List of All Judges | Middle School Category Judges | High School Category Judges | College/University Category Judges | Other Category Judges
Pat Christen
President and CEO, HopeLab
Redwood City, California
Pat Christen is responsible for all aspects of HopeLab's operations. With over 20 years experience in the management of non-profit organizations, she provides leadership in the areas of finance, administration, program development, strategic planning, fund development, and board governance. Pat is committed to finding innovative solutions to complex problems and as President of HopeLab directs a multi-disciplinary team of experts focused on developing cutting-edge interventions that will improve the lives of young people with chronic illness. She previously held the position of President and Executive Director of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation (SFAF) for 15 years. She also served as President of the Pangaea Global AIDS Foundation, which has established AIDS clinics and played an active role in national AIDS planning efforts in Rwanda, South Africa, and China. Pat is a graduate of Stanford University where she studied biology and political science.
Dennis Crowley
Entrepreneur and Game Developer
New York, New York
Dennis Crowley is the founder of dodgeball.com, a friend-finder service for mobile phones which helps people connect with the people and places around them. Dodgeball was acquired by Google in 2005. Dennis is currently working with area/code, a New York based startup that focuses on building "big games". Previously he was involved with the creation of Big Games such as PacManhattan and ConQwest™. He was named one of the "Top 35 Innovators Under 35" by MIT's Technology Review magazine (2005) and his work has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Wired, Time Magazine, Newsweek, MTV, Slashdot and NBC. He is currently an adjunct professor at NYU's Interactive Telecommunications Program. Dennis holds a Master's degree from New York University's Interactive Telecommunications Program and a Bachelor's degree from the Newhouse School at Syracuse University.
Fred Dillon
Director of Product Development, HopeLab
Redwood City, California
Fred Dillon provides planning and project management leadership in the development of HopeLab’s innovative products to improve the health and quality of life of young people with chronic illness. He leads interdisciplinary teams of HopeLab staff, vendors and external collaborators to vet, develop and refine potential innovative products consistent with HopeLab’s strategic plan and program emphases. Fred works closely with HopeLab’s Research unit to ensure that HopeLab product development is linked with high-quality research and that HopeLab customers are involved every step of the way. Fred has over 12 years of public policy, communications and project management experience. Most recently he served as Deputy Executive Director for Policy and Communications at the San Francisco AIDS Foundation (SFAF), where he oversaw all aspects of the agency’s government affairs and communications efforts. Fred is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, where he studied Social Welfare and Public Policy.
Ford Hickson
HIV/AIDS Researcher, Sigma Research
Portsmouth, England
Ford Hickson is a research fellow with Sigma Research (University of Portsmouth, UK). After working at the Terrence Higgins Trust and Frontliners in the late 1980s, Ford joined Sigma in 1990 and has spent the last 17 years mainly researching the HIV prevention needs of gay and bisexual men. He is co-author of England’s HIV prevention strategy for gay and bisexual men and leads the design of the UK’s National Gay Men’s Sex Survey, the world’s largest annual survey of gay and bisexual men. He is also a keen opera fan and student, enjoys jogging and mountain walking, and is a whiz in the kitchen. Ford lives with his husband and four cats in Brixton, South London, in a self-build house which is one of the UK’s few zero-carbon houses, generating all its energy needs from the sun.
Scott Kerslake
CEO, Carrot Centers for Brain and Body Vitality
Berkeley, California
Scott Kerslake is the Founder and CEO of Carrot Centers for Brain and Body Vitality, a progressive wellness organization focused on helping people over 50 age optimally. Prior to Carrot, Scott was the President of Miraval Life in Balance™ the number one ranked destination wellness spa and resort in the world (Conde Nast, Spa Finder and Travel & Leisure). Prior to Miraval, Scott was Founder, Chairman and CEO of Athleta Corporation, widely recognized as one of the premier brands in the women’s sports and active markets. Scott was the creator of the Athleta brand, its strategic plan, and internal cultural development. The New York Times, CNN and Chicago Tribune referred to Athleta as one of the most progressive and employee friendly organizations in the U.S. Prior to Athleta, Scott worked in San Francisco, CA and Cambridge, Mass., as a management consultant for Sapient Corporation.
