Early Life
Born and raised in Baltimore, MD, Dr. Briggs was inspired early on by her family to utilize fun, entertainment, and personal interests within her professional life. Starting at eight years old and up until eighteen, Dr. Briggs performed as a magician’s assistant for Liam Laugherty (formerly known as both Bill Christian and Wild Willy Woo Woo). This unusual role provided Dr. Briggs unique experience with group engagement, public speaking, non-verbal communication, negotiation, financial development, fundraising experience, and networking skills. Her experience with performance art in her early life also included theater training and membership within the Children’s Chorus of Maryland, allowing Dr. Briggs to develop confidence on stage and performing in front of hundreds at a time.
Dr. Briggs graduated from Towson High School in 2009 after completing advanced courses in Psychology, History, and English. During her high school years, Dr. Briggs was an active member of Towson’s Gay-Straight Alliance and served as an academic mentor for the school’s AVID program. During this same time period, Dr. Briggs also pursued belt ranks in martial arts, volunteered with local soup kitchens, and acted as a summer camp counselor.
Higher Education
Dr. Briggs studied psychology at Roanoke College from Fall 2009 to Spring 2013, pursuing a specialization in neuroscience during her junior and senior years. While pursuing her undergraduate degree, Dr. Briggs preferred to write about unorthodox topics, utilizing popular comic books characters and theatrical figures to embody complex psychological concepts. It was also during this time frame that Dr. Briggs joined the service fraternities Alpha Phi Omega and Mu Beta Psi, through which she developed important leadership and organizational skills.
In 2015, Dr. Briggs continued her education through the pursuit of a masters in school counseling at Lenoir-Rhyne University. She later recognized that while she enjoyed the program, she was better suited for the human services degree that Lenoir-Rhyne offered, and switched programs in 2017. She completed her masters in 2018 with a capstone internship under the supervision of Director Katie Wohlman, whom continues to serve as Dr. Briggs’ mentor to this day. During her internship, Dr. Briggs was encouraged to pursue a doctorate and utilize her interest in the topic of gamification as her academic focus.
Dr. Briggs began her doctoral journey in 2019 with the University of the Cumberlands. She engaged in their online program for the Ed.D in educational leadership and selected a doctoral focus in business development. She implemented her interests of gamification and game-based learning heavily in her studies while also utilizing the concepts in her professional life. Dr. Briggs completed and defended her dissertation “Gamification of Leadership Training Methods: Utilizing Modern Gaming Culture to Train Effective Leaders in Corporate and Non-Profit Settings” on July 13th, 2021.
Professional
In her professional life, Dr. Briggs has taken roles ranging from retail and food service to independent consultant. Through these roles, she has developed a wealth of experiences and skill sets, and continues to pursue new avenues for professional development. She believes that fun is a core necessity for human development and seeks to implement it in all avenues of her professional and personal life. Her long-term professional goal is to become a business consultant focused on gamifying programs and implementing gamification within training procedures to improve work place engagement and enjoyment.
Dr. Briggs’ Specializations
- Gamification and game-based learning initiatives
- Leadership and professional development
- Educational development
- Public speaking
- Organizational development
- Networking and community outreach
- Fundraising
- Program design and management
Briggs Gamified Consulting 