Helping people find their best selves.
Throughout my career I've witnessed the transformative nature of making a difference and how it lifts all of us to a higher place. My mission is to help create more opportunities for people to experience meaning, mastery and community. Through writing and public speaking, I'm excited to bring my message to a larger audience.
I founded my first nonprofit when I was 23 and have been building successful organizations ever since. My second nonprofit, Playworks will reach over 1.25 million children and 2500 schools this year, with 580 staff and 23 offices across the country. In addition to being named an Ashoka Fellow and Aspen Pahara Fellow, I was honored to be named one of the 30 leading social entrepreneurs in the world by Forbes Magazine.
More recently my work has led me to spend time at Stanford's d.school, leading to the launch of Substantial, a nonprofit dedicated to supporting schools and districts in redesigning the substitute teaching experience so that it works better for everyone. And more recently I have been working with Dr. Susie Wise to launch a new for-profit subsidiary of Playworks, called Workswell, that is bringing play + design + storytelling to corporations in the service of Organizational Experience Design (we call it OX design).
In all of my work, I am inspired by the basic human impulse to make a difference. And I'm convinced that change is possible and that each of us has the capacity to make it happen.
I founded my first nonprofit when I was 23 and have been building successful organizations ever since. My second nonprofit, Playworks will reach over 1.25 million children and 2500 schools this year, with 580 staff and 23 offices across the country. In addition to being named an Ashoka Fellow and Aspen Pahara Fellow, I was honored to be named one of the 30 leading social entrepreneurs in the world by Forbes Magazine.
More recently my work has led me to spend time at Stanford's d.school, leading to the launch of Substantial, a nonprofit dedicated to supporting schools and districts in redesigning the substitute teaching experience so that it works better for everyone. And more recently I have been working with Dr. Susie Wise to launch a new for-profit subsidiary of Playworks, called Workswell, that is bringing play + design + storytelling to corporations in the service of Organizational Experience Design (we call it OX design).
In all of my work, I am inspired by the basic human impulse to make a difference. And I'm convinced that change is possible and that each of us has the capacity to make it happen.
Now available!
I am thrilled to announce the release of the Playworks School Re-Opening Workbook! This is an unprecedented moment for kids, teachers, families, and schools. Re-opening our schools will involve decisions based on incomplete information that must be made in an environment that, at best, would be described as uncertain.
The Playworks School Reopening Workbook is a free resource and workbook aiming to bring a bit of ease to this transition. This book offers guidance around how infusing play and playfulness into the process can help, and gives you practical tools to try it on.
The workbook is divided into five sections:
The Playworks School Reopening Workbook is a free resource and workbook aiming to bring a bit of ease to this transition. This book offers guidance around how infusing play and playfulness into the process can help, and gives you practical tools to try it on.
The workbook is divided into five sections:
In each of the first four sections we offer ideas, suggestions, and concrete activities to help you frame the approach your school takes to incorporating the guidance that is being offered by the CDC and your local health authorities.
Based upon the stories that we hear about things educators actually try, both successfully and not, along with the lessons learned from the real experiences of re-opening (and then possibly re-closing and re-re-opening), we will compile a more comprehensive response to the moment to be published by Jossey-Bass in the Summer of 2021.
If you are open to being a part of this effort we would be extremely grateful. You can download the Workbook here and sign up to be a part of our ongoing research here. Thanks so much!
Based upon the stories that we hear about things educators actually try, both successfully and not, along with the lessons learned from the real experiences of re-opening (and then possibly re-closing and re-re-opening), we will compile a more comprehensive response to the moment to be published by Jossey-Bass in the Summer of 2021.
If you are open to being a part of this effort we would be extremely grateful. You can download the Workbook here and sign up to be a part of our ongoing research here. Thanks so much!