About the Creators:
Founder and CEO
Susan Bonner (she/her)
A mom, professor, and animator. She helped her child use baby sign language to communicate. Susan has been involved in the children's market designing characters for toys and books for Baby Leapfrog and created a children's book with her dad and son.
She teaches game art and animation at Kendall College of Art and Design of Ferris State University where she chairs the Digital Art and Design program. She produced and directed many award-winning digital products as part of The EPIC Project (external link). These include the game, Miner Madness, Dig into Code Theory (external link) that won the Most Meaningful Student Created Game of 2018 as well as Powderkeg! A Revolutionary War Card Game (external link) that won gold at the 2020 Serious Play conference.
Previous to teaching, she worked as a researcher for the Department of Education at the University of Cincinnati and the National Association for the Advancement of the Arts in Education. Find out more at SusanBonner.com (external link)
Advisors:
William Fischer (he/him)
A Professor at Kendall College of Art and Design, where he founded the Digital Art and Design program, he is the executive producer for the EPIC project (external link) and author of the I-See-U design guide (external link).
His career began designing toys and automotive components at Duramold Corp. Then, buildings at GE Associates Architects.
At Lear Corporation, as a product design manager, working with his team, he created automotive control panels that were incorporated into three Motor Trend “Cars of the Year” and received seven patents.
He formed an award-winning multimedia design studio, BlackBox that enjoyed clients like Delco Electronics, Wolverine International, SRAM, and The American Institute of Architects.
Kelly L. Vigants PhD (she/her)
A long-time advocate for young children and their families and an Assistant Professor of Early Childhood Education at Ferris State University. She earned her Ph.D. in Education and Human Development through Western Michigan University. She has been in the early childhood profession for over 25 years as a parent educator, preschool teacher, special education director, and early childhood consultant.
Her interests include trauma-informed teaching practices, social and emotional health of young children and families, promoting high-quality caregiving, and diverse learners, particularly children diagnosed with ADHD and Autism Spectrum Disorders.
As a mother of four children, she has previously advocated for families in Ottawa County as a board member of the Great Start Parent Coalition. As a professor, she focuses on educating the next generation of early childhood teachers using up-to-date research, hands-on learning, and educational theory.
Chris Brown (he/him)
Chris Brown has been creating agency and direct client digital projects since 1998. He has delivered content managed, e-commerce and multimedia websites, mobile and web applications, 2D and 3D animations, virtual and augmented reality experiences, computer-based training modules, online games, and video productions.
Chris Brown has been creating agency and direct client digital projects since 1998. He has delivered content managed, e-commerce and multimedia websites, mobile and web applications, 2D and 3D animations, virtual and augmented reality experiences, computer-based training modules, online games, and video productions.
Chris has mastered an array of software programs and programming languages to design and develop many different projects with various scopes.
Chris has also taught for over twelve years in the Digital Art and Design department at Kendall College of Art and Design. His courses include Interactive Multimedia Design, Web Design I & II, Maya 3D, Motion Design and Professional Studio mirroring an agency production environment where he manages group projects that are often professional collaborations.
Karen "Kat" Schrier, PhD (she/they)
Karen "Kat" Schrier is an Associate Professor and the Director of the Games & Emerging Media program at Marist College. She currently consults as a game designer at the World Health Organization (WHO) and is co-PI on a Templeton Foundation Grant on virtual reality games and empathy.
She is also Founder/CEO of PlatyPlay, LLC, which specializes in designing games for inclusion, ethics, and care. Previously, she was a media producer and game designer for Nickelodeon, Scholastic, and BrainPOP.
An accomplished researcher in the field of games and learning, Dr. Schrier is the author/editor of over 100 published works, including We the Gamers: How Games Teach Ethics and Civics (Oxford University Press), the Learning, Education & Games series (ETC Press/Carnegie Mellon), and Knowledge Games (Johns Hopkins University Press). Find out more at karenschrier.com and platyplay.com.