The Innovation Team, led by VP of Innovation Mia Doces, expands Committee for Children’s reach and augments its mission through new products, partnerships, and business models that show promise for deep impact at scale. Working with an expert advisory board, the team selects projects that focus on leveraging Committee for Children’s pioneering leadership in the social-emotional learning (SEL) field to expand access to SEL beyond classroom walls. Each partnership, product, and program is intentionally designed to start small and demonstrate feasibility before the team selects which opportunities to expand. Join our growing team! Visit our Careers page to learn about our current openings. Mia Doces Vice President of Innovationmdoces@cfchildren.org Read Bio × Mia Doces Vice President of Innovationmdoces@cfchildren.org Mia Doces, VP of Innovation, helped instigate Committee for Children’s in-house innovation lab in 2013 and now leads the lab, which has incubated and launched several successful products that are redefining what’s possible in the field of social-emotional learning (SEL). She first joined Committee for Children as senior program designer and media specialist, playing an integral part in creating SEL and anti-bullying curricula and trainings used by tens of thousands of schools worldwide. The role combined her previous experience in education media production with a decade of experience as a teacher and counselor, roles that gave her firsthand insight into the barriers kids face that interfere with learning, such as bullying, abuse, racial inequities, and poverty. In her current role at the helm of the Innovation Team, she explores new avenues for broadening Committee for Children’s impact through SEL, both in and outside the classroom. The team has researched and piloted dozens of ideas and taken several from concept to production, including the loveable Purrble®, a smart, interactive toy that helps kids self-regulate; Mind Yeti®, a mindfulness app for children and their adults; The Imagine Neighborhood™, an award-winning family podcast that tells stories that tackle the big feelings that come with growing up; and a number of programs produced through a long and fruitful partnership with the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). Mia received her bachelor’s degree in English literature from Vassar College and a master’s degree in education from Western Washington University. She has worked on state and national youth initiatives including the Washington State legislative anti-bullying work group, and advised organizations including Sesame Workshop, the Making Caring Common Project at Harvard Graduate School of Education, and the Born This Way Foundation. Mia currently serves on the steering committee for Karanga (a global SEL alliance), and previously served for several years as co-chair of Prevention Works, a Drug-Free Communities coalition in Seattle. Mia’s work has not gone unnoticed. In 2021, Committee for Children received the “Excellence in Early Learning Digital Media Award” from the Association for Library Service to Children (part of the American Library Association) for The Imagine Neighborhood podcast, on which Mia serves as executive producer. It was the first podcast to receive the award. “Between the COVID-19 pandemic, deep political divisions in our nation, and powerful calls for racial justice, our society has faced overwhelming challenges in the last year that highlight the critical need for more avant-garde approaches to social-emotional learning,” says Mia. She has also received the CINE Golden Eagle Award for her work on the Second Step® music video series, and she’s been a Salzburg Global Fellow since 2018 for her contributions to stimulate cross-sector exchanges of ideas and innovative practices. Mia sees her SEL superpower as relationship-building. “The most successful projects involve bringing together the right people at the right time, and building teams that are passionate and excited about the work,” she says. Find more of Mia’s work here: Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society, Harvard University Happy to Be Me: An Anti-Bullying Discussion video series, Sesame Workshop Innovation Contributor Petr Slovák, PhD × Petr Slovák, PhD Visiting Scholar Committee for Children is proud to partner with academic scholars like Petr Slovak, PhD, who has been working with our Innovation team for the past five years to discover and design new ways to deliver social-emotional learning (SEL) interventions to children and families. In addition to his work with us, he teaches Human Computer Interaction and is a UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Future Leaders Fellow at King’s College London, and he holds visiting positions at both Oxford and University College London, a multidisciplinary university. His interdisciplinary research connects human-computer interaction, mental health, and prevention science to support children’s well-being. At Committee for Children, his research resulted in Purrble®, a new interactive toy that helps develop the self-regulation competencies of young children through everyday play. He’s also led research into how Minecraft gameplay can teach conflict-resolution skills for children ages 11–14 (UC Irvine, Committee for Children), and he’s worked on a parenting app to empower parents of young children ages 2–5 (UCL, Committee for Children). “The Innovation team is an amazing place to be,” he says, explaining that he appreciates being able to ideate and connect his research with the real world. He often pitches new ideas saying: “No one has ever done anything like this, but I think we should try.” Petr, who grew up in Brno, Czech Republic, has lived in several countries and is growing a global network of research collaborators interested in SEL. His professional projects have included researchers at UC Santa Cruz, University of Washington, UC Irvine, University of Michigan, Simon Fraser University, Stanford, and Vienna University of Technology. For his own education, Petr received a bachelor’s degree in computer science, as well as psychology and sociology, from Masaryk University in Brno, where he went on to receive a master’s degree with honors in computer science. He received his doctorate degree in human computer interaction from Vienna University of Technology, where he served as a visiting researcher for the Nottingham Mixed Reality Lab. During that time, he also interned at Microsoft, and during his post-doc research at UCLIC (a globally recognized “Centre of Excellence in Human-Computer Interaction”), he was a Schroedinger Fellow. Recently, he received a prestigious fellowship—$1.5 million—from UKRI. Links to his published research can be found on Google