Game On! Podcast featuring guest Dr. Kari Stubbs

In this episode of GAME ON, Adam Bellow interviews Dr. Kari Stubbs, who has had a diverse career in education - transitioning from classroom teaching to general ed tech and ultimately to special education. Dr. Stubbs shares her passion for supporting neurodiverse children, particularly those with autism, and offers valuable advice for educators looking to make a difference in the field.

About Kari Stubbs

Dr. Kari Stubbs

Dr. Kari Stubbs is a renowned leader in education, with significant contributions across educational technology, PreK-12 education, and special education. As the Senior Vice President of Business Development at Stages Learning, she advances education and dismantles learning barriers for all students, focusing on support for students with autism. #allmeansall

Dr. Stubbs transitioned from classroom teaching to educational technology and special education, demonstrating her diverse expertise in brand amplification, public speaking, revenue generation, and business leadership. She has delivered numerous presentations and authored articles highlighting themes such as neurodiversity, edtech, teacher shortages, educational games, and computational thinking.

With a Ph.D. and a history of educational innovation, Dr. Stubbs served 14 years as Vice President at BrainPOP. She has contributed significantly to the educational community through her roles on the boards of ISTE, EdCamp, BreakoutEdu, and the SXSWedu Advisory Board.

Recognized with numerous accolades, including the Make It Happen award and Top 100 Influencers in EdTech, Dr. Stubbs continues to inspire inclusive educational practices. She is a sought-after speaker at international conferences such as UNESCO's Mobile Learning Week and WISE in Qatar.

Learn more about Kari’s incredible work and connect with her:

Game On! – Guest Dr. Kari Stubbs - Transcript 

Adam (00:00.83): Alright, welcome to the Game On Podcast. I'm your host Adam Bellow, and I am so excited to be joined by an absolutely incredible person and someone who I am very, very lucky to call a dear friend who we've known for, I think we've known each other for 15 years, the one and only Kari Stubbs. So Kari, thanks so much for joining us on the podcast today.

Dr. Kari Stubbs (00:19.249): I am absolutely delighted to be here. Thanks for the invitation. So fun. And yes, we've no way back. We go way back. It's crazy. Exactly. Thank you for getting that. Yes.

Adam (00:22.534): Of course, of course. I always say that like, what's that? We do go way back. We met when we were 10. And so we've known each other 15 years and there you go. That's right. Yeah, it's really funny when you, you know, you count it up, you're like, oh, that's a while ago. Yeah, but anyway, so I'm so glad you're here. You know, we have met and you've done a lot of things in the tech world. I think when we first met, you were working at BrainPop, which

Dr. Kari Stubbs (00:49.309): I was.

Adam (00:50.438): is awesome and we even presented together on Brain Pop and Breakout over the years and then we worked together as board members on the EDCamp board, the EDCamp Foundation, so that was incredible. And now you have a not new role anymore, I think it's what about two and a half years, three years? Two years. Awesome. And you're working at Stages.

Dr. Kari Stubbs (00:54.945): we did.

Dr. Kari Stubbs (01:05.149): It's I'm coming up on my two year anniversary in a few weeks. Yeah. I'm not safe with learning. So I pivoted from my 14 years of Brain Pop directly in Gen Ed and the EdTech lane to really prioritizing the special education lane. I really wanted to live the mission that all means all. So we really focus on specifically supporting kids with autism. But of course that leads into supporting lots of children that really need extra lift and extra help and supporting the teachers that help them, right? Through curriculum and professional learning. And it's been really exciting and we're doing some fun stuff with tech too. So it's a win-win.

Adam (01:37.728): I love it. That's really great. Yeah, it's a great company. And obviously, I learned about it through you, but it's a topic that's near and dear to my heart. I live with a person with autism, and I also was a special ed teacher myself. That's where I started in the classroom, and little did I know that I would be using those skills. I taught gifted and special ed at the same time. And I just remember, you know, he said, all is all. It's like kids are kids, and there's different needs and different things, but everyone's unique. So I love that. I love that as a mantra.

Dr. Kari Stubbs (02:12.085): Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I'm very excited about it.

Adam (02:15.666): Awesome. Well, we'll dig into our questions. Our level one question here on the Game On Podcast, obviously gaming is really important for us at Breakout. And I always like to ask the guests, what was a game that you played as a kid? And then what's something that you're playing now? And it obviously could be anything from a video game to hopscotch to Monopoly to whatever.

Dr. Kari Stubbs (02:35.089): Okay, that's awesome. So At the risk of dating myself more than 15 years ago, A family favorite for my brother and I, believe it or not, was Pong. [Pong sound] [Pong sound] [Pong sound] We also had a arcade back in early days, arcades that was walkable from our house that my brother and I would walk over to together and play Pac-Man and Frogger and Asteroid and all the oldies.

