Staff

Illustrated portrait of Alex Stone.

alex stone

CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER

Alex Stone has 12 years of experience developing educational software and is credited on over 50 math, science, literacy, and civics games in programmer, technical lead, and executive producer roles. Alex has a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

Illustrated portrait of Dan White.

dan white

CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER

Dan White believes that good gameplay and good learning are complementary rather than oppositional forces. An alumnus of Cornell University and the University of Wisconsin – Madison, Dan earned an M.S. in Education Technology under seminal learning game scholars Drs. Kurt Squire and James Paul Gee. Prior to founding Filament, Dan worked as a teacher, an instructional designer, and a game developer. Dan’s passions include learning games, sustainability, mindfulness, and modernizing institutional education.

Illustrated portrait of Dan Norton.

dan norton

CHIEF CREATIVE OFFICER

Dan Norton loves approaching each new project at Filament as an opportunity to find authentic passion and engagement around learning new things. Dan blends his love for game design with his love of collaborative creativity to support Filament’s design and artistic teams.

Illustrated portrait of Georgia Adkins.

georgia adkins

QUALITY ASSURANCE ANALYST

Georgia developed a keen interest in education while teaching English overseas before ultimately venturing into the field of educational games. She assists in testing various projects and values the joy and challenge in attempting to break things.

fun fact!

Georgia loves dabbling in Korean cooking to appease her reverse-homesickness.

Illustrated portrait of Josh Bartels.

joshua bartels

AUDIO & VIDEO DIRECTOR

What does photosynthesis sound like? What music should accompany virtual reality robots? These are the kind of questions Josh creatively answers as Sound Designer and Music Composer. From 1920’s ragtime, to futuristic space, he provides all the acoustic color!

fun fact!

Josh also produces the studio's video content with trailers, motion graphics, and marketing videos.

Illustrated portrait of Shawn Baxter.

shawn baxter

VISUAL & INTERACTION DESIGNER

Shawn has never been content pursuing just one creative endeavor and has had experience designing in a number of industries. He is in constant pursuit of a well-thought-out and artistic interface.

fun fact!

Wait, we were allowed to write a fun fact?

Laura Beukema avatar

laura beukema

GAME DESIGNER

Laura has been designing educational and positive impact games and interactives for over a decade. She loves blending learning and play into new experiences. Her favorite thing about it is exploring such a wide variety of topics!

fun fact!

When not gaming, Laura can often be found knitting for a cozier apocalypse.

travis bird

GAME ENGINEER

Travis has been playing video games ever since he was able to hold a controller, and always wanted to eventually create his own. As a recent UW-Madison graduate, Travis loves programming, but definitely has the most fun working on games!

fun fact!

In addition to his love of games, Travis is a third-degree black belt in Taekwondo, and is currently training in Muay Thai.

Illustrated portrait of Leah Blasczyk.

leah blasczyk

GAME ENGINEER

Straight out of UW-Whitewater with degrees in Math, Computer Science, and Game Design, Leah is excited to be working on games that make people smile. She never wants to stop learning and loves putting her skills to the test in game jams.

fun fact!

Leah has had many odd hobbies including duct tape art, a 2nd-degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do, and playing the oboe!

Michael Brissie avatar

michael brissie

3D GENERALIST

Michael studied sculpture and drawing before his transition to the digital space. Now, he wiggles verts and jiggles bones, modeling objects and creatures of all sorts. He’s a tinkerer, through and through.

fun fact!

Spicy food is addictive, because of adrenaline & endorphins! You can also build a tolerance to spice. Michael likes ghost peppers. The spice must flow.

Illustrated portrait of Meghan Connor.

meghan connor

3D GENERALIST

Meghan began her 3D journey because she loved creating fun and wacky environments. More recently she is also known to dabble in character art where she gives faces to the mundane objects. Life has also led her to do things like rotoscoping puppets, decorating cakes and 3D scanning human remains.

fun fact!

