Play Story Fest @ Joan Ganz Cooney Center & Games for Change
An inaugural ½ day salon of facilitated conversations around play, culture and community.
This inaugural Play Story Fest is planned to take place the Afternoon of July, 20 at the Joan Ganz Cooney Center the day before the 2026 Games for Change Festival. We are hoping for around 30 participants for the Fest.
The Fest will be ½ day starting around 12:30pm and going until 5:30pm. From around 1-5, there would be three conversation topics discussed. There will be breaks for open reflection, and throughout the Fest we’ll have a hands-on activity creating art together.
Each topic with have a facilitator to guide the conversation. One will focus on play in our lives. Another will focus on psychology and sociology perspectives on pop culture, media and games. The third will focus on manifesting positive social impact through our lives.
Drew Davidson is a professor, producer and player of interactive media. His background spans academic, industry and professional worlds and he is interested in stories and transformational experiences across texts, comics, games and other media. Currently, he’s studying the value of play in our lives, supported by major industry and non-profit organizations, and the shared stories inspired him to found Play Story Press, an open community publishing consortium.
Rachel Kowert, Ph.D is a research psychologist, visiting professor at the University of York (UK), and founder of Psychgeist, a multimedia production company for the science of games. She has 15 years facilitating global policy and product development through data driven research focused on mental health and trust and safety in games. Dr. Kowert has been featured in various media outlets, including the Washington Post, New York Times, and Wired Magazine. To learn more about Rachel and her work, visit https://rkowert.com.
Sara DeWitt is Senior Vice President and General Manager, PBS KIDS and Education. She is responsible for the strategic direction of the dynamic educational media service that supports children, their parents, teachers and caregivers, and local communities. Under her leadership, PBS KIDS has produced award-winning games and apps, AR and AI experiences, podcasts and second screen technologies; developed a learning analytics platform to better understand children’s learning gains through gameplay; and established itself as a gold standard in children’s digital privacy and security.