Adam (02:46.19): That's awesome.

Dr. Kari Stubbs (03:03.569): I can't make this up, the name of the arcade was Good Time Charlie's, which cracks me up all the time. Isn't that amazing? Like such a retro like name. So yes, fond memories of growing up surrounded by games, super important. And then even more so right now, I'm completely obsessed with Down 4 a Cross. Have you heard of this?

Adam (03:08.778): That's amazing. Don't think so.

Dr. Kari Stubbs (03:27.781): Okay, it's amazing. It allows my son, my son is 27. In the spirit of the same theme. So he and I are able to collaborate on the New York Times crossword puzzle. It's amazing. It's amazing. You did? Amazing. Yeah, so we normally stick to Mondays because Monday is the easiest. Everyone's gonna get crazy when we try to tackle a Tuesday or Wednesday. But yesterday we did Mondays of this week we

Adam (03:39.914): Yes, I actually just played this morning. Yeah.

Dr. Kari Stubbs (03:55.445): We nearly every week do it together. It's really fun. Like Google Docs for New York Times. So we did it in under eight minutes yesterday. I was very excited. I know.

Adam (03:58.422): That's so cool. Wow, that's pretty cool. Yeah, literally, it's so weird that you say that because this morning it popped up through, I have Apple News and like they steal articles and different things from it. And they were like, played this new game and I didn't even realize what it was, but that's what it was. That's so cool.

Dr. Kari Stubbs (04:15.701): Yeah, and they have more than New York Times. That's just what we do. And it's a blast. And I think quietly it's his like, help my mom's brain age well strategy. But it's a blast. We totally love it. It's so fun. I always toss in a few mom bombs on accident, but you know, it makes it interesting for him. It's great. Thanks.

Adam (04:19.458): That's awesome. Awesome. Well, let's move into our level two question here. It's about history. So we mentioned obviously that you had a number of different roles in the ed tech space, but Everyone's got a unique origin story. So I'd love to hear yours kind of what put you on the path that led you to be not only an ed tech leader, but you know, whether it be the role you're at now, but all the things you've kind of done along the way. Like what was the spark that kind of brought you into this field?

Dr. Kari Stubbs (04:43.992): I know. Yeah, I mean, vulnerably and transparently, we all end up with life's speed bumps, so to speak, right? So sometimes out of hard times, interesting things evolve. So I was in the classroom, had taught for a decade or so, had young children, and my mother actually passed away in the middle of my divorce. And so my origin story was me taking a year to kind of... accept that reality, you know, get my sea legs again, research how to pull off a PhD, which I thought would be a path toward more opportunity for my kids, more independence for us as a unit of three. And honestly, that's kind of really what changed the face of my trajectory. So yeah, it's crazy. You know what, we all face things. It's not unique to me, but it's how you handle them that really usually defines how you're gonna control your destiny, right? What path you're gonna chart. So I feel very blessed. I don't feel blessed that I went through those things, but we came out on the other side quite well. Yeah.

Adam (06:16.126): Yeah, that's amazing. And I feel like there's so many ways that you could respond to that, but it's like to take those challenges and then all of a sudden turn it into an opportunity or chase that for yourself. I think that's just so incredible. So that's awesome. Yeah. What about, so let's see, like that was the history, that's the origin story. The next question I was gonna ask you was about, this level three question is about challenges.

Dr. Kari Stubbs (06:27.233): Thanks. Thank you.

Adam (06:41.642): And so obviously those are big challenges that you just mentioned and you worked to overcome, but like maybe a different type of challenge, maybe something in the career or something that you had to learn or whatever. Like, is there a challenge that you kind of overcame that helped you kind of get to where you are now?

Dr. Kari Stubbs (06:50.379): Yeah. Yeah, so, yes, the hits just came coming for a little bit. I finished my PhD. I went to work for a really awesome company called ePals. I don't know if any of your listeners remember it, but it was this beautiful vision around connecting classrooms around the world through collaboration and language translation and emails. So I was there for a couple of years. It was my first kind of non-protected job, right? I wasn't in the safe nest of a school system. And they let 40% of the company go. So I went on unemployment, I like did the job search and actually that is through that process, I reconnected with BrainPOP and really them kind of taking me under their wing. I'd been talking to them as I was finishing my PhD, I needed to be remote, there was some trust that needed to be built. They had some... leadership changes and their new CEO came to me and said, what's your dream job? We're gonna make it happen. It was really cool and we made it happen. It was awesome. So I'm eternally grateful for Dean Hyman, who was our COO at Brain Pop, as well as Dr. Kadar, the CEO, cause they trusted Kari from Kansas City to not live in the office in New York and we kind of molded a position that was external facing so that I was able to represent Brain Pop for all those years and do lots of public speaking and make sure people were aware of our product updates and what we were doing that was reaching more and more kids every year. It was great.