Meghan has enough yarn to insulate a small home

Illustrated portrait of Nick Curto.

nick curto

GAME ENGINEER

Nick is passionate about games and the good they can do. He likes group bike rides, reading non-fiction, and rhythm games. Nick is a golf enthusiast but wishes the sport was more action-packed.

fun fact!

Nick will always accept a plastic instrument duel.

Illustrated portrait of Brian Czech.

brian czech

QUALITY ASSURANCE MANAGER

Brian has been doing software QA since 2007. He tested Epic’s CVIS for 5 years before making the switch to Filament in 2013. In his free time he enjoys biking, canoeing, travelling, reading, trying new beers, and relaxing with his wife, son, and dog.

fun fact!

Brian and his wife Beth travelled around Australia for a year in a campervan they named Magnitude. Pop! Pop!

Michael Darling avatar

michael darling

GAME ENGINEER

From software engineer, to full-time musician, to game developer, Michael loves pretty much any hobby that involves making cool things. Except cooking, which has too many steps.

fun fact!

Michael used to play competitive Smash Bros, and is still known to break out his Young Link/Pichu skills from time to time.

Dwight Davis' Avatar

dwight davis

GAME DESIGNER

Dwight is creative, friendly, and passionate about using games to make the world a better place. He loves absurd game genre mashups and is insistent that game jams are the ultimate free-time activity.

fun fact!

Dwight loves music. In 2022 he listened to 365 new albums and spent 129,000 minutes in Spotify.

Miah Dawes Avatar

miah dawes

VISUAL & INTERACTION DESIGNER

In college, Miah learned UX design while pursuing a more technical IT degree. There she found her niche exploring user interactions in games and extended reality. She loves creating immersive experiences that help players have fun while learning.

fun fact!

Miah has a plumeria (Mr. Plume) that, despite her best efforts to care for, refuses to grow flowers.

Illustrated portrait of Ian Feldschneider.

ian feldschneider

GAME ENGINEER

Ian is a game engineer, passionate for the medium of games and how they evolve through time. He enjoys experimenting with procedural generation, and has a fascination with making wild predictions on the future of the gaming industry.

fun fact!

Ian owns an authentic Club Nintendo Hanafuda deck on his desk, and is always willing to challenge someone to play.

kylie gilde

GAME ENGINEER

Kylie joined Filament as her first job out of college, where she majored in game design and development. Making educational games is the perfect intersection of her two passions: programming games that make people happy and learning obscure trivia.

fun fact!

Kylie owns well over 1000 books (she's counted) and once designed and programmed a catalog to keep track of them all.

Illustrated portrait of Kenny Green.

kenny green

PRODUCER

Ever the competitor, Kenny doesn’t back down from a challenge. He enjoys learning from each project and sharing those lessons with new teams. You might even catch him occasionally wearing his varsity esports jersey while leading a standup.

fun fact!

Kenny has webbed toes and can do a backflip!

Illustrated portrait of Joe Horan.

joseph horan

VISUAL & INTERACTION DESIGNER

Joe makes games.

fun fact!

Joe plays games.

Illustrated portrait of Jennifer Javornik.

jennifer javornik

CHIEF PARTNERSHIPS OFFICER

Jennifer works with people from all over the globe who potentially want to work with Filament to make games, simulations, and VR and AR experiences that make an impact. She helps them understand what Filament can do and how we do it.

fun fact!

She was told she was special for being born on Leap Day to distract her from the fact that she only has a birthday every 4 years.

Illustrated portrait of Luke Jayapalan.

luke jayapalan

SENIOR GAME DESIGNER

As a Game Designer, Luke works with clients and with Filament’s talented development team to find fun and effective ways to help players learn. Luke loves working on educational games because the wide range of subjects makes every game unique.

fun fact!

Luke loves to sing and has been doing so for as long as he can remember.

Illustrated portrait of Roma Jensen.

roma jensen

GAME ARTIST

Roma is a graduate of Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design, where she studied illustration and animation. She puts both of those skills to use at Filament, drawing various chickens and jungle plants. In her spare time, she watches cheesy 80’s films and draws clowns who are also cops.

fun fact!

Don’t look now, but I’m right behind you.

