Our Team

 
 LifeLab Studios is led by a passionate team of learning scientists, platform engineers, and successful entrepreneurs.

Company Intention

To unlock the potential of every human being to become all they were meant to be ... and to do so in the context of relationship.

Our Mission

Powering people, organizations, and communities to thrive.

Our Vision

A world in which people with common goals can come together to engage the ideas, platforms, and supportive communities to pursue their passions, achieve their goals, and learn from one another as they share their experiences to inspire others.
We are deeply ...

Passionate about powering personal growth through small group journeys where member stories matter. We wake up each day thinking about it. We do this by providing a next-gen, small-group journey solution where member stories drives life application, social connection, and personal transformation.

We are committed to providing organizations and individual members with the best social growth platform in the world, which is supported in a way that their growth is ensured.

Lifelab Studios was founded on the premise that people want to do great things, that relationships catalyze growth, and that innovations can be harnessed to connect people to the ideas, opportunities, and supportive communities so that they will thrive.

Triple-Bottom Line Studio

We are part of a growing movement towards triple-bottom line studios in which there are multiple drivers beyond financial returns. For us, we began with the goal of social impact and that remains our most important driver, although different projects might fulfill one or more drivers in different ways.

1

 Social Impact

We are driven by the company mission to power people, organizations and communities to thrive. This is our Priority 1 driver, and is our first consideration.

2

 Financial Return

It is our goal to succeed, providing an innovative growth platform and in a way that is sustainable and scalable to reach our social impact goals. 

3

 Knowledge Generation

We grew out of the university and remain committed to transforming how people grow, providing an innovative example and sharing lessons learned.

Our Core Talent

Sasha Barab
Chief Executive Officer

Sasha Barab is a professor and CEO. His work has resulted in over a hundred articles, chapters and books on knowing and learning. He provides vision and runs the company.

Walter Kalata
Chief Technology Officer

Walter’s passion is in building large-scale interactive systems so people can connect in ways that matter to them.  He manages all aspects of engineering, and ensuring product success.

Anna Arici
Research Scientist

Dr. Anna Arici is Research Faculty in the School for the Future of Innovation in Society at ASU. She has been researching learning environments for the past two decades.

Zach Ripka
Senior Engineer 

Zach uses a variety of skills to tie together our various applications and services as a full-stack engineer. He also spends time mentoring and working through designs/user experience. 

Zane Encinas
Customer Success

Zane graduated from ASU with a focus in humanities, social science research methods, and environmental education. He is committed to customer success, and ensuring that all people can live a fulfilling live. 

Rider Griffin
Junior Programmer

Rider manages growth-based curriculum in H5P, lays groundwork for end-to-end testing, oversees sound effects within studio games, and works with the ThriveCast platform development process.

Rona Gallardo
Usability Technician

Rona does most usability for the platform, checking new features, designed grows, and making sure the platform runs smoothly and as expected. Also, doing similar work for around brand consistency.

Lex Williams
Project Management

Lex has worked on various growth modules with a focus on empowering all voices. She is project managing new features, supporting customer success, and coding front end views when needed.

Our Fiduciary Board

Michael Angst
Fiduciary Board
Eline Media, CEO
Scott Beck
Fiduciary Board
Gloo, CEO
Tuck Bettin

Feduciary Board

Cobblestone, CEO

Tom VanderArk
Advisory Board

Our Core Values

Ensure Growth

Be Trustful

Value Connection

Empower Voice

Celebrate Success

Seek Impact