Greater Glory Board Game Expo 2025--Speakers

Keynote Speaker: Margaret Luckey, MA, LPC
"Board Games and Mental Health: A Love Story"

Margaret is a Licensed Professional Counselor and Clinical Supervisor. She has worked in the mental health field for almost 20 years and runs a private practice in Alexandria, Virginia.  Margaret is a native of Front Royal as well as a board game enthusiast and a believer.  

What good is recreation when there's school and work to do? Psychologically speaking, it's a lot more important than it might seem! In fact, recreation takes on new and different importance in different stages of life: As a means to learn; as a means to relax; as a means to socialize; even as a means to remember. Board games especially can make for a perfect match for promoting good mental health--Come find out how!

Speaker: Joel Fernandez
"The Pedagogical Use of Board Games"

Joel Fernandez, a native of Miami, FL, came into the Catholic Church at the age of 18 and has a deep love for the faith. He later entered the teaching profession, founding several apostolates including the St. Paul Youth Ministries in Boston, the FIAT student group at Ave Maria University, and Living Nazareth, a new kind of Catholic school employing a seminary model to foster a spirit of devotion and the contemplative life. He also designs board games, both Catholic and secular, and plays them competitively, often accompanied by his wife Nadine and six young children.

Many enjoy games as wholesome recreation or to facilitate social engagement, but few use them more than sparingly in education. When they are, they're rarely ever more than a variant on the trivia genre or a reward. What if an entire curriculum could be crafted almost entirely from games, educating students to operate at or above grade level across all subjects and teaching valuable soft skills, all while they laugh and play their way straight through high school? Not only is it possible, but it's easier and more effective than most classic curriculum design! Come find out how!

Speaker: Bret Bement
"The Prodigious Importance of Fun"

Bret "The Toyman" Bement (D. Funology, Magister Ludi, Certified Fun Expert) surely needs no introduction. Hanging up his cape after his decisive victory over Dr. Tedium and the Legion of Boredom in 2023, he now owns and operates the Play Favorites toy store in Front Royal, VA. He still keeps up with his training, however, for the next time the city needs him: Maneuvering with large, spherical bouncing devices, perfecting aerial infiltration, drilling on cultural-historical acclimation (in case of unexpected time travel), and--of course--helping out his community whenever and wherever he can.

What is Fun (as Pontius Pilate asked after an exhausting day at the praetorium)? Generations of philosophers and sages have pondered the question over dice, chess, mahjong, and the company of friends, but no one yet has expounded a Generalized Fun Theory to systematize the field. Wait no longer! Come learn what fun is about: Fun is truth, truth funny.