Adam (08:35.342): That's amazing. And the trajectory that BrainPop has had is just, you and I have talked about this a lot, it's just been amazing. And now with the acquisition by Lego, it's just incredible. And you also were Moby, right? At all the conference, no, I'm just kidding. Yeah.

Dr. Kari Stubbs (08:42.665): Yeah. I was too short to live inside of the Moby costume. I did do my one and only Facebook live event was with Moby at FB1 year. We have, I forgot, I think it was like 25,000 viewers or something bananas. It's really cool and exciting. Yeah, it was really fun.

Adam (08:57.111): Oh, that's pretty cool. That's awesome. That's very, very cool. Yeah, my kids still like knowing that Moby's out there at those events.

Dr. Kari Stubbs (09:11.169): My own children thought I was extra cool when I joined Brain Pop. They were peak, you know, Brain Pop fan age and were very excited that I was working for such a cool place.

Adam (09:14.179): I'm sure. That's awesome. Well, I mean, I think that's a great segue because everyone listening and everyone watching, can tell and I know that you are an incredibly passionate person about all these different topics and not only knowledgeable, but just really into it. And I think that that's one of those things that make people successful in the spaces that they live it and breathe it. So our level four question is about passion. And what is something that you're most passionate about learning about right now? It could be something that you're trying to teach yourself. It could be something you're trying to teach to others or share with others, whether it be at work or through your product, but like, what are you really into?

Dr. Kari Stubbs (10:01.257): Yeah, lovely question. Thank you for asking it actually. I am really passionate about changing the mindset that special education is only something that special education educators should be paying attention to. Since joining Stages Learning a couple of years ago and really rolling up my sleeves on the cause of our neurodiverse kids and particularly our autistic children, like the numbers have doubled in the last 10 years. So there's now one in 36 kids that are diagnosed with autism, which means mathematically, if you combine that with our teacher shortage, which is most significantly hitting special education educators, all of our educators are supporting these kids, right? It's not just a special education issue, and it's a societal issue. Because they not only need more help when they're in the school system, but as they graduate and leave our district nests and our school nests. They are eight times more likely to be unemployed, right? Like it's, so my mission, my passion is bringing this perspective of someone who hasn't always been in the special ed lane. I wasn't a special ed lane, so I should correct myself. The school I taught the longest in, which is for nine years, and I'm making my like love voice, cause I loved it. It was Praistar Elementary and Blue Valley School District in Kansas, a suburb of Kansas City. The time I was there, we had a special waiver from the state to be incentivized to be innovative around how we were including kids with special needs. We had lots of extracurricular professionals and aides, lots of resources. It was literally rainbows and lollipops as far as creating really welcoming spaces for all of our kids, but with a particular emphasis on a variety, you know, all of our old special love babies. So coming to... Stages was kind of a full circle moment for me because I'd been in such a predominantly general education lane when I was at Brain Pop. So I feel like I have the right life experience to come back into a special ed focus that hasn't always been with my blinders on in special ed to say, look, all means all, like literally, we need to not just use the words, but we need to understand how to create accepting cultures in all of our schools and really society. So that's my mission. I'm excited about it. I'm very passionate.

Adam (12:34.878): I love it. I love it. How do you like besides the stuff you do at work, and this is not a scripted question, I'm just curious, like, how do you stay up to date with it? Is it conferences? Is it reading material? Is it just, you know, working with experts? Like, like, how do you stay on the forefront of that? Because I feel like, as you said, it's changed so much in 10 years, and I'm sure in the next 10 years, it's going to continue to evolve.

Dr. Kari Stubbs (12:53.845): Absolutely, and I feel like it's one of those themes that I'm trying in all the ways you just mentioned. It's impossible to be all the way to the forefront. I have a coworker that also lives in Kansas City, Frankie Keatsman. Her, she is the guardian for her adult brother who is severely autistic and deaf. So she has been really cool and instrumental about inviting me to volunteer alongside her at different disability focused events. So it's one thing I've done. I've also connected with Moira Stone Street. She's from Kansas City. She runs an autism-focused organization. So I'm trying to do a combination of reading, connecting with people that are living and reading this work. And then we also have at Stages Learning, our CEO, one of her many degrees was a graduate education degree from Harvard. And so she has this really cool stable of phenomenal authors that write for our blog and we're top 10 autism blogs. So also reading the free resources that we put out is another way that I kind of stay on top of things. So I'm not there yet, but I'm trying to educate myself as passionately as I can so that I do write by, you know, living the mission.

