Using science and sense to collectively thrive

I’m a team-weaver working as a researcher, teacher, and designer and co-building immersive (off- and online) developmental spaces that promote flourishing. After 20 years as a developmental psychologist in academia, I left the ivory tower to accelerate and amplify the real-world impact of our scientific work and directly improve the lives of young people. I’m also a mother of twin boys that have just hit adulthood. I’m writing a book that combines developmental psychology, Indigenous wisdom traditions, feminist care ethics, and new pragmatic tools to help parents transform their their relationship with their adult “children.” I’m thinking a lot about how we shift our roles as individual caretakers to community elders and champions who serve the next generation of young adults navigating today’s complex challenges.

I belong to several glorious creative collectives: 1. Liminal Learning, a comprehensive world-readiness program that prepares young people (ages ~18–24 years) to thrive in an unpredictable world in flux; 2. Coralus, a community of change-makers activating cross-sector global transformations through radical generosity; 3. GEMH (Games for Emotional and Mental Health) Lab, an R&D collective of scientists, designers, and artists focused on tech for flourishing; and 4. Bloom, a group of earnest generalists who met at the start of the pandemic and happened upon an alchemy fed by friendship, art, the love of learning, & lots of play.

What We Are Building

Liminal Learning offers a comprehensive world-readiness program that prepares young people (ages ~18–24 years) to thrive with purpose in a world in flux. Young people need strong friendships, connection to land, a sense of agency, and trusted mentors they can build a future with. We combine evidence-based, developmentally-sensitive curriculum with practical collaboration tools, equipping young people to navigate life with skill, creativity, and optimism. Underpinning our curriculum is a methodology we call Neither/Nora philosophy and methodology that guides students towards distinguishing between intellect and intuition and how to use both with skill and flexibility. They leave with the questions that will guide their creative aspirations and with peers who share their drive for real-world impact.  

Current Work


I spend about half of my time as a scientist and researcher at McMaster University (in Canada) and I’m the Director for the Games for Emotional and Mental Health (GEMH) Lab (in the Netherlands). The lab aims to build and empirically test digital games and apps that are based on solid behavioural science and combine data-driven design with stunning art that insures we retain, delight, and inspire users.


The other half of my efforts are dedicated to transformative collaborations with social entrepreneurs and leaders in education. I run workshops, courses, and culture-change curricula that provide hybrid solutions to some of the biggest challenges we face in the digital age. We come together to build strategies that combine digital and face-to-face energy so that organizations can go beyond productivity and achievement statistics to focus on psychological thriving, mental health, and social connection.

My portfolio of projects and partnerships are diverse, but they are all underpinned by an “effective optimism” approach. That is, I am fiercely optimistic about the future of work, learning, and community-building, but this optimism is grounded in science and participatory research.

Useful Links

For a list of my publications and media contacts, please see: https://gemhlab.com/researcher/isabelagranic

For my research lab’s publications, research projects, evidence-based games, and videos that explain our mission in its various manifestations, see: www.gemhlab.com

For my Google Scholar profile, see: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=4T5cjVIAAAAJ&hl=en

I’m also Chief Science Officer of The PlayNice Institute, an organization that seeks to build and distribute evidence-based games that promote emotional health and well-being for children and youth; for more information, see: https://www.theplayniceinstitute.com/

Recent Blogs

Evocative thought experiments with augmented reality

Evocative thought experiments with augmented reality

I've been thinking a lot about what augmented reality (AR) technology is going to mean for the next generation of young children who grow up with it. Not this generation, no, they're still a little too early to count. I mean the kids who will be born picking up AR...

Bedtiming: A different sort of sleep-training guide

Bedtiming: A different sort of sleep-training guide

This post is part of a 26-week writing project, shared with my son at Julian Jotting I co-wrote a book about babies and sleep and how to make those two things work better together. About 12 years ago, Marc Lewis and I wrote a book called Bedtiming, a baby sleep guide...

DEEP diving into virtual reality

DEEP diving into virtual reality

You're at work and you were just berated by your boss. You have your last exam of the year, and you feel totally unprepared. You're about to visit your doctor for biopsy results. You've had a terrible, horrible, no good, VERY bad day... Now imagine you could snap your...