Kim Vandenbroucke is a game inventor, developer, innovator and author of TheGameAisle.com. She started The Game Aisle after realizing that games are like books and people often judge them by their cover art and also tend to stick to the brands that they know. Wanting people to branch out and try new games, she started the site and only writes about games she likes. Her site focuses on games that appeal to the mass market but aren’t found in mass retailers. In addition to encouraging people to try new games, Kim has made it part of the The Game Aisle’s mission to highlight the brilliant game invention community that dedicates their time and brainpower to create games we love to play.

Sherry is a speech-language pathologist with over 15,000 hours working with children and families through school based therapy and her current private practice, Play On Words LLC. Her passion in finding the best new kids’ products to promote language learning, led to founding the PAL Award (Play Advances Language) which distinguishes toys, games and books that have the DNA to build language skills while creating great play. Sherry’s desire is to teach parents, educators, retailers and manufacturers how to identify and use the language learning edge in fantastic toys, so kids benefit. Language is at the root of all learning whether it be reading and writing, explaining math word problems or documenting science experiments. Developing early language competence correlates with later academic success.

Charlotte Fixler is head of Education and New Media at ThinkFun, the game company behind Rush Hour and Zingo! When she describes her job, the first question is without fail, “You mean you’re like Tom Hanks in Big?”…and some days that’s not so far off! A former elementary school teacher, Charlotte understands the need to equip kids with critical thinking and problem solving skills to tackle 21st century challenges. At ThinkFun, she works with educators, specialists, and parents to develop programs that build these lifelong thinking skills using games. Charlotte created the SmartPlay blog to connect with others who believe in the learning power of play, giving them a place to share ideas, see games in new ways, and inspiring them to find new ways to support the young learners in their lives through engaging play experiences.