Adam (14:03.842): That's awesome. I love that. And, you know, I totally agree with you. No one's there yet. A lifelong learner means you still haven't learned everything. Like that's the that's the mantra. I love it. No, that's super great. So we arrived at level five, which is about advice. And obviously, you know, I feel like I've even learned a bunch from you just in this last half hour or so. But what's the best piece of advice that you've gotten in your journey from education to your career in education?

Dr. Kari Stubbs (14:18.313): Yeah, I'm trying. Woo!

Dr. Kari Stubbs (14:41.505): The best piece of advice I got was from my father. I was trying to, you know, raise the two young children, tackle the PhD, find the dream job, all the things. And he finally was like, pause, button, carry. You can have everything, just not all at once. Isn't that amazing? And it's so true, right? So that's really the best piece of advice that I've gotten and it resonates with me, right? Like, yeah. So thanks dad, appreciate it. Amazing. Yeah.

Adam (15:04.782): Yep, that's true.

Adam (15:19.582): Is that the piece of advice you would give? It's a two-part question, so I was gonna say, what would be a piece of advice you would give to our listeners, many of whom are educators? Perhaps it's that, but perhaps there's something else that you'd like to share.

Dr. Kari Stubbs (15:33.589): I talk to educators regularly that are curious about my transition from the classroom to Brain Pop to now stages. And I'm always willing to take the time to have that conversation, open that door. I think it's really important that we support one another. So for those educators, I think it's important to remind you slash them that they are in the driver's seat, right? Like, I think demographically, sometimes as educators, we came up through a K-12 structured system, we returned to make a difference, but we stayed in kind of a structured system where there are these systemic rules in place. And so sometimes we have to retrain our mind that you don't always have to follow all the rules that you're used to perceiving in this system. And that, yeah, and you're not gonna try one time and experience success. If you're... if you're genuinely considering contributing to education from a different lens, whether that's at the state department or in a business or at the university or there's thousands of ways to contribute, right? Don't just try once. Like you're in control, you're in the driver's seat. It's your destiny. No one else is going to do it for you. Right. So be courageous and find your passion to up into your passion and go for it. Would really be my advice.

Adam (17:01.202): I totally concur. I think that that's certainly sound advice. We've seemingly had a lot of the same conversations with folks, you know, I get emails all the time asking questions about transitioning and just when we have job posts about changing over. So yeah, I think you're 100% right. Be bold, be brave and, you know, make whatever moves you need to, you know, to follow your dad's advice. You can have everything, you just have to pick and choose how to get there and all those things. I think that's awesome.

Dr. Kari Stubbs (17:27.573): That's it. Yeah.

Adam (17:30.206): So, I mean, I just, it was so great to get to sit down. You and I talk about breakout sometimes, we talk about the space and just as friends, other stuff, but it's so nice to kind of pick your brain and also just give the opportunity for you to share with both listeners and anyone who might find this on the interwebs later on, all this great kernels of ed tech advice and human advice, I think, is the other piece of it, which is awesome. So thank you so much for sharing. Yeah.

Dr. Kari Stubbs (17:56.861): Yeah. Well, congrats to you. I mean, your journey has been very inspirational to those of us. I am honored genuinely, as you know, to be your friend. I've had so many people watch that ISTE keynote all those years ago, that you blew the whole audience away, bananas. You're just...

Adam (18:17.834): Thank you.

Dr. Kari Stubbs (18:22.309): You've charted a very fascinating journey for yourself, and I am eternally grateful to call you a friend as well. So thank you so much for inviting me.

Adam (18:29.558): I, likewise, I wouldn't be here without friends like you. And I think that, again, thank you for the kind words. It's great to travel these paths together because one of the best things about it is the people you meet and the things you get to collaborate on. So I'm excited about that. So thank you. So obviously you mentioned Stages Learning, stageslearning.com, yes? And then...

Dr. Kari Stubbs (18:51.182): Yes, it is.

Adam (18:53.29): Where else can people find you? I know you're active on LinkedIn and different social networks, but where would you like people to connect with you if they want to reach out?
Dr. Kari Stubbs (19:00.681): Yeah, awesome. Happy to share my email address. That's kind of bold. Kari, how do you spell my first name? K-A-R-I dot Stubbs. How do you spell my last name? At stages learning. And yes, I'm also on LinkedIn. I'd love to connect with folks there. I'm also on Twitter, although I'm confused by the X transition. So I'm on Twitter. I'm less active than I was. And then I kind of gave up on threads. So.

Adam (19:23.222): Aren't we all?

Dr. Kari Stubbs (19:27.997): Yes, LinkedIn and email are probably the safest.

Adam (19:31.626): Yeah, yeah, they're hopefully in the mainstays for now. We'll see. Oh my gosh. Well, awesome, Kari Thanks so much for taking the time. It was really, really great to chat. And until the next time, everyone, GAME ON!