Multiple roles. Diverse experiences.
Professor, researcher, founder, and director of the USC Games For Health Initiative (est. 2007) translating interactive media innovations to the health research and practitioner community.
Lecturer/workshop organizer at local, national, and international academic, government, community, and industry venues.
Artist-in-residence, visiting artist, and fellow in academic centers and NGOs.
Co-founder and director of the USC Creative Media & Behavioral Health Center (est. 2010)—organized research unit between the USC School of Cinematic Arts and the Keck School of Medicine.
Advisor, founder, or co-director of USC research groups including the SMART-VR Center, mHealth Collaboratory, Neuroplasticity & Repair in Degenerative Disorders Collaborative, Bridge Art + Science Alliance, and more.
Professional consultant across different applications of design and technology (est. 1995)—now working on digital health concept development and research design for startups and nonprofits.
Curious traveler: USA, Canada, Mexico, Greece, Netherlands, France, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, Japan, Qatar, UAE, and Thailand.
But if you think that being a researcher is glamorous, you are very romantic.
Don’t get me wrong: there will be photo shoots and press, but this is not why most of us go into academia. The people we work with make the work enjoyable (and bearable).
Long-time collaborators, like Dr. Maryalice Jordan-Marsh (on the right), have become a second family. We often share joys, struggles, and the occasional spotlight together.
P.S. The cell phone in my hands should be a clue as to how long ago this picture was taken.
Ok, so there can be some glamor at times. For example:
A cozy podcast about virtual reality, art, and health.Some popular press about virtual reality and safety.A conference lecture about addiction and games.A national public radio interview about narrative medicine and cinematic arts (translated transcript).A regional television interview about compassionate technologies (translated transcript).
Certain topics are not my top choice for discussion, but academia is a form of public service (in my opinion).
My activities are intensely focused on design and technology ethics—not the most straightforward stuff to explain.
More of my press is here.
The daily
Life involves a lot of lecturing and outreach at professional conferences and workshops (a.k.a. lots of mostly traveling economy class and living out of a suitcase for weeks).
I lecture primarily to people outside of the arts about how interactive entertainment can be used in education, public health, and medicine and synthesize the relevant evidence from basic, clinical and community research.
At times, I get to lecture to people close to my training area about design applications in science and medicine. Still, I prefer to find myself wherever I feel I am an outsider so I can learn something new.
I am fluent in “science” and can meet people more than halfway conceptually (except in molecular biology or deep health policy work unless they are translational). In the past decade, I have also gained a lot of experience with mixed methods research, study design, management, and data analysis.
What I don’t know, I have lovely collaborators who can take the lead, but it always helps to know what to ask.
Biggest brag.
The most successful project to date is The Brain Architecture Game, which promotes the science of early childhood and its role in lifelong resilience. You can read more about it here.
Someone is playing this game daily around the world.
There is nothing more humbling and motivating for a designer than to know that something they made touches the lives of thousands of people in different countries.
This satisfaction also promotes a sense of urgency for the potential impact of everything we make.