Chinwe Onyekere, MPH
Program Officer, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
Princeton, New Jersey
Chinwe Onyekere is a program officer on the Childhood Obesity Team and Pioneer Portfolio of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF). Before joining RWJF in June 2002, she was a researcher for a joint Harvard Medical School and Weill Medical College of Cornell University project, "Cultural Competence in Health Care." For this project, she investigated the emerging frameworks of and practical approaches to cultural competence. Chinwe also has research and program experience in health care disparities, pediatric chronic care issues, social determinates of health, and international health. She has worked on projects with the Office of Research on Women's Health at the National Institutes of Health, Management Sciences for Health, and Children's Hospital in Boston. Chinwe received a master's degree in public health from Columbia University, Division of Sociomedical Sciences, and a B.A. in political science from Wellesley College in Massachusetts.
Katie Salen
Executive Director, Institute of Play
New York, New York
Katie Salen is the Executive Director of the Institute of Play and Associate Professor in the Design and Technology program, Parsons the New School for Design. Co-author of Rules of Play, a textbook on game design, as well as The Game Design Reader (MIT Press, 2004 and 2006), she recently completed an edited volume for the MacArthur series on Digital Media and Learning called The Ecology of Games and is serving as co-editor of The International Journal of Learning and Media (MIT Press). Katie just completed a stint as lead designer on Gamestar Mechanic, a game developed by Gamelab to teach young people the play and practice of game design fundamentals. She lectures and writes extensively on game design, design education, and game culture, including authoring some of the first dispatches from the previously hidden world of machinima.
Jennifer Tenney, MD
Pediatrician, Kaiser Permanente
San Francisco Bay Area
Jennifer Tenney is a practicing pediatrician with The Kaiser Permanente Medical Group. She attended medical school at UCLA and did her pediatric residency at University of California, San Francisco. Jennifer has a busy practice with about 1500 patients, from babies to 18 years old. She also spends time caring for newborn babies in the Intensive Care Nursery and for hospitalized children. Jennifer cares for many children who are overweight and sees the physical and emotional discomforts they go through. She says that kids are too young to understand the long-term dangers of obesity, but have to deal with the day-to-day fall out, and it depresses them. Even with intensive counseling about healthy nutrition and physical activities, it is very difficult for families to make progress, and she’s hoping that Ruckus Nation can generate some ideas that begin to make a difference.
Brendesha Tynes, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Educational Psychology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Brendesha Tynes is an Assistant Professor of Educational Psychology and of African-American studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her research focuses on the role of the Internet in child and adolescent development with special attention to Internet safety, online victimization, the psychosocial and educational benefits of online interaction and the construction of race and gender. She received a B.A. in History from Columbia University in 1997, an M.A. in Learning Sciences from Northwestern University in 2001 and a Ph.D. in Psychological Studies in Education from UCLA in 2005. Tynes is co-editor of the Handbook of African American Psychology (forthcoming, Sage Publications) and has published numerous articles in the Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, Developmental Psychology and the Journal of Adolescent Research. Her work has been cited in the New York Times online, Science Daily, MedIndia, the Daily Illini and other news outlets.
Max Vieira
Student, Hamden, Connecticut
Max Vieira is a seventh grader in Hamden, Connecticut. She loves to play soccer, basketball and many other sports. Max likes all kinds of music and plays the piano and flute. She loves school, too. Her favorite subjects are Spanish and Math. Her favorite things to do are reading, singing, taking photographs, making pottery, and working with clay. Max loves hosting get- togethers, traveling, and hanging out with friends. She also enjoys writing stories and poems. She wants to become a lawyer when she grows up. She also loves animals and has one crazy dog named Arthur and a cat named Kitty.
List of All Judges | Middle School Category Judges | High School Category Judges | College/University Category Judges | Other Category Judges
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