Our Team

Murphy Ward

Class

Roxie Shaw

Class

Andrew Reeve

Class

Carissa White

Class

Dhara Kinariwala

Class

Jo Britt Rankin

Class

Jenni Nevatt

Class

Kimberly Keller

Class

Eric Wulff

Class

Andrew Venola

Class

Alex Robbins

Class

Aaron Plasket

Class

Christian Hirni

Sina Golzy

Class

Kenneth Furtado

Class

Isaac Eckardt

Class

Hunter Deresinski

Class

Dr. Medeia Csoba DeHass

Class

Lily McEwen

Daryl Smith

Class

Chelsea Bartlett

Class

Neil Ferman

Class

Chelle Dugger

Class

Noah Glaser

Class

Douglas Wu

Class

Stephen Van Doren

Rachael Strauss

Class

Rutger McKenna

Class

Alyson Haynes

Class

Luke Dunn

Joseph Medeiros

Class

Savannah Walters

Class

Rose Mara

Class

Rose M. Marra is a professor in the School of Information Science and Learning Technologies at the University of Missouri. Dr. Marra conducts research on the design and development of technology-enhanced learning environments for both face to face and web-based learning. er particular emphases are on supporting complex learning with technology in the area of Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education examining their impact on problem-solving and meta-cognitive development. Dr. Marra develops and teaches courses in the areas of the systematic design of instruction, meaningful use of technology in learning, online learning and serious games. In a “past life”, Dr. Marra was a software engineer for AT&T Bell Labs.

Joe Griffin

Class

Joe Griffin is the Founding Director of Adroit Studios (adroit.missouri.edu) housed in the School of Information Science and Learning Technologies at the University of Missouri. Since coming to MU, Joe has collaborated on grants totaling over $18 million by providing Game Production expertise as well as other game development services. Joe has designed game-based learning and support systems for individual learning, for collaborative learning, and for nontraditional educational contexts. Joe has worked on the development of iSocial, a 3D VLE for youth with Autism Spectrum Disorders. Joe was recently working with a team of researchers and developers awarded $10 million to scale up Mission HydroSci (mhs.missouri.edu), a game-based 3D virtual learning system, with funding from the U.S. Department of Education. Joe is also currently working on vSchool, a game based assessment to be used in middle school SEL education funded with $2 million from IES.

Carolyn Jarecki

Class

My name is Carolyn Jarecki, and I’m a graduate of the Texas A&M Visualization program. As an artist, I primarily create character-based work such as animation and illustration, but I also really enjoy doing UI design and general 3D work. In my spare time, I like to work puzzles, play video games, and learn languages!

Ken Furtado

Class

Notorious musician, artist, and gamer nerd. Began working with Unity in 2018 in pursuit of a lifelong dream of making video games for a living.

Wenyi Lu

Class

My name is Wenyi, and I am a current graduate student pursuing a Ph.D. in computer science at the University of Missouri. Although my research focuses on game-based learning analytics, I am passionate about all studies related to data science applications within 3D game environments.

Christi Bergin

Class

Christi Bergin is the Associate Dean of Research and Innovation in the College of Education and Human Development at Mizzou. She is the director of the Prosocial Development and Education Research Lab with over $16 million in grants. Her mission is to make the world a kinder place by teaching parents and teachers how to bring out the best in kids – so that they grow up to be people we want to have work at Adroit! She is working on vSchool, a game based assessment of whether kids behave kindly in virtual worlds, as an indicator of their behavior in real life.

Tim Linder

Class

Joshua Whittom

Class

Heya! My name’s Joshua Whittom, and I’m a current master’s student in Library and Information Science at the University of Missouri. I’m a game designer and writer, among a number of other creative pursuits.

Will Slama

Class

I’m Will Slama, a recent graduate of Mizzou’s Information Technology program and a long-time digital media enthusiast. For as long as I can remember, I’ve had some kind of computer project in the works; from using the family computer to look up “how to make video games” when I was twelve, all the way up to getting to work with the amazing team here at Adroit!

