About Us
A Team With Heart
The human element
What's our secret? Great people.
We are a team with heart, and an unwavering commitment to do massive good in the world. We work hard, always speak kindly and remember that happy, fulfilled children and therapy providers are the ultimate goal.
Our values
Children First
Many companies develop innovation for adults, and children are an after-thought or ignored all together. We are building innovation for children first because we believe that healthy children are the foundation for a solid future for all.
Clinician Driven
Usually technology in the rehab space is led by individuals and teams who are not therapists. We believe that innovation that is spear-headed by clinicians with hands-on experience is imperative to truly solve the problems that our industry faces. The unique perspective that therapists provide changes the trajectory of a company and the innovation and has significant value overall.
Purpose
When you're building technology with the purpose of doing good on a global scale, it's much easier to deal with the inevitable challenges of growing a company. Through the highs and lows, we weave therapeutic intention into every fabric of this company. Our purpose quite simply is to use technology for good and support providers in their mission for healing.
Kindness
Kindness is at the core of our business decisions, and in how we communicate with our customers and within our organization. We cultivate kindness in the software and within our team, to serve each other better!
Our Team
Lindsay Watson, PT, MPT
Chief Executive Officer, Co-Founder
Lindsay has spent her career working in outpatient adult and pediatric PT, as well as school-based PT. Her work in those environments inspired her to found Augment Therapy in 2017 with the goal of improving the therapy experience for children and bringing increased innovation to the pediatric market.
In 2019, she was named by Crain's as a "Most Notable Woman in Technology," and a "Homegrown Hero" by Cleveland.com.
Her favorite Augment Therapy game is Puddle Jumper because she loves the Augmented Reality water effect created during the exercise.
Lindsay loves her work at Augment Therapy because of the incredible team surrounding her, and the exciting stories she hears about the patients using the solution
Steve Blake
Chief Technology Officer, Co-Founder
Steve’s career in the tech industry has spanned over 30 years, including 8 years focused primarily on creating literacy software and animated content for children with Lexia Learning Systems. He also has previous experience working in the medical technology sector, as he was the Senior Developer of MedActionPlan.com and MyMedSchedule.com for 12 years.
Steve’s work as a software developer is supplemented by his background in music composition which he uses to facilitate engagement, particularly in software meant for children. Steve is passionate about motivating children through music and believes that kids aren’t given enough credit for their open and sophisticated musical taste – he has found that even the youngest children respond positively to “classical” music and instruments and are fascinated by music from different cultures.
Elise Baron, PhD
Director of Research
Elise is a research scientist with a focus on biomechanics, movement disorders, and motion capture technology. She completed her PhD in Biomedical Engineering from Cleveland State University.
She was inspired to join the team while watching an intro video on our website. “It brought me to tears. I knew that I had to be a part of Augment Therapy.”
Since joining, Elise has been leading our research efforts to understand better how Augment Therapy impacts children in various settings to ensure we make the greatest impact possible.
She is particularly fond of the dancing pirate in the Single Limb Stance exercises.
Lisa Blake, MA
Director of Product
Lisa is the liaison between the therapists, patients, and parents using our app and the developers who are creating it. She works closely with both sets of people to prioritize and manage our development roadmap.
Lisa’s favorite part of working at Augment Therapy is how the team works together to find solutions to difficult problems.
For example, after meeting with a few therapists, she realized our Single Limb Stance exercise was frustrating to them as it didn’t quite work the way they needed it to.
“We brainstormed some solutions as a team, and then our CTO spent a weekend implementing a new way of tracking that improved the entire app. Every time I see that exercise, I think about how we listened to our users, worked together to develop solutions, and successfully solved the problem.”
Ontario Britton
Senior Developer
Ontario is a veteran iOS software and game developer, with work featured by Apple, Forbes, Fox News and others. Among his professional accomplishments are being awarded Apple’s “App Store Best of” recognition and co-authoring a research paper published by SIGGRAPH.