Illustrated portrait of Charlie Klein.

charlie klein

VP OF FINANCE & ADMINISTRATION

Charlie produces clean and concise financial reports and budgets in an effort to create clarity in a rapidly changing business environment. He is a CPA and CMA who enjoys the professional challenges of working in the learning games and technology sectors.

fun fact!

Charlie occasionally believes that a well-tailored spreadsheet can communicate better than words.

Illustrated portrait of Brandon Korth.

brandon korth

ART MANAGER

Brandon works across all disciplines to create intuitive interfaces and experiences. From day to day you may find him designing wireframes, creating polished game art, documenting new feature behaviors, or animating bubbly characters.

fun fact!

Brandon was a producer & programmer for 3 years while improving his artistic skills to land his dream job in UX Design.

Alex Larioza avatar

alex larioza

SENIOR GAME ENGINEER

Alex is a generalist who has 10+ years of experience building games culminating in 30+ shipped projects. He’s worked in many areas of development including, porting indie games to consoles, implementing UI, and building tools to empower teammates.

fun fact!

He enjoys eating delicious food, petting cats, and exploring the great outdoors. Did I mention he also loves food?

Illustrated portrait of Steve Lilley.

steve lilley

GAME ENGINEER

Steve is a former mechanical engineer that is now a game programmer and developer. He loves all things gaming: all kinds of video games, board games, and sports. He also enjoys chilling out with activities such as hiking, puzzles, and drawing.

fun fact!

Steve subconsciously makes lots of sound effects when doing mundane activities throughout the day.

Kellie Lu avatar

kellie lu

GAME DESIGNER

Kellie breaks down game genres and reassembles them elegantly. Her player-driven design is informed by backgrounds in psychology and creative writing. She loves world-building, crafting, and games where teammates support each other.

fun fact!

Kellie practices Aikido to put her mind in tune with her body. It’s nice exercise for both!

lisa maeda avatar

lisa maeda

GAME ARTIST

Lisa is a Japanese-American 2D illustrator with a passion for creating wholesome, educational media for kids. In her spare time, she collects washi tape, penpals, and enjoys visual novels.

fun fact!

Lisa spends her weekends looking for the best matcha latte in New York City.

Garret Moran avatar

garret moran

GAME ENGINEER

Since graduating from Champlain College, Garret has made a physical card game, mentored middle-school kids in the ways of game development, and released the first level of his 3D platformer with horror elements all before arriving at Filament!

fun fact!

Garret has been known to recreate giant robots from video games out of lego bricks.

Illustrated portrait of Sydney Myers.

sydney myers

VISUAL & INTERACTION DESIGNER

Sydney studied Media and Game Development at UW Whitewater in hopes of going into an educational field to create things that could help better the world or people. She’s an avid Star Wars enthusiast who enjoys hiking, board games, and Pokemon.

fun fact!

Sydney has a collection of over 50 Pokemon plushies

Agnes Nantista avatar

agnes nantista

GAME ARTIST

Agnes is an Animation/Illustration graduate from San José State University. She is always looking to learn new things and improve her work. You can often find her zoomed in on artwork with extreme concentration.

fun fact!

Her small stature is a curse that prevents her from eating large portions of her favorite foods.

Illustrated portrait of Brandon Pittser.

brandon pittser

VP OF MARKETING & FUNDING DEVELOPMENT

With a 10 year tenure in the Ed Tech industry, Brandon leads the content marketing practice and helps to guide the overall business strategy at Filament Games. His role also includes oversight of Filament’s funding development practice, tracking and pursuing funding opportunities for both internal and collaborative projects.

fun fact!

Brandon has a small collection of non-functioning vintage cameras.

Illustrated portrait of Srivathsan Prakash.

srivathsan prakash

GAME ENGINEER

After moving from design to engineering in college, Srivathsan finally gets to do what he loves at Filament: pull his hair out fixing bugs. Besides game dev, he likes to write rap, get outdoors, travel, and spend time with his favorite people.

fun fact!