Victoria Mondelli

Class

Dr. Victoria (Tori) Mondelli is an Assistant Teaching Professor in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis, and affiliated faculty in the History Department at the University of Missouri – Columbia. She serves as the Director of the University’s Teaching for Learning Center to further empower educators to grow their effective and inclusive teaching practices. She promotes innovative active-learning through the scholarly application of serious games and playful exercises. Her latest co-authored book, The Educator’s Guide to Designing Games and Creative Active Learning Exercises: The Allure of Play, is published by Teachers College Press, 2023.

Sean Goggins

Class

Sean Goggins is a professor of electrical engineering and computer science at the University of Missouri. Sean’s research focuses generally on social computing, with specific active projects in open source software health and sustainability, serious games, and cybersecurity. Goggins is a founding member of the Linux Foundation’s working group on community health analytics for open source software CHAOSS, a co-creator of Mission Hydro Sci, and the author of over 100 papers and three books focusing on understanding how social technologies influence organizational, small group and community dynamics, typically including analysis of electronic trace data from systems combined with the perspectives of people whose behavior is traced. His work is funded by the National Science Foundation, the Sloan Foundation, the Ford Foundation, Mozilla, Red Hat Software, the U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. Navy’s Office of Naval Research. Goggins is also the creator of the Data Science and Analytics master’s program at Missouri.

Angela Jarecki

Class

My name is Angela Jarecki, and I’m a graduate of Columbus College and Design with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Illustration, and the University of Missouri with a Master of Science in Instructional Design. I love how working at Adroit has allowed me to blend my illustration and instructional design skills to help create educational games.

Kale Monk

Class

Dr. Monk’s research primarily centers on romantic relationship quality and instability. More specifically, he is interested in how couples develop and maintain key relational processes (e.g., stability in commitment and satisfaction) across critical transitions (e.g., the transition to adulthood, the transition to marriage). His second line of research focuses on the relational dynamics and mental health of military and veteran couples during transitions – such as the family readjustment phase after a service member returns from deployment.

Brian Nielsen

Class

Hello! My name is Brian. I’ve just made the switch from full time Civil Engineer to Game Programmer! I’ve been developing games as a hobby for roughly six years and am very excited to be part of the team here at Adroit. Outside of game development I’m a big fan of all things martial arts. I’m currently focusing on Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. My favorite video games are Final Fantasy VIII and Overwatch.

Tony Castro

Class

Antonio J. Castro is an associate professor of social studies education in the Department of Learning, Teaching & Curriculum. His research interests center on the preparation of teachers for culturally diverse contexts and urban schools, with specific attention to the teaching of critical multicultural citizenship, democratic teacher education, and teaching practices that foster equity and social justice. 

Andrew Essing

Class

I’m currently going into my sophomore year at the University of Missouri. I’m majoring in Business without an emphasis and getting a minor in Japanese.

Troy Sadler

Class

Troy Sadler conducts research related to how students negotiate complex socio-scientific issues and how these issues may be used as contexts for science learning. He is interested in how issues-based learning experiences can support student learning of science and development of practices essential for full participation in modern democratic societies. He has also explored ways in which innovative technologies including virtual environments and gaming can support student learning. 

Sam Von Gillern

Class

Sam von Gillern earned his doctorate at Iowa State University. His research focuses on digital literacies and game-based learning. He is particularly interested in how people learn and communicate through digital technologies, including video games. He enjoys facilitating experiences for preservice teachers to connect with the children in the community to promote learning opportunities for college students and children alike.

Nathan Patterson

Class

Amber Vennum

Class

Amber Vennum is an Associate Professor of Couple and Family Therapy in the Department of Applied Human Sciences at Kansas State University. As a scholar and practitioner, Dr. Vennum is interested in increasing young people’s life-long chances for establishing healthy romantic and familial relationships through interventions during adolescence and young adulthood. 

