TPT Team

TPT has assembled a stellar project team with a long history of crafting award-winning media, educational resource creation, outreach implementation and research, including:

Momo Hayakawa, PhD

PI and Project Director

Manages the project timeline and budget, leads research and oversees the educational and creative approach. She also directs research for TPT’s Hero Elementary, and has served as a program manager and researcher for multiple U.S. Department of Education early childhood and family education initiatives.

Dennis Ramirez, PhD

Co-PI and Lead Digital Producer

Crafts the project’s digital strategy and resource production. An award-winning game designer and researcher, Dennis also leads digital production on TPT’s Hero Elementary, and has served as Technical Director of USC’s Interactive Media and Game Design program, and has developed games sponsored by the US DOE, NIH, NSF and the DOD.

Carol-Lynn Parente

Executive Producer

Manages Skillsville television production and leads project-wide creative work. She also serves as Executive Producer of TPT’s Hero Elementary, and was Sesame Street’s Executive Producer for 12 years and SVP of Creative for six years, where she developed and produced the series’ multiplatform content.

Kristin Pederson, MA

Co-PI and Vice President of Education

Integrates Skillsville into TPT’s suite of educational programming and manage fundraising efforts for aligned programming. Kristin currently serves as TPT’s Senior Director of Media Education, where she leads multiple projects focused on equitable STEM, history and arts instruction and community engagement.

Bryce Becker, PhD

Educational Research Specialist

Oversees the formative and summative research behind Skillsville. This research informs our program throughout its development to assure that we are thinking about representation, engagement, and learning in meaningful ways and with equitable and effective outcomes. She has served on education research teams for over a decade at Harvard, MIT, NYU, Open Door Arts Massachusetts, UC Berkeley, and Lawrence Hall of Science on projects funded by NIH, IES, MacArthur, NSF, Spencer, and more.

Diondra K. Brown, LCSW

Content and Curriculum Manager

Creates the project's curriculum and educational content. This is her first Ready to Learn project, as she previously worked with international children's media companies as a consultant, in addition to her work as a child & family psychotherapist and therapeutic preschool coordinator.

Lisa Richards

Coordinating Producer

Manages Skillsville's production timeline and project-wide budget. Currently Skillsville’s Coordinating Producer, Lisa has 23 years of experience in television and multimedia production, including award-winning work on Oprah’s Master Class and The Oprah Winfrey Show.

Mai Lor

Community Engagement Manager

Oversees Skillsville's national outreach programs, partner recruitment. She also provides support to TPT's Hero Elementary outreach program. Mai has experience working with children birth to 5th grade.

Charlie Mackin

Educational Game Designer

An award-winning game designer, Charlie designs the digital and analog games, as well as other digital components for the program. Charlie also designed for the Hero Elementary games and websites, and has been published as a game designer and games researcher outside of TPT.

Mary Elizabeth Pfund

Associate Producer

Provides creative and editorial support across Skillsville television production and assists project-wide creative work. She also serves as the Associate Producer of TPT’s Hero Elementary.

Jessica Schmitz

Project Specialist

Works with the Skillsville team in organizational planning, project management, and reporting across all aspects of the project lifecycle. She is also the project coordinator on TPT’s Hero Elementary.

Alneida Madrigal

Educational Media Specialist

Supports the project's curriculum and education content, working with our teams to develop educational resources and supplemental content. Alneida previously helped create distance learning versions of Hero Elementary activities.

Sarah Rodriguez, MA

Professional Development and Community Engagement Specialist

Leads professional development with partner organizations through Skillsville's outreach program. She will also be developing Skillsville’s train-the-trainer PD model.

Sarah Franz

Community Engagement Specialist

Connects and communicates with community partners, recruits program partners, and assists in running the family and children programs. Sarah has experience working with children and families from different communities and developing educational activities.

Remy Ripple

Digital Media Specialist

Supports the Skillsville team in the creation and management of new assets and media across the program. This is Remy's first Ready to Learn project, with previous experience in quality assurance in the AAA games industry and in software, and print media production. Remy is a practicing 2D and 3D artist.

Consultants And Advisors

The Skillsville consultancy team and advisory board include diverse group of experts who contribute their experience, strategy and research around critical topics including executive function, child development, television and media production, educational gaming, cultural responsiveness and equity, programming in informal learning spaces, educational technology assessment and analytics, and intergenerational/family learning.

Jennifer Curry, PhD

Professor, Louisiana State University

Dr. Curry’s research focuses on career and college readiness across the developmental spectrum. She is the author of the textbook P-12 Career Counseling in Schools, and her expertise lies in using innovative teaching strategies to promote career readiness skills, particularly among young learners.

Alexis Lauricella, PhD

Associate Professor and Director of the Technology in Early Childhood Center, Erikson Institute

Dr. Lauricella’s research focuses on children’s learning from media technology and parents’ and teachers’ attitudes toward and use of media technology with young children.

Scot Osterweil, PhD

Creative Director of the Education Arcade, MIT

Dr. Osterweil has designed award-winning games in both academic and commercial environments, focusing on what is authentically playful in challenging academic subjects.