Scholar and his own website at petrslovak.com. Advisory Board Committee Steve Arnold, PhD × Steve Arnold, PhD Venture capitalist and co-founder of the George Lucas Education Foundation Steve Arnold is a Polaris Partners co-founder with Jon Flint and Terry McGuire. Before starting Polaris, Steve served as a special advisor to Burr, Egan, Deleage & Co. following more than 10 years in executive positions in the software industry. He served as vice president of Broadband Media Applications at Microsoft Corporation and as president and CEO of Continuum Productions (now Corbis), a private company founded by Bill Gates to pioneer the creation of large digital libraries for online distribution. Before coming to Continuum, Steve served as vice president and general manager of LucasArts Games and Learning divisions, and vice president of the New Media Group at Lucasfilm Ltd. He continues to serve as vice chairman of the board of directors of the George Lucas Educational Foundation. Steve holds a BS with honors from Macalester College and an MA and PhD from the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) in San Francisco. Reed Koch × Reed Koch Retired Microsoft Executive Reed Koch is the former general manager of Assistance Platform at Microsoft, where he was responsible for the strategy and execution of Assistance Platform, starting with version 1.0. He has also been general manager of FrontPage Windows, SharePoint Services, and PhotoDraw. In addition, Reed has served as group program manager, group product planner, and product manager of Microsoft Word. In these roles, he organized design and shipping of Word 2000 and Word XP, started the product planning group and organized product planning for Word 95 and Word 97, and developed the first usability testing at Microsoft to design Word and test it against WordPerfect. Reed holds a BS in liberal arts with a major in mathematics from Reed College. Mike Mecham, MBA × Mike Mecham, MBA Mike Mecham is a principal at NIRO International LLC, a global consulting and advisory firm with private equity, venture capital, technology start-up and nonprofit clients. Prior to his current role, Mike worked for twenty-two years in executive business development, corporate development, strategy, and finance roles for technology, media, and telecommunications companies, including McCaw Cellular Communications and Google. At YouTube he led strategic partnerships in Spanish-speaking Latin America from 2011 to 2014. Mike formerly was a corporate banker with Bank of America for three years. Mike has an MBA in strategy, finance, and multinational management from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and a BA in business administration from the University of Washington. Kumar Mehta, PhD × Kumar Mehta, PhD Dr. Kumar Mehta was the CEO of Blueocean Market Intelligence and the Cross-Tab Group until 2016. He developed this highly regarded data analytics and strategic outsourcing company, which now employs over a thousand professionals around the world. Kumar is well versed in executive management, leadership, and data-driven development and implementation. He received his PhD in pharmaceutical socioeconomics from the University of Iowa in 1990. Under Kumar’s leadership, Blueocean Market Intelligence and the Cross-Tab Group won multiple awards for innovation focused on big data, digital analytics, and mobile analytics. He brought cutting-edge solutions to social media mining, dashboards, and text mining. Before joining the Cross-Tab Group, Kumar spent over thirteen years at Microsoft in a variety of leadership roles within market research, business strategy, competitive intelligence, corporate alliances, business management, and finance. Jon Reingold, JD × Jon Reingold, JD Retired Microsoft Executive Jon Reingold is retired from Microsoft, where he served as vice president of corporate marketing, vice president of marketing for the Applications Division, general manager of the Excel Product Group, and director of international marketing. He was a founding board member and treasurer of Eastside Preparatory School. Jon currently serves on the board at Seattle Academy, for which he chairs the Facilities Committee and serves on the Executive Committee, Committee on Trustees, and Finance Committee. He holds an MBA from Stanford University and a BA in political philosophy from Princeton. Susan H. Willis, MD × Susan H. Willis, MD Child and Adolescent Psychologist Dr. Susan Willis is a child and adolescent psychiatrist with over 20 years of clinical experience in a solo practice. She served as a psychiatric consultant for Youthcare’s Bridge Program for sexually exploited youth and 45th Street Clinic’s Homeless Youth Program. Susan is active in the American Board of Integrative and Holistic Medicine and the American Association of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. She holds a BA from Mount Holyoke College and an MD from University of Connecticut School of Medicine. She completed her residency in psychiatry and a child and adolescent psychiatry fellowship at UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute and is double board certified in adult general psychiatry and child and adolescent psychiatry. Current Projects The Imagine Neighborhood™ An Award-Winning SEL Podcast Through stories, music, and activities, this social-emotional learning (SEL) podcast helps kids and grown-ups talk about big feelings and things that matter with the people who matter most. Nurture® Seattle Text-Based, Peer-to-Peer Mentoring for New Parents The program pairs new and expecting parents with trained parent mentors. These volunteer mentors provide meaningful connection and support during the social-emotional transition to parenthood, all through the convenience of texting. Purrble® An Interactive Toy to Help Kids Feel Calm This smart, cuddly toy with sensory features responds to kids’ touch and purrs when calm. When kids learn to soothe Purrble, they also gain important self-regulation skills and habits. Mind Yeti® Mindfulness for the Classroom Video and audio content helps kids pay attention to the present with kindness and curiosity while learning skills to feel calm, focus attention, and connect with others. Past Projects Parachute The Mobile App for Parents Learn techniques from child development experts designed to help with some of the most common and frustrating parenting challenges. KLRN’s Learning Neighborhood A Community-Based Approach to SEL This pilot program with PBS and KLRN helps prepare San Antonio families and caregivers to support young children’s social-emotional learning. SEL in Games Resolving Conflicts in Minecraft Explore ways to teach social-emotional skills to young people in multiplayer spaces. Partners