Our faculty advisory board oversees and guides our Esports program to ensure it remains closely aligned with UCI’s overall academic mission of excellent research and education.

Douglas A. Granger

Dr. Douglas A. Granger is a psychoneuroendocrinology researcher who is well known for his development of methods related to saliva collection and analysis and the theoretical and statistical integration of salivary measures into developmental research.

At University of California, Irvine, he is a Professor in the Departments of Psychology and Social Behavior, Pediatrics, and Program in Public Health. He also holds Adjunct Faculty positions at Johns Hopkins University in the School of Nursing, School of Medicine, and Bloomberg School of Public Health.

John Joseph

John Joseph is an Associate Professor of Strategy at the University of California Irvine’s Paul Merage School of Business. John received his PhD from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. He also holds an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

John has taught in the full-time, part-time and executive education programs at Kellogg, has taught in the core curriculum for Duke’s full-time MBA program, and now teaches core strategy (full and part-time) and executive education programs at UC Irvine. He is a decorated instructor who has received several teaching awards.

John’s research examines organizational designs for better strategic planning, technology development, and growth. His experience outside academia includes managerial positions in the technology, pharmaceutical and non-profit sectors.

Craig Stark

The overarching theme of Craig Stark‘s research is in understanding the neural mechanisms underlying learning and memory, with a particular focus on the function of the hippocampus. Consistent with animal models, his lab is now exploring the benefits of environmental enrichment on memory performance and hippocampal function using a video game intervention paradigm. Playing video games that emphasize the exploration of a rich, novel environment leads to an improvement on independent measures of memory, an effect that we are now exploring in older adults possibly ameliorating age-related declines in memory.

Constance Steinkuehler

Constance Steinkuehler is a Professor of Informatics at the University of California, Irvine where she researches the cognitive and social aspects of multiplayer online videogames and esports. Her current projects include mixed methods research on the NASEF high school esports league, quantitative study of esports in higher education, and advice on parenting gamers. She chairs the Annual Esports Conference at UCI and the UCI Esports Program Task Force for Diversity and Inclusion.

Constance formerly served as Senior Policy Analyst under the Obama administration in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, advising on games and digital media. She is the founder and former President of the Higher Education Video Games Alliance, an academic organization of game-related programs in higher education.

She has a PhD in Literacy Studies, an MS in Educational Psychology, and three Bachelor Degrees in Mathematics, English, and Religious Studies.

André van der Hoek

André van der Hoek is a professor in and serves as chair of the Department of Informatics at the University of California, Irvine. He holds a joint B.S. and M.S. degree in Business-Oriented Computer Science from Erasmus University Rotterdam, the Netherlands, and a Ph.D. degree in Computer Science from the University of Colorado at Boulder.

André heads the Software Design and Collaboration Laboratory, which focuses on understanding and advancing the role of design, coordination, and education in software development.

Education is a key interest of André. He was the principal designer of the new B.S. in Informatics at UC Irvine, and is responsible for delivering several courses in this innovative curriculum. His research bridges into the educational realm by developing and critically evaluating new approaches to teaching software engineering, particularly for those topics that traditionally are difficult to address in the classroom.