Bowen White, MD founded the Department of Preventive and Stress Medicine for the Baptist Medical Center in Kansas City, Missouri, one of the first such departments in the United States. He served as Medical Director of that department and the Department of Wellness and Health Promotion before leaving to pursue a private practice and career as a consultant and speaker. He continues to travel throughout the world conducting seminars, consulting to businesses, and speaking to public and private organizations.
Brendan Boyle is a Principal at IDEO worldwide design and innovation firm. He has been a pioneer in designing and overseeing kid-centric services, experiences and products. He leads Zero20, which has licensed more than 125 toy, game and juvenile product concepts. He is also a Consulting Professor in the Mechanical Engineering Department of Stanford University, actively teaching product design, engineering creativity, and human factors. Brendan holds a Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering-Product Design from Stanford, and a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Michigan State.
Jane Goodall, PhD is the world’s best known woman scientist, multiply honored for her pioneering work in primatology, and recently selected as humanitarian of the year by the United Nations. Her major interests in worldwide ecology, the education of children and Chimpanzee habitat preservation are implemented through the Jane Goodall Institute.
Joan Abrahamson JD, PhD is president and executive director of the Jonas Salk Foundation. She is also founder and president of the Jefferson Institute, a nonprofit institution that identifies solutions to public policy problems. A former assistant chief of staff to Vice President George H. W. Bush, Abrahamson is on the boards of numerous organizations and has received a number of fellowships and awards, including the MacArthur Prize. She has earned an Ed.D from Harvard, a J.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, along with degrees from Yale and Stanford. She is an exhibited painter and a songwriter.
Stuart Brown, MD is the founder of the National Institute for Play, where he speaks, consults and educates organizations, corporations, universities, and public policy makers about the importance of play in our lives and the unexpected, serious consequences that occur when play is neglected. His background in psychiatry, the evolution of human and animal play, as well as his clinical research into the causes and prevention of violence, have shown him that authentic play is a state of being which can be accessed and used by everyone, and that play is as important to humans as vitamins or sleep.
Tom is currently the Senior Vice President of Innovation and Business Development at PlayCore where he’s been since 1993.
He is a founding board member and current president of the International Play Equipment Manufacturer’s Association (IPEMA) and long-term active member of American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM). For the past 35+ years, Tom has been involved in all aspects of the play industry. Under Tom’s leadership, IPEMA formed their “Value of Play” outreach.
Tom is on faculty at Auburn University, School of Industrial and Graphic Design - he is the institution’s first Professor of Practice. He’s received 2 Distinguished Service Awards for his leadership with 15 design studios over the past 15 years. His work led to PlayCore receiving the Auburn University, College of Architecture Legacy Award.
Tom is a wonderfully playful person who’s life is imbued with Play; from riding his collection of motorcycles to smoking the fish that he catches to brewing craft beer and most well known for his “Boneyard”, a nature inspired 5 acre playground where he lives.
Tony has led teams in developing and deploying online communities, collaboration, and knowledge management initiatives for Fujitsu, Apple Computer, Cisco, NASA, the FAA and Stanford University.
Early in the personal computer era, he was the founding Product Manager for AppleLink, Apple Computer’s visionary extranet service that connected its employees with its dealers, developers and corporate accounts. AppleLink was renowned for the 400% annual ROI.
Tony earned his BA from Columbia University and MBA from Stanford University. Tony loves to playfully cook and eat great food. Tony recognized that photography was playful in high school as sports and yearbook photographer and has been and avid photographer ever since!