Yuko Munakata, PhD

Professor, Faculty of the Center for Mind and Brain and Director of the Cognition in Context Lab at the University of California, Davis

Dr. Munakata studies executive function and variations in thinking observed across development and contexts.

Alice Wong

Founder and Director of the Disability Visibility Project

The Disability Visibility Project, is a community partnership with StoryCorps and an online community dedicated to creating, sharing and amplifying disability media and culture created in 2014.

Priya Desai

Principal, Illumin Media, LLC

Priya Giri Desai is a producer with nearly two decades of experience making culturally relevant and current content for kids. She is an independent producer/consultant working for clients including PBS Kids, 9 Story Media Group, Moonbug Entertainment, and major streaming platforms.

Aya Gallego, MAT

Director of Story and Representation, Perception Institute

Aya develops new program content to support learning and development and facilitates mind science workshops on implicit bias, identity anxiety, and stereotype threat. Aya has led Perception's work in the media and culture context, developing original online content, assessing the efficacy of media campaigns through a mind-science lens, and providing content advice for innovative AI work in the field.

Ed Greene, PhD

President, EMGreene Educational Connections Associates, LLC

Dr. Greene has spent the past two decades making significant strides in the areas of diversity and representation in children's media and outreach programs, including his work at Sesame Workshop. He is currently an independent consultant and serves as a Trustee for the Coalition for Quality Children's Media and DEI Advisory Committee Member for the Children's Media Association.

Amina Jaafar, PhD

Chief Inclusion Officer, Twin Cities PBS

Dr. Jaafar's research and teaching focuses on creating systemic change by equipping students, educators, practitioners, and leaders with knowledge and skills on culturally and emotionally responsive practices. She also examines how representations of BIPOC communities found in the fields of education and psychology impact policy and practice, with an eye towards disrupting the reproduction of stereotypical information about historically marginalized communities.

Alice Wong, MS

Director, Disability Visibility Project

Alice Wong is a disabled activist, writer, media maker, and consultant based in San Francisco. She is the editor of Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from The Twenty-First Century, an anthology of essays by disabled people.

Kristen DiCerbo, PhD

Chief Learning Officer, Khan Academy

Nancy Coddington

Director of Science Content, Services, & Programming, WSKG Public Media

Armando Orduña, EdD

Director of Outreach Programs, Children’s Museum Houston

Matthew Berland, PhD

Associate Professor, Curriculum and Instruction, University of Wisconsin

Karen Mapp, EdD

Senior Lecturer on Education, Harvard Graduate School of Education

Ofelia Garcia, PhD

Professor Emerita, The Graduate Center, City University of New York

Blake Ward

Director Of Education at People Serving People, Minnesota

Project Partners

Rockman et al (REA)

Rockman et al is an independent evaluation, research, and consulting firm that specializes in the assessment of learning, usability, and engagement outcomes of educational media and technology for youth and adult audiences. REA’s Skillsville evaluation and research is led by Jennifer Borland, MA, who has over 20 years of leadership experience around broadcast and digital media playtesting/usability testing, evaluating the impacts of informal programs, products, and exhibits, mixed-methods formal education program evaluation, technology-enhanced evaluative methods and sketchnoting, and participatory evaluation.

Sphere Animation

Sphere Animation, an internationally recognized studio specializing in 2D animated television production, works collaboratively with TPT to develop the Skillsville series’ overall concept, structure, and production plan, and will produce all animated segments. Founded in 2003, this Montreal-based studio has produced prestigious public media series such as Arthur Seasons 13 &14, 20 & 21, 22-25 (WGBH/PBS), Curious George Seasons 12-13 and 14-15" (NBC/Universal), Martha Speaks Seasons 5 & 6 (WGBH/PBS) and Caillou (Cookie Jar/PBS), as well as content for Canadian public media, Netflix and more.

Hot Spaghetti Productions

Hot Spaghetti Productions is a creative development and production company specializing in educational children’s media. With over 30 years of experience, this Emmy Award-winning team specializes in rich, comedic storytelling that engages kids using the latest trends in education and technology. Hot Spaghetti has created, written and produced projects for PBS, Sesame Street, HBO, Nick Jr., Noggin, BBC, Sprout and YouTube, and has contributed the Skillsville IP to the proposed project.

Filament Games

Filament Games is an award-winning educational video game studio that provides design and development for clients all over the world. The group’s prime directive is to create inspiring educational experiences that spark imagination and foster deep learning through exploration and discovery. Over the past 15 years, the firm has developed over 160 game projects for clients such as Twin Cities Public Television, National Geographic, McGraw-Hill, Amazon, and Scholastic.

Two Moos

Two Moos collaborates with the most respected family brands and non-profit foundations in the world, including TPT, PBS KIDS, WGBH, Sesame Workshop, New York Hall of Science, The Allanah and Madeline Foundation and Scouts Australia. Two Moos has had many years of experience working on digital products for RTL funded projects with PBS KIDS and its affiliates. Projects include TPT's Hero Elementary, Thirteen's Cyberchase, WGBH's Arthur and PBS KIDS' Elinor Wonders Why, Ready Jet Go!, Super Why! and Cat in the Hat Knows A Lot About That.