*Please note: Other projects are being included in this new site during 2019 fall.
Project Name: FEM-LED – A look into female leadership for women in digital media and tech today and tomorrow.
Client/Sponsor: Ontario Media Development Corporation, Super Ordinary Laboratory at OCAD University
Date: 2015-2016
Team: Suzanne Stein, Dr. Emma Westecott, Dr. Paula Gardner, Mithula Naik, Jill Sharrock, Prateeksha Singh
Objective: To analyze the multi-causal and systemic issues contributing to the drop in female involvement/leadership in the Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) sector at large, and specifically in the Interactive & Digital Media (I&DM) area.
Outcome: The project culminated with strategies for intervention at the various instrumental life cycle points (e.g. early childhood, education, work) to develop strategies for ‘how might we change this noted trajectory of declining female leadership/involvement, and address the root cause of this issue’; project outcomes also included looking at how game design approaches can be used to address a range of social, cultural, and political issues, and asking ourselves WHAT IF the issues raised by the Fem-led project were considered a game design problem? Over the course of Fem-led it became apparent that a game design approach might help synthesize research findings to desired future outcomes, and as such, we created workshop materials to be used by partners and community in an ongoing manner to carry forward the work of Fem-led, and offered a number of games created by team members as tools.
My role: Brought on later in the project, I worked collaboratively with the Fem-LED project team and Super O Lab (Suzanne Stein) on the design/implementation/analysis/coding of the online questionnaire with stakeholders, review of broader research done by team (including literature reviews and in-person workshops), significant involvement in synthesizing and authoring the final external report, along with involvement in the projects public dissemination (FemLed Radio Interview, Globe&Mail article).
Mpathy Insights: Any complex problem requires a systemic analysis and broader investigation, but does not preclude itself to also be studied under a creative lens. Creative solutions, in this case in the form of games and game design, can provide an approachable gateway for us to de-stigmatize a very loaded topic and discuss the root issue and possible ways to address it with broader audiences.
Media:
FINAL REPORT- 
FemLed-FinalReport
FemLed Radio Interview – At the beginning and approximately 13:10 mark
Global and Mail Article – Co-authored article with Principal Investigator, Suzanne Stein