our ensemble
Yael Swerdlow
Chief Executive Officer & Founder
Yael Swerdlow is the CEO and Founder of Maestro Games, SPC. Yael is co-founder of the Women's Empowerment Foundation, serves on the Advisory Boards of First Amendment Voice, Solution Point+, and a consultant at USC's Game Pipe Labs. She also serves on the MILO Cognitive Advisory Board, the Small Business Association's Leadership Council Advisory Board (NSBA) and the Small Business Technology Council (SBTC) and is formerly co-chair of the national leadership council of Games for Change.
David Shapendonk
Chief Technology Officer & Partner
David Shapendonk has worked for 30+ years on technology development in the fields of Entertainment, Healthcare & Cybersecurity. As an avid pianist, who was introduced to a wide range of music at an early age, David joined Maestro Games because of the scientific evidence showing that music can be integral to fostering mental resilience.
Richard W. Peterson
Education - Culture - Marketing Advisory Board
Richard Peterson is President & CEO of the U.S. Cultural & Heritage Marketing Council. His professional contributions have been shaped by his global interactions capturing the diversity of cultural experiences within the strategic development work USCHMC delivers. Further, Richard has served on the U.S. Travel Association At-Large Board, the National Council of Attractions & Experiences Advisory Board and the California Travel Association Board of Directors - and contributes his time to global cultural and heritage sustainable programs & thought leadership initiatives.
Dr. Hemalee Patel
Behavioral Health
Advisory Board
Dr. Hemalee Patel is a board certified practicing physician in Internal Medicine and serving Maestro Games as Behavioral Health Advisory Board representative.
Dr. Patel's area of interest and research lies in evidence based lifestyle medicine with the goal to empower individuals to achieve optimal health and mental well-being.
Dr. Noël Lipana
Moral Injury, PTSD, & Department of Homeland Security and Anti-Terrorism Advisory Board
Dr. Noël Lipana Noel is President of the DJD Art Foundation, which uses performing arts to educate communities about moral injury and trauma. Noel served in various Air Force and Army units throughout his twenty-year career, including time in Afghanistan as a counter-IED specialist. The Disabled American Veterans - California Chapter named him their 2020 Veteran of the Year.
"Music gives a soul to the Universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything"
- Plato
Yael Swerdlow
CEO & Founder
Yael is also co-founder of the Women’s Empowerment Foundation, Consultant for the University of Southern California’s award-winning Game Pipe Lab, and the National Small Business Association Leadership Council.
Dr. Joy VerPlanck
Advisory Board
Dr. Joy VerPlanck is a former US Army Military Police Officer and leads the cognitive division of MILO, a global leader in simulation training systems for military, government, and law enforcement. As a Doctor of Educational Technology, her research path has included the effects of training with immersive technology on creative thinking and cognitive load, as well as instructional methods of creating empowered and independent thinkers in rigid operational environments. Joy’s love of music was cultivated early when she first joined the elementary school orchestra as a cellist.
Dr. Mieko Hatano
Musical Advisor
Dr. Hatano is the Executive Director of the Oakland Symphony with oversight of the Oakland Symphony Orchestra, the Oakland Symphony Youth Orchestra, the Oakland Symphony Chorus, and the Symphony's MUSE related youth-music-education programs.
Dr. Hatano formerly served as Executive Director of Music in the Mountains in Nevada City, CA & Executive Director of Symphony Orchestra Augusta in Augusta, GA. As an alumna of DeVos Institute of Arts Management Fellowship at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, she holds a Doctor of Musical Arts & Master of Music from the University of Southern California – and a Bachelor of Music from the University of Michigan.
Michelle Okere
Marketing Outreach Canada
Michelle Okere is a Certified Fund Raising Executive (CFRE) and Inclusion Specialist with over a decade of experience leading the growth of national, provincial and local non-profit and for-profit organizations. She is recognized for her expertise in fund development, public and stakeholder relations; national, provincial and municipal advocacy; strategic and operations planning; and board governance. Since 2016, Michelle has been working with non-profits, Foundations and social enterprises across Canada to support transformational growth through her consulting company
Steven M. Miska
Military Advisory Board
Steve Miska founded Servant, Leader, Citizen (SLC) Consulting, Inc. after retiring as a Colonel with 25 years in the Army. Previously, Steve served as the Army Chair at Marine Corps University, and in the White House under President Obama as Director for Iraq on the National Security Council. He earned top academic honors as a Counterterrorism Fellow at the College of International Security Affairs and has taught economics at the United States Military Academy, West Point. Steve holds degrees from Cornell University, National Defense University, and West Point.
Thea Stauffnecker
Health & Wellness
Advisory Board
Thea (Campbell) Stauffnecker is an innovative servant leader committed to achieving top performance by leveraging a compelling vision of efficiency, growth, and diversity. Over the course of her career, she has worked with key consulting firms that specialize in healthcare revenue cycle improvement and health information management. Thea is an expert in the implementation and optimization of electronic health records, the ICD-10 code set, focused regulatory compliance and computer assisted coding. She has served as the senior director of health information department at the largest academic medical center in the western U.S
Dr. Lisa Aziz-Zadeh
Cognitive Neuroscience
Advisory Board
Associate Professor Lisa Aziz-Zadeh trained at the University of California, Los Angeles, receiving her BA degree in Psychology with a minor in neuroscience, and her PhD degree in Psychology with an emphasis in Cognitive Neuroscience. She completed postdoctoral work with Dr. Giacomo Rizzolatti’s laboratory at the University of Parma (Italy), Dr. Richard Ivry’s laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley, and was a fellow at the UCLA Tennenbaum Family Creativity Initiative. She has published numerous papers and book chapters on the mirror neuron system, embodied cognition and language. In 2008-2009, she was an invited fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study at Berlin.