At Augment Therapy, he uses that expertise to extend our existing games to meet child and therapist needs. He also prototypes new games and interactions for our exercises. He likes the immersion aspect of walking and flying in our 3D worlds, the best of the games he works on.
“I’m moved by our efforts to assist children in need, and I’m excited to do that with cutting-edge technology.”
Wayne Brown
Technical Support Specialist
Wayne has a long-established career providing technical support in both hardware and software environments. Before joining the Augment Therapy team, he was a Team leader for one of the world’s largest drug and pharmaceutical companies, where he was tasked with the training of all remote support technicians in a rapidly growing virtual environment. His commitment to excellence through personalized care has always been central to his success.
Carmen Fontana, ME
Vice President of Operations
After spending twenty plus years in technology and business consulting, Carmen yearned for a more mission oriented career which lead her to Augment Therapy. Having faced several health challenges of her own, she appreciates the impact of healthcare innovation.
Named by Consulting Magazine as a Top Female Leader in Technology Innovation, she frequently talks to groups on Mixed Reality, AI, IoT, and other emerging technology topics. She has been featured in numerous publications, including Information Week, IEEE Transmittor, and CIO Magazine. She holds a Master's in Engineering from Case Western Reserve University.
As an aging runner, she especially loves Augment Therapy’s orthopedic and sports medicine exercises as they help ease her various aches and pains.
David Grimes
Music Director
David is an award-winning composer, sound designer, and educator with over 30 years experience in creating music for classical and commercial media. He has a Bachelor of Music from Berklee College of Music and a Master of Music in Composition from the University of Toronto.
Matt Mathers
3D Generalist
Matt is avid about all things 3D modeling, having spent the last seven years working with Blender, prototyping and learning the Unity game engine, and dabbling in mixed realities in his spare time. Among his passion projects included launching a monetized YouTube channel to live stream youth football games, which creatively leveraged Blender and Unity for promos and graphics.
Ultimately he decided to turn his passion into a full-time endeavor and pivoted his career path to join us. “Augment Therapy seemed like a really great opportunity for me to use my skills and continue to grow them. I decided to pursue this career to work on applications that could make the world more fun and interesting.”
Matt loves to explore Castle Quest within the app, as the levels are big and fun to explore. “I get a lot of exercise just walking and flying around!”
Amy Pratt
Director of Clinical Customer Success
Amy Pratt is a pediatric physical therapist with over 20 years of experience working with children ages 2-22. Her undergraduate work was in exercise physiology at The Ohio State University, with an internship in sports performance enhancement. Amy also has a master’s degree in physical therapy from Andrews University. Amy has special interests in working collaboratively with other therapists to treat complex patients, integrating motor activities in the classroom, exploring early mobility and assistive technology as well as animal assisted therapies. Amy is also mom to two active and adventurous 13 & 19-year-old boys.
Amy is excited to join Augment Therapy after working closely with the team behind the scenes as one of the lead therapists for an important pilot program. She has also been working with patients and families to provide valuable improvements to games and exercises in the Augment Therapy App. She can’t wait to get out and show off all the fun ways to integrate this solution into therapy sessions!
Rebecca Turk
Director of Marketing
Rebecca is a marketing, communications and brand expansion specialist with over 25 years of experience working with tech & luxury brands. She has a proven track record of growing highly successful global brands such as international shapewear brand, Spanx and professional game controller company, Scuf Gaming. She has also held strategic roles with Usher’s New Look foundation founded by entertainer, Usher Raymond, IV. She has managed and mentored marketing teams, developed & executed strategic communications campaigns, led global product launches and unique celebrity & influencer marketing initiatives.
As someone who focuses her personal energy on wellness and healing, Rebecca is also a sound healing practitioner and Reiki Master where she focuses on healing, meditation and relaxation experiences.
