Meet the Design Team

Elisa Aragon | Executive Director of School


Katie Salen | Executive Director of Design (Q2L) and Executive Director, Mission Lab

Your job title sounds intriguing, what will your role be at Quest?
My main role will be helping my team at Mission Lab support students and teachers at Quest, and I'll be working with students in SMALLab too.

What four keywords would you use to describe yourself?
Tall, shy, designer, sibling

What four keywords would your students use to describe you?
Game geek, professor, curious, fashionista

What are you most looking forward to about being a part of the Q2L community?
Designing games. Meeting interesting people. Sharing my world.

What was your favorite game when you were in sixth grade?
Soccer

What do you find most interesting about game-based learning?
That I get to work on hard problems in fun ways.

Do you have any hobbies or special interests?
Organizing my food by color. Reading out of my comfort zone.

What are you reading and watching right now?
Kotaku (game blog). The New Yorker (magazine). New York Review of Books (magazine). "Fader" (podcast). "Streetlife DJs" (podcast). Why We Choose (book).


Robert Torres | Executive Director of Research (Q2L) and Chief Research Officer, Mission Lab

Your job title sounds intriguing, what will your role be at Quest?
Quest is trying to RE-IMAGINE what school is, based on some cutting-edge ideas about learning that have come from lots of research in the last 30 years. My job is to support the design of our learning environments and to research how well our model is working so that we can continuously make it better and better.

What four keywords would you use to describe yourself?
Adventurous, curious, contemplative, a little clumsy

What four keywords would your students use to describe you?
Stern, fair, amusing, nice

What are you most looking forward to about being part of the Q2L community?
I am looking forward to learning alongside everyone.

What was your favorite game when you were in sixth grade?
Pac-Man

What do you find most interesting about game-based learning?
Games allow us to engage in very deep ways. Game-based learning should allow us to help engage students in the same kinds of ways.

Do you have any hobbies or special interests?
Contemporary art and architecture, finding new and cool digital tools, traveling, reading, working out, food, understanding how we learn.

What are you reading and watching right now?
Reading The Glass Bead Game, Shambhala: The Sacred Path of the Warrior, and What Would Google Do?

Rebecca Rufo-Tepper | Co-Director of Curriculum and Instruction, Mission Lab

Your job title sounds intriguing, what will your role be at Quest?
I'll be doing a wide range of activities at Quest, but mainly I will be working in the area of curriculum development. This means I work with teachers, game designers, technology integrationists, and other educators to design meaningful learning experiences for Q2L students. I'll also support teachers on an ongoing basis as they implement and revise curriculum.

What four keywords would you use to describe yourself?
My friends like to say that I'm a "realist-idealist", which I think is funny. I'm also told that I smile a lot—so "smiley" might be a word I'd use. I'm a big-time "morning person." (I'm the most productive in the morning.) I'd also call myself a "learner"—for lack of a better word—since I feel like I'm always looking to learn new things, and I really love learning.

What four keywords would your students use to describe you?
Well, I'm not teaching at the moment but in the past I've heard students say things things such as: calm, energetic, fair, and organized.

What are you most looking forward to about being part of the Q2L community?
I am looking forward to everything! It's going to be amazing to see this vision become a reality, and I'm just so happy to be a part of it. I can't wait to get to know all the teachers and students.

What was your favorite game when you were in sixth grade?
I loved the game Operation—but the thought of the sound it made when I botched an "operation" still makes me cringe.

What do you find most interesting about game-based learning?
There are so many things that I find interesting about game-based learning, but I think the most intriguing to me right now is the potential it has for engaging students. During my observations of our fall pilots and the current work that is going on in SMALLab, I have been continually struck by they way kids react to game-like learning spaces. The laughter and enjoyment they show is really amazing to see, and I think we need more of that in schools today.

Do you have any hobbies or special interests?
I love to cook, though I'm not especially good at it. I enjoy hiking, yoga, running (short distances), and horseback riding. I love visiting my family—I have 2 brothers and a sister, and they live all over the country (Montana, Chicago, and Philadelphia). My parents live in Arizona.

What are you reading and watching right now?
I just finished reading the latest issue of The Atlantic, which is one of my favorite magazines. I am about to start reading the book The Golden Compass. I like listening to podcasts. Recently I've been listening to "On Point with Tom Ashbrook."


Arana Shapiro | Co-Director of Curriculum and Instruction, Mission Lab

Your job title sounds intriguing, what will your role be at Quest?
Quest has a very new and exciting curriculum. I will be helping teachers discover the best ways of teaching the curriculum to our students. I will be working hard to make sure the sixth grade teachers have everything they need to do their best teaching and also starting to work on getting things ready for the seventh grade.

What four keywords would you use to describe yourself?
Fun, active, calm, inquisitive

What four keywords would your students use to describe you?
Sometimes Silly, sometimes serious, fair, relaxed

What are you most looking forward to about being part of the Q2L community?
I am looking forward to being surrounded by teachers and students who are excited to try new things and play with new ideas.

What was your favorite game when you were in sixth grade?
Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego?—on my Apple IIC

What do you find most interesting about game-based learning?
Game-based learning is interesting to me because it gives the learner an opportunity to immerse themselves in the learning. When you have to take on roles in a challenging environment, you are forced to use all your knowledge and skills to solve problems. It's learning in action, and that's very exciting!

Do you have any hobbies or special interests?
I have a lot of hobbies. I love swimming, surfing, cooking and yoga. I like hiking and being outside. I've recently started to do a little container gardening—my tomato plant is just starting to bloom!

What are you reading and watching right now?
I'm reading a book called Knowing Bodies, Moving Minds, it's about the mind-body connection in education, and The Time Traveler's Wife. I'm also catching up on past episodes of "Lost."


Loretta Wolozin | Assessment Researcher, Mission Lab

Your job title sounds intriguing, what will your role be at Quest?
At Mission Lab, I will continue helping to develop our Q2L learning assessment model. I have been on the Q2L planning team since its start, and now I can follow up, working with Robert and all, designing tools and doing research on how learning IS emerging and happening here!

What four keywords would you use to describe yourself?
Caring, serious, silly (oh yeah!), energetic

What four keywords would your students use to describe you?
Supportive, dedicated, consistent, communicative

What are you most looking forward to about being part of the Q2L community?
I am really eager to meet the students —see them in action with peers, teachers—doing quests in their domain classes or SMALLab. I have been ‘in education’ for many years: here, we have a great opportunity to blend theory, research, and practice.

What was your favorite game when you were in sixth grade?
What grownup remembers sixth grade?! I do remember that little bag of jacks I carried around as a kid. I could play Jacks anywhere, anytime. And the bag was really cool. Does anyone still play Jacks?

What do you find most interesting about game-based learning?
What especially intrigues me is that team Q2L's design of game-based learning as a dynamic whole-school space innovates, while pulling in what is known about how learning happens and deepens (from Dewey, Bruner, Bransford...) from kids learning at play in systems called games. It's new, true, whole, with a gravitational pull like a magnet.

Do you have any hobbies or special interests?
I take ballet, and really love the feeling of doing it: it’s physical, a thinking challenge (my teacher changes the choreography even at the bar), and it has its artistry, with the music and my attempts at grace. I also love watching my grandson play ice hockey; he’s actually one of the most graceful hockey players on the team (he likes to do swooping down moves).

What are you reading and watching right now?
Right now, I’m re-reading one of my favorite books on design, Knowledge as Design. Some books you just go back to over again because they take on new meaning. I’m listening to a lot of political commentary: with Obama, everything is so dynamic; podcasts are great ‘cause I get so busy, and, oh, talk about silly, that Conan O’Brien is!