Meet our behind-the-scenes individuals who made this dream possible as a team — globally.
We are, at our core, creative people who want to tell our stories in our native sign languages. Working together, we’ve found many ways to tell stories, from traditional cultural folktales to new, imaginative stories. Each storybook app is unique because we work with different Deaf artists and Deaf storytellers. We have worked with over ten countries, and our storybook apps are available in over twenty languages: signed and written.
Our work has come a long way since the launch of the world’s first interactive and bilingual storybook app to support literacy development, The Baobab, in 2012.
We are excited to welcome new global partners, storytellers, artists, animators, and talents! Our door is open, always!
LET’S KEEP CREATING!
Core Team
Meet the individuals that work in the Motion Light Lab and support the vision that makes VL2 Storybook Apps a reality.
Melissa Malzkuhn
Founder + Creative Director
Lorna Quandt
Science Director
Jason Lamberton
Motion Capture Technician
Jianye Wang
3D Animator
Conrad Baer
Project Manager
MJ Kielbus
Production Specialist
Yiqiao Wang
Creative Coordinator / Senior Artist
Melissa Herzig
Director at Translation of Science and Learning Lab
Sarah Miller
Community & Social Strategist
Tayla Newman
Graduate Research Assistant
Creators
The magic within our stories comes from the determination and hard work of the individuals, past and present, that helped create these stories.
Jacob Shamberg, Design
Tim Kettering, iOS Programming
Tyler Freeman, Android Programming
Zilvinas Paludnevicious, Video Production
Wei Wang, Video Production
Patrick Whiche, Video Production
Claire Tucker, Video Production
Joseph “Pepe” Wagnon, Design
Lauren Benedict, Design Production
CSD Creative, Art, Video, and Design Production
Storytellers
VL2 Storybook Apps wouldn’t be possible without the individuals in front of the camera that tell our stories to the world.
April Jackson-Woodard, The Baobab & The Blue Lobster
Justin Jackerson, The Boy Who Cried Wolf
Lorne Farnovitch, The Solar System
Benjamin Lewis, The Little Airplane That Could
Miyuki Nakagawa, The Baobab Japanese - JSL
Victoria Lessing, The Baobab New Zealand - NZSL
Bea Bouwmeester, The Baobab Dutch - NGT
Morten Lundahl, The Baobab Norway - NSL
Rosa Lee Timm, That’s My Blue Crayon! - ASL
Joey Antonio, The Lazy Elephant - ASL
Abdulrahman AlGhamdi, The Baobab Saudi - SASL
Conrad Baer, Museum of Errors - ASL
Sofia Giansanti, Museo delgi Errori - LIS
Vera Shamaeva, The Baobab Russian, The Blue Lobster Russian, Teremok/Tepemok & The Giant Turnip/Penka - RSL
Betsie Marie Kulikov, Teremok - ASL
Robert Siebert, The Giant Turnip - ASL
Mookda “Lek” Boonmee, The Baobab Thailand - TSL
Justin Perez, Eat Your Veggies - ASL
Artists
Our apps are awash with brilliant colors and immersive artwork that wouldn’t exist without the talented artists on our team.
Yiqiao Wang, The Baobab (and all international editions), The Blue Lobster & The Solar System, That’s My Blue Crayon!
Pamela Witcher, The Boy Who Cried Wolf
Tim Woodford, The Little Airplane That Could
Silvia Palmieri, Museum of Errors/Museo degli Errori
Alexei Simonov, Teremok/Tepemok
Alexei Svetlov, The Giant Turnip/Penka
Melissa Malzkuhn, Buck & Bull
Meeya Tjiang, Eat Your Veggies
Veerawit “Koi” Chiabchalard, The Lazy Elephant
Global Collaborators
Our projects thrive because of the support and the commitment from our CoLab partners in developing storybook apps in other languages and leading their local teams.
Joseph Murray & Morgen Lund
Funded/Supported by the Norwegian Extra Foundation for Health and Rehabilitation - Norway
Miyuki Nagakawa & Nozomi Tomita
Special thanks to Nippon Foundation - Japan
Victoria Lessing
Merge NZ - New Zealand
Samet Demirtas
Supported by the Sabanci Foundation, in a partnership with Turkish Association of the Deaf and Boğaziçi University - Turkey
Annemieke Van Kampen
Kentalis - Netherlands
Abdulrahman AlGhamdi
Saudi Arabia
Silvia Palmieri
Centro Assistenza per Bambini Sordi e Sordociechi Onlus (CABSS) / Assistance Center for Deaf and Deafblind Children - Italy
Robert Siebert, Alla Mallabiu & Zoya Boytseva
Supported by Communication Services for the Deaf, US Embassy Moscow; US-Russia Peer-to-Peer Dialogue Program, in a partnership with Ya Tebya Slyshu - Russia
Noppawan Thamsiriboon
U.S. Embassy Bangkok & National Association of the Deaf Thailand - Thailand
Roberto Wirth
Fulbright Program - Italy-USA
Luilly Segundo
Asociación Nacional de Sordos de Panamá - Panama
Champions + Backers
Thanks to those that believe in our work, we are able to continue creating stories to share with the world.
Access Interpreting
Ashoka Accelerator Programme
California School for the Deaf
Centro Assistenza per Bambini Sordi e Sordociechi Onlus (CABSS) / Assistance Center for Deaf and Deafblind Children
Communication Services for the Deaf
Kendall Demonstration Elementary School
Kentalis NL
Library of Congress
Mitsubishi Electric America Foundation
National Association of the Deaf Thailand
National Science Foundation
Nippon Foundation
Norwegian Deaf Association
Obama Foundation
Sabanci Foundation
Sorenson Communications
Turkish Deaf Association
US Embassy Moscow
US Embassy Bangkok
VL2 - Gallaudet University
World Learning (US Department of State)
Ya Tebya Slyshu
Zero Project