Traci Lawson
traci (dot) lawson @ gmail (dot) com
Children's Game Designer, Producer & Researcher
March 2009 – present
Self-Employed; New York, New York
- Producing self-designed iPhone games for 4 to 8 year old children.
- Completed a game design document for a client’s multi-level preschool platform game.
- Led a pilot research study that examined collaborative problem solving skills of high school students enrolled in World Wide Workshop's game design program, Globaloria.
- Assisted with parent focus group research for LEGO Universe, a new MMORPG for children aged 8 to 12.
- Assisted Dr. Herb Ginsburg with research on the mathematical abilities of 3, 4, and 5 year old children.
- Assisted Marc Prensky with research for his new book, Teaching Digital Natives.
Manager of Education and Research for Digital Media
June 2007 – March 2009
Sesame Workshop; New York, New York
- Designed games for Sesame Street and other SW properties. Aligned games with curriculum standards.
- Tested game prototypes with children to ensure games’ success before release to the public.
- Member of mobile learning development team that designed 2 iPhone apps: one addressing remedial literacy skills, and one about geography & global citizenship.
Technical Operations Supervisor
August 2003 – June 2007
Sesame Workshop; New York, New York
- Managed and prioritized the editing, duplicating and digitizing workload for a staff of 3.
- Found the most cost-effective ways to complete production projects for departments all over the company.
- Supervised post-production projects for departments unfamiliar with production.
- Was responsible for in-house library of 15,000 tapes and storage library of 300,000 master recordings.
Production Assistant
June 2001 – August 2003
Sesame Workshop; New York, New York
- Identified appropriate Sesame Street library segments for use in series, home videos, and specials.
- Researched topics for titles in development; scheduled payments; coordinated production and post-production (everything from arranging crew and catering to editing and closed captioning); maintained databases, checked rights and clearances for all material; coordinated awards submissions.
EDUCATION:
Master of Arts in Cognitive Studies in Education, May 2007
Teachers College, Columbia University; New York, New York
- Completed curriculum design research project with 6th graders that had students making stop motion animation movies to illustrate mathematical operations with fractions.
- Assisted Dr. Herb Ginsburg with formative research for a Palm application that facilitates assessment of preschool children’s mathematical knowledge.
Bachelor of Arts in Telecommunication, May 2001
Purdue University; West Lafayette, Indiana
- Double majored in Elementary Education
- Member of the Purdue “All-American” Marching Band
- Worked at Walt Disney World for one semester in the WDW College Program. I was a Deep Water Lifeguard at Typhoon Lagoon and River Country
OTHER EXPERIENCE:
Girl Scout Troop Leader in East Harlem - I plan and lead weekly meetings for a troop of 12 Cadette Girl Scouts, ages 11 to 14.
2009 Global Game Jam - Designed and built a video game in 48 hours that fit the global competition theme. My team’s game, Gandhi Gandhi Boom Boom, was awarded first prize at the Columbia University site.