As a kid, Srivathsan wanted to become a scientist so he could make a radioactive spider, get bitten, and become Spiderman.

Ana Qiu avatar

ana qiu

GAME DESIGNER

After years of working as a “player” in global financial markets, Ana decided to become an educational game designer to promote people’s lifelong learning. She went to NYU Games for Learning program and now joined Filament to make fun learning games.

fun fact!

Ana is a real-life Tetris master. She’s good at stuffing refrigerators, suitcases, closets, shelves, car trunks, and board game boxes.

Ray Raasch avatar

ray raasch

WEB DEVELOPMENT TEAM LEAD

Ray is a passionate learner who transitioned to a team lead role after years of working as a developer in the field of educational technology. As a servant-leader, she strives to inspire and empower each individual to their highest potential.

fun fact!

Ray's first job was being the Chuck E. Cheese mascot. She's also built and lived in a tiny house.

Illustrated portrait of Jon Rakocy.

jon rakocy

IT MANAGER

Jon is in Information Technology and loves working with people and computers. His strengths cover a variety of areas. His current focuses are on Linux servers and VMware.

fun fact!

Likes hot peppers and long walks on the beach.

Illustrated portrait of Luis Remes Garcia.

luis garcia remes

GAME ENGINEER

Luis is an avid gamer and game engineer. He enjoys working on gameplay and AI. He also enjoy playing and designing board games/card games.

fun fact!

Luis has two wiener dogs, named Loki and Bacca (named so because his dad was named Chew).

Illustrated portrait of Erica Scheelk.

erica scheelk

GAME ENGINEER

When not doing game dev, you’ll find Erica tending to her cats, watching plants grow, or cooking a large cauldron of soup.

fun fact!

Mint and Catnip are in the same family. You can tell by their square shaped stems.

Illustrated portrait of Colin Skinner.

colin skinner

GAME DESIGNER

Colin appreciates the unique power of games as tools for learning about systems. He enjoys studying real-life systems and devising game mechanics that illustrate their behavior. He also likes playing ultimate frisbee, kiteboarding, and cooking tasty Chinese food.

fun fact!

Colin is on an eternal quest to create the fluffiest steamed buns.

Illustrated portrait of Megan Tran.

megan tran

SENIOR VISUAL & INTERACTION DESIGNER

Megan enjoys understanding people’s needs and helping those around her, whether it’s by creating fun and intuitive player experiences, or by collaborating with teammates on design, art, and the weird little technical bits in between.

fun fact!

Megan once got 5 seal plushies in a row out of a crane machine.

Illustrated portrait of Pattie Umali.

pattie umali

PRODUCER

Pattie previously worked in study abroad and higher education. She nerds out on food and culture, fantasy and lore, cats, and world travel. She wants digital storytelling to be a primary tool for intercultural learning and cultural expression.

fun fact!

Pattie’s fantasy goals include starting a cheese farm and creamery.

Vanessa Vostmyer avatar

vanessa vostmyer

STUDIO OPERATIONS DIRECTOR

Vanessa enjoys working with diverse teams to produce impactful learning. Her can-do attitude and years of experience help facilitate success. She enjoys partnering with clients and providing win/win solutions. Crafting, gaming, and anime are her jam.

fun fact!

Vanessa loves nature and animals. She has a koi pond in her backyard!

Shannon Weaver avatar

shannon weaver

GAME ARTIST

Shannon is a Digital Art graduate from Pennsylvania where she studied 2D animation, concept art, and character design. She loves working as part of a team to create and share works that bring people together.

fun fact!

Shannon’s creative space of choice is a 30 minute car drive into town to get coffee, blasting music while brainstorming her next art project.

Illustrated portrait of Alex Yaeger.

alex yaeger

VISUAL & INTERACTION DESIGNER

Coming from a background in graphic design, Alex developed UX skills at interactive-advertising agencies before coming to Filament. Now a team member for a number of years, Alex wields a demanding pickiness for aesthetics and a keen eye for detail.

fun fact!

The eternally youthful Alex has been described as an elvish prince from the land of tasteful furniture and decor.

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