Board of Directors

Details

Published on Wednesday, 18 April 2012 13:18

Written by Super User

Mark C. Barlet

President, CEO

Mr. Barlet is the co-founder of the AbleGamers Foundation. Disabled while serving in the United States Air Force he refused to let disabilities take away the joy of gaming. Mark has been a speaker on the topic of game accessibility at 2008 and 2009 Game Developers Conference, compiled and ran Game Accessibility Day @ Games for Health in 2008, 2009, and 2010, and ran a panel at PAX 2010, 2011, and 2012. Mark brings 18 years of software development behind his passion for game accessibility. During the day he is the Director of Quality and Testing for a small governnment contractor in Reston VA.

Dr. Nathan "Ben" Herz

Vice President

 Dr. Nathan "Ben" Herz, received his Occupational therapy Doctorate from Creighton University in 2004. He has 28 years in the field of occupational Therapy. He is currently an Assistant Professor of Occupational Therapy at the Medical College of Georgia and is involved with the MCG Movement Disorders Center for Excellence, since 2004. He has been a part of the Interdisciplinary Movement Disorders Clinic since 2004. He has partnered with Dr. John Morgan the MCG Centers Director and he began doing researching the Wii after its release in 2006, He has presented the Wii at the National Parkinson's Foundation (NPF) Young Onset conference in Atlanta in August 2008. He is currently funded by the NPF for research using the Wii as a modality for the treatment of PD. he has spoken Nationally and Internationally on games in health primarily using the Wii across the lifespan.

Stephanie Walker

Secretary and Treasurer

Steve Spohn

 Steve Spohn is the Editor-in-Chief of AbleGamers and Outreach Chair for the AbleGamers Foundation. He has been interviewed as an expert in gaming with disabilities and assistive technologies by MSNBC, CNN, PC World, G4, and multiple international journals. Steve has travel a crossed the country as a speaker at various events including PAX East, Games for Health, Assistive Technology Centers, Universities, and many developer studios. In his off time, he is a web designer, gamer, writer, and on to his newest endeavor, learning Japanese. He holds degrees in Visual Communication, Information Technology, Web Design and Writing, with an MFA in Fiction Writing as his next goal. Steve is an active social media user and you can always find him on Twitter, Facebook and on our AbleGamers forums.

Cheryl Mitchell

Cheryl Mitchell is a seasoned professional with over 15 years of Federal disability program management and policy support services. She has supported several Federal agencies and workgroups including the Interagency Committee on Disability Research, Department of Labor's Office of Disability Employment Policy, the Administration on Aging, the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research, and the Social Security Administration. Ms. Mitchell has extensive experience in designing and implementing programs and working effectively with consumers, community and business leaders, and  government officials to improve the lives of people with disabilities.

Larry Goldberg

Larry Goldberg is the founder and director of the Carl and Ruth Shapiro Family National Center for Accessible Media (NCAM) at Boston's public broadcaster WGBH. For more than a decade he directed WGBH's Media Access Group and its Caption Center and Descriptive Video Service and now focuses on research and development, public policy initiatives and strategic partnerships for global impact. He is a leader in the international effort to assure that the design and implementation of new technologies meet the needs of people with disabilities and other populations who lack access. He led development of the specifications for digital television closed captioning in the U.S. and was awarded a patent in 1996 for "Rear Window™," the first closed-captioning system for movie theaters and theme parks. He has developed dozens of innovative R&D projects for full inclusion in such fields as online education and digital publishing, mobile devices and mobile media, in-flight entertainment, home media networks, Web-based media, theatrical motion pictures, museums and theme parks, and many others. Larry regularly briefs Congressional and regulatory agencies on barriers and opportunities in new and emerging media. 

Nissa Ludwig