistant Arts Professor at New York University’s Game Center. He co-founded Gamelab, a game development studio he led for nine years, and the Institute of Play. He is an active game designer, artist and writer, who co-authored Rules of Play, a textbook on game design. Throughout his sixteen years in the gaming industry, Eric has created dozens of award-winning games, from massively multiplayer online games to physical games for galleries and museums. Eric’s recent film PLAY–created with director David Kaplan–premiered at the Puchon International Film Festival in 2010, where it received an award for Best Short Film. Eric publishes and lectures widely about game design and game culture.