The Exergame Unlocked project comprises a multi-state team of accomplished media education researchers, exercise physiologists, medical professionals and doctoral students. Contributing members are accomplished researchers in their fields and have helped launch the use of exergames as tools to combat obesity in their communities and beyond.

Barbara Chamberlin, PhD – Project Director

Barbara Chamberlin, PhD, directs the  Learning Games Lab at New Mexico State University, a research facility in which she investigates the use of games in education and health. NMSUs game development team is currently investigating the use of physical interfaces with games and creating new games that encourage movement. Dr. Chamberlin leads research on game development at the lab, and serves as an instructional designer on educational projects. She is currently working on a wide variety of projects, including exergames and STEM education. Previously a stand-up comic, Dr. Chamberlin speaks nationally on a variety of topics, including technology use with youth.

Dr. Chamberlin serves as project director, overseeing research, educational and health-related goals as well as product development for the overall project. Additionally, Dr. Chamberlin will lead research in the NMSU Learning Games Lab identifying new trends in exergames and drafting best practices on using exergames.

Jeanne Gleason, EdD

For more than 30 years, Dr. Jeanne Gleason has helped build educational programs for diverse audiences, particularly in food safety. Gleason, director of New Mexico State University’s Media Productions, helped to create the department and launch its multimedia capabilities more than 25 years ago. Under her direction, the unit has produced more than 1000 educational videos and 100 multimedia projects, including science and math education, and food safety games.

Dr. Gleason will oversee all development of the website enabling sharing of exergames research, posting of best practices, practical recommendations, and evaluation strategies. She also will guide design of the nutrition tool and integration of nutrition content with exergame use. She will ensure the Web tools will be dynamic; ensuring they can be updated and used after this project funding is completed.

Ann Bock, PhD, RD, LD

As a registered dietitian, Dr. Ann Bock is well aware that weight management must be attacked on a number of fronts. The two most important are dietary and physical activity. Dr.Bock currently manages databases associated with projects where both nutrition and activity are critical components. The ICAN (Ideas for Cooking and Nutrition) project targets food stamp recipients and the youth associated with low-income families in New Mexico.

Dr. Bock also serves as professor of human nutrition in NMSU’s, Department of Family and Consumer Sciences in the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences. She has been at NMSU for more than 24 years. Dr. Bock is a Registered Dietitian, licensed in New Mexico and Texas. In addition to her faculty role, Dr. Bock is the Director of the Didactic Program in Dietetics (DPD) at NMSU.

Dr. Bock will draft nutrition recommendations as they relate to CYFAR at-risk audiences, creating simple guides suitable for handing out to parents or using as part of an exergames program. She will provide all content for the online nutrition tool that exergamers can use to correlate calorie intake and exergame calorie expenditure, leading to better nutritional choices by exergamers.

Bryan Haddock, DrPH

Bryan Haddock, DrPH, has spent more than 13 years working as an Exercise Physiologist at the Center for Health Promotion at Loma Linda University. During the last 10 years of this appointment, he has served as faculty at the School of Public Health at Loma Linda University. Additionally, he as served as Associate Professor of Kinesiology at California State University – San Bernardino for the past 8 years. He is completing work on an NIH-funded SCORE grant, in which he examines the impact of exergaming on pediatric obesity, but has worked on several NIH-funded EARDA and RIMI grants. These are designed to improve the infrastructure of the university to conduct health related research (EARDA), and Health Disparities Research (RIMI). As part of these grants Dr. Haddock works with faculty from across campus, funding them to conduct pilot studies and then helping them work towards an external grant application. His primary teaching responsibilities are in the field of Exercise Science.

Dr. Haddock will lead research on the physical impacts of games, performing fundamental research on calorie expenditure and other physical measures during exergame use. In analyzing data, he will draft recommendations on game use, including which games and systems work best in which environments and with which audiences.

Ernie Medina, Jr., DrPH, CHFI

Ernie Media, Jr., DrPH, CHFI, is the co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of XRtainment Zone. Since 1993, he has been a preventive care specialist who has spent the last 14 years working at Beaver Medical Group in Redlands, Ca., helping patients of all ages overcome lifestyle-related diseases such as obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol.

In light of the growing pediatric obesity epidemic, Dr. Medina and XRtainment Zone are collaborating with California State University – San Bernardino to conduct research on the effectiveness and viability of “exertainment” as a tool to fight this epidemic. Dr. Medina is also the co-founder of XRtainment Zone LLC, a first-of-a-kind center combining the latest in exergaming equipment and professional programming for total wellness in the family. He recently incorporated exergaming into the Zone’s Family FitZone class, a pediatric and family weight management class.

Dr. Medina will provide specific recommendations and best practices on using exergames with youth and families based on work in his Xrtainment Zone. Additionally, he will contribute recommendations on tying nutrition into exergames, reflecting the work in his program.

Ann Maloney, MD

Ann Maloney, MD, searched for effective interventions for her patients struggling with obesity at the Maine Medical Center. When her diet and exercise recommendations showed little impact, she looked towards exergames as a solution. In the past three years, she and her team have undertaken three research studies related to exergaming. In a trial of 60 elementary-aged youth, participants were given dance pads and game systems at homes. Findings revealed that dancing increased vigorous physical activity an average of 90 minutes a week. It also decreased sedentary screen time. A separate study of dance pads with 28 African American or Hispanic youth in rural after-school settings demonstrated an acceptability with family use in homes, and an increase in overall activity. She is currently analyzing results on a third study with 82 middle school, rural youth using dance pads during the school day. Analysis will reveal effects on fitness, end-of-grade test scores, absenteeism, lipids and glucose, as well as quality-of-life measures.

Dr. Maloney will take two specific roles in the project. Based on psychiatry practice with youth at risk for obesity and their families, she will conduct fundamental research on the roles of families in obesity prevention, and the impact of exergames with the families. She will also guide mission-linked research in designing and piloting four different evaluation strategies field practitioners can implement measuring the effectiveness of exergames. In analyzing data, she will revise as needed and prepare materials on collecting and analyzing data so that field practitioners can implement evaluation in each program using exergames.

Emily Murphy, PhD

Emily Murphy, PhD, along with fellow researchers at West Virginia University, conducted a rigorous pilot study of students who played DDR on a regular basis. The results show that DDR is an effective tool in combating obesity, inactivity, and subsequent health problems associated with sedentary lifestyles.

Following the groundbreaking research of Drs. Murphy and Carson on the impact of dance-pads with youth, Dr. Murphy will lead research on the social impact of exergames, particularly regarding the self-esteem and self-perception of youth regarding obesity and physical activity, and the impact exergames have on these self-perceptions.