Makefully: Partnerships

Anna Jordan-Douglass, PhD, is an award-winning interactive producer of educational media and is the Founder and Chief Creative Officer of Makefully. She is endlessly curious, fueled by big ideas, and loves to laugh. In all of her work, she hopes to spark curiosity and a love of learning.

Prior to founding Makefully, Anna spent nearly ten years working for The Jim Henson Company, where she oversaw all aspects of digital production and business development, seeing all of the company’s interactive products through from ideation to distribution. Prior to that, she worked for KCET in Los Angeles. Anna holds a Ph.D. in Curriculum & Instruction from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, from the department of Design, Informal and Creative Education, and an MA in Journalism from Emerson College.

Derek’s passion for creating things out of code started at the early age of 8, creating games for his siblings that were certainly more fun for him to make than for them to play. While completing his dual Bachelors in Computer Science and Mathematics at Berry College, he made every opportunity to submit his coding assignments as games. After graduation, Derek became the Technology Manager at the Appalachian State University at Hickory for 8 years until 2010 when he co-founded Gopherwood Studios to focus on HTML5 game production. He enjoys spending time with his wife and 4 boys who love playtesting their dad’s projects.

Allison spent a majority of her childhood glued to Nickelodeon and MTV, waking up at 5AM to watch a few hours of cartoons and music videos before heading to school. It was no surprise then that she wound up becoming an experimental animator and illustrator.

The Pennsylvania native became a Kansas Citian, recruited to work at Hallmark Cards after graduating from Philadelphia’s Tyler School of Art with a degree in Graphic and Interactive Design. She spent her time at Hallmark illustrating cards for the kids and humor teams, during which time she began freelancing, illustrating and animating for clients like Nike, TIME, HOW Books, Nylon Magazine, Scholastic, and more. Prior to joining Makefully, Allison taught graphic design and illustration at the University of Central Missouri for 7 years. In her spare time Allison enjoys drawing in coffee shops with her husband, reading books to her son, and spoiling her dog.