KEYNOTE SPEAKERS
Jane McGonigal
Futurist, game designer, and bestselling author
Jane McGonigal is a futurist, game designer, and bestselling author. As the Director of Game Research and
Development at the Institute for the Future, her research focuses on how games are transforming the way we lead our real lives and how they can be used to anticipate hard-to-predict futures, ready ourselves for any future scenario, and increase our resilience and well-being.
The games she designs, from world-renown apps like SuperBetter to custom mini-games used in her interactive presentations, challenge players to tackle real-world problems such as their own symptoms of anxiety, depression, and chronic pain as well as larger societal issues including poverty, hunger, and climate change. Her games have been used by organizations including the World Bank, the New York Public Library, the International Olympics Committee, and the American Heart Association.
Combining decades of psychological and neurological research with extensive gaming expertise, Jane’s books bring to light the power that games have on us and the world at large. Her newest book, Imaginable: How to See the Future Coming and Feel Ready for Anything – Even Things That Seem Impossible Today, teaches us how to train our brains to think the unthinkable and imagine the unimaginable using the same tools she used to predict the COVID- 19 pandemic. SuperBetter: A Revolutionary Approach to Getting
Stronger, Happier, Braver and More Resilient, which debuted at #7 on the New York Times Advice bestsellers list, explains how we can cultivate resilience in everyday life by bringing the same psychological strengths we naturally display when gaming to our real-world goals. In her bestselling first book, Reality Is
Broken: How Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change The World, Jane reveals how we can use the lessons of game design to fix what is wrong with the real world and ultimately make humans happier.
Jane is a two-time winner of the Association of Professional Futurists’ Most Important Futures Work of the Year award and was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum. She was named one of 50 people making the biggest impact in games by Game Developer Magazine and one of 20 most inspiring women in the world by O Magazine. She received her PhD in performance studies from University of California at Berkeley.
Pete Davis
Writer and civic advocate
Pete Davis is a writer and civic advocate who drives projects aimed at deepening American democracy and
solidarity. He is the co-founder of the Democracy Policy Network, a state policy organization focused on raising up ideas that deepen democracy.
His book Dedicated: The Case for Commitment in an Age of Infinite Browsing grew out of his 2018 Harvard Law School Commencement speech, which has garnered over 30 million online views. The book encourages the “slow but necessary work of turning visions into projects, values into practices, and strangers into neighbors.” The New York Times raves about Dedicated: “He has planted a seed with this book. Now watch it grow.”
In 2023, Davis co-produced a documentary on the life and work of his former teacher, civic guru Robert Putnam, the Harvard social scientist who coined the term ‘social capital’ and wrote Bowling Alone, a seminal book that foresaw the epidemic of loneliness America faces today. The award-winning film, Join or Die, follows America’s civic unraveling and community decline while asking three questions:
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What makes democracy work?
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Why is American democracy in crisis?
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What can we do about it?
In Join or Die, Davis carries forward the torch Putnam lit decades ago. He illuminates America’s current state of democracy and the crucial role of civic participation in all its forms. The film was screened at at the Clinton Presidential Center, The Aspen Institute, SXSW, and a number of prestigious film festivals.
Davis is also the co-founder of Getaway, a company that provides simple, unplugged escapes to tiny cabins outside of major cities. His book, How To Get Away: Finding Balance in our Overworked, Overcrowded, Always-On World, articulates Getaway’s philosophy of balancing technology and disconnection, city and nature, and work and leisure.
His opinion pieces have appeared in The New York Daily News, Aeon, The Guardian, Fast Company, America Magazine, and The Falls Church News-Press.
Monique DeVane
Head of School, The College Preparatory School
Monique DeVane is currently the Head of School at The College Preparatory School in Oakland, California. Prior to College Prep, Monique held senior leadership positions at Hawken School in Cleveland, OH, Shady Hill School in Cambridge, MA, and The Thacher School in Ojai, CA. Monique has served on a range of school and non-profit boards. She is currently Board Chair for NAIS and was a member of the advisory task force that helped develop "A Framework for Schools: Thriving in a World of Pluralistic Contention." Monique holds a BA from Brown University in Organizational Behavior, and an MS in Positive Organizational Development and Change from Case Western Reserve University.
Manu Meel
Co-Founder and CEO, BridgeUSA
Manu Meel is a leading figure in the American pluralism movement, best known as the Co-Founder and CEO of BridgeUSA. Motivated by a belief that affective polarization is the greatest threat to American democracy, he has built BridgeUSA into the largest student dialogue organization empowering young people to practice constructive dialogue and bridge divides on college campuses nationwide. Manu’s vision, sparked by campus unrest during his freshmen year at UC Berkeley in 2017, earned him a spot on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list.
Manu’s thought leadership extends through his commentary, featured in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post, and his popular podcast, The Hopeful Majority. Reflecting his commitment to a more collaborative political culture, he serves on the boards of key national organizations, including Service Year Alliance, Convergence, American Promise, and the Karsh Institute for Democracy, and he is a member of the Monticello Youth Advisors Committee. While in college, Manu also served as a political analyst in counterterrorism at the Department of State and was an associate at the venture capital firm, Amplo.
In his free time, Manu nerds out about biographies, history, and poker. He lives in San Francisco, but the truth is that American Airlines is his second home.