Janine Stichter

Class

Dr. Janine Stichter is a Professor in the Department of Special Education and has worked with schools and students with autism and behavioral needs for over 25 years.  Dr. Stichter presents nationally and conducts research in the following areas: Implementation science, social competence and the antecedent strategies. 

Fan Yu

Class

Fan Yu is a doctoral student at the School of Information Science and Learning Technologies at the University of Missouri-Columbia. She is originally from China. She worked as a K12 STEM educational products developer for four years. Fan’s research interests include STEM education and UX design in learning technologies. She investigates how learning technologies encourage students from underrepresented groups to study and work in STEM fields.

Charles Sielert

Class

Charles Sielert is a 3D artist who has a passion for constantly creating and learning. Originally from Sturgeon, Charles came to the University of Missouri to study Architecture, moved on to Arts & Science, then to Information Technology were he would stay and graduate in the Fall of 2020. Working with different professors and companies across Columbia on Virtual Reality projects, Charles hopes to continue constantly improving upon his designs and their functionality to best suit the needs of those he works with.

Hillary Gould

Class

Hillary Gould is pursuing her PhD in Information Science and Learning Technologies at the University of Missouri. Hillary’s research interests include game-based learning, attitudes and perceptions about video games in the classroom, serious games & simulation design, and cultivating stealth learning opportunities using existing digital games. Hillary’s area of focus is digital game-based learning, specifically designing serious games. She is currently working on projects applying game-based learning to an introductory American Government course and designing a digital game to teach middle school students the importance of investigating information (teaching media literacy and digital citizenship). Hillary received her Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering with an Emphasis in Logistics from the University of Arkansas in 2012. She is a former small business owner and engineering consultant. Hillary also obtained her Master of Science in Learning Technologies and Design: Online Education and Graduate Certificate in College Teaching from the University of Missouri in 2021 as well as her Graduate Certificate in Serious Games & Simulation Design in 2022.

Joi Moore

Class

Dr. Moore’s current research agenda is the application of appropriate design principles for computer-based environments that support learning and/or effectively improve a desired performance. She has served as President of the Training and Performance Division and the Minorities in Media Affiliate for the Association of Educational Communications and Technology (AECT).

Colin Smith

Class

Hi! I grew up in St. Louis, Missouri. I am currently a junior at Mizzou studying Information Technology.

Wes Bonifay

Class

Dr. Bonifay’s research interests are in the area of psychological measurement, with particular focus in item response theory and model evaluation. He has published a number of quantitative research articles on psychometric topics such as dimensionality assessment, subscale analysis, and model complexity. He has also collaborated with substantive educational and psychological researchers, applying item response theory and structural equation models to better understand certain issues in school psychology, psychiatric treatment, and cognitive behavioral therapy.

Erin Weaver

Class

Hi! I’m a former science teacher pursuing my Ed.S in Learning Technologies and Design and a graduate certificate in Serious Games and Simulation Design from Mizzou. I love animals, science, and being outdoors. I currently live in San Francisco with my husband, Brandon, and my fluffy cat Scout.

Robert Chun

Class

My name is Robert Chrun. I graduated from Mizzou with a Bachelor’s degree in Information Technology. I’ve been a huge gamer ever since I was a kid, starting out on my grandpa’s NES, my mother’s SNES, and, eventually, getting my own gamecube. I’ve been a gamer ever since–even playing on and being a part of Mizzou’s first ever League of Legends Esports team!

Susan German

Class

Nathan Lacsamana

Class

My name is Nathan Lacsamana, and I’m a current student at the University of California, Irvine studying Computer Science and Computer Game Science, focusing on AI and making games! I love to travel, and have been to over 26 different countries, including living in the Philippines for 4 years! I pick up a lot of skills and hobbies in my spare time dabbling in arts, games, making dice, and even rowing!

Jonathan Breedlove

Class

Logan Priess

Class

Aaron Moss

Class

Character not yet unlocked. Higher level required.

Kyle Cutler

Class