Rebecca loves being a collaborative member of the Augment Therapy team and is excited to share the extraordinary stories from Augment Therapy’s patients and providers with the world.
Dawud Sharrieff
Product Testing / Software Development Intern
Dawud’s personal experiences inspired him to pursue a Rehabilitation Engineering major at Cleveland State University: “For as long as I could remember, I knew I wanted to bring or restore ability to those who have limited physical ability. You could say I have somewhat of a personal investment in this mission, having been born with cerebral palsy. My spark and motivation: To give people, and especially kids, a better quality of life through research and development of advanced technology/devices.”
At Augment Therapy, he is responsible for testing the product for effectiveness. Additionally, he is currently developing 3D Avatars, which represent the wide range of body types of people with disabilities.
As part of his testing duties, Dawud gets to spend lots of time playing all the Augment Therapy exercises and games. His favorite are the apps’ “open-world” free play games because “they incorporate many exercises in one platform in a way users may not be aware of while playing or going through the activities.”
Cecile Pham
Advisor
Cecile has over 15 years of experience in database design and machine learning. She currently works at Lexia Learning Systems and previously worked at Microsoft in the SQL Server Datawarehouse Group. Cecile has has a B.Sc. in Mathematics and Computer Science from MIT and a M.Sc. in Computer Science from the University of Washington.
Paul Schwarz
Advisor
Paul has been involved in the design and development of educational software since 1994. He is the CEO of Symphony Learning, a company he formed in 2006 to create technology solutions that provide meaningful, research-based learning experiences for students.
Anna Cushing, MD
Advisor
Dr. Cushing is a pediatric emergency medicine fellow at Children's Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA) with experience in clinical trial design. Her work as clinical project manager at an early stage medical device and digital health startup, Coherohealth,inspired her passion for developing innovative solutions to improve pediatric healthcare delivery and patient experience. She holds a BS in biomedical computation from Stanford University, MD from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and completed pediatric residency at Boston Children's Hospital. At CHLA she serves as a coach for the KidsX digital health accelerator.
Brian L. Davis, PhD
Advisor
Brian Davis has over 25 years’ experience with medical devices, sensor-based systems and biomedical engineering. He has represented the field at the international level, including serving as President of the International Society of Biomechanics from 2005 to 2007. After being a staff scientist at the Cleveland Clinic for 18 years, he assumed the position of Vice President and Director of the Medical Device Development Center within the Austen BioInnovation Institute in Akron. Currently he is the Associate Dean and Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Cleveland State University.
Sreekar Gadde
Advisor
Sreekar Gadde is the Executive Director at BlueTree Capital Group. At BlueTree, Sreekar leverages his background in engineering, law, and business to drive positive returns for his investors by selecting the best potential investment opportunities as well as mentoring companies in which they invest. What differentiates Sree from others in this industry is his ability to help companies develop comprehensive IP strategies – to identify what differentiates them from their competition and determine what forms of IP provide them with the best strategic value to protect that differentiation.
Prior to joining BlueTree, he worked as an IP litigator and an IP prosecutor at two top law firms, Ropes and Gray and Sterne Kessler, as well as Assistance Chief IP Counsel for Dynamics, Inc. In addition, he was a validation engineer and team lead for Intel’s microprocessor design business unit.
Sally Schriner
Advisor
As an Entrepreneur in Residence (EIR) for Youngstown Business Incubator, Sally works closely with startups and entrepreneurs advising them as they scale their businesses and seek follow-on funding. Sally is a seasoned marketing executive who has spent more than 25 years working with businesses of all sizes including public, private, venture-backed and private equity-owned companies. Her passion is helping businesses accelerate growth through strategic sales and marketing initiatives and strategic growth plans.
JumpStart Inc.
Advisor
JumpStart is a venture development organization, combining the principles of (private) venture capital and (non-profit) economic development to help entrepreneurs start and grow companies. In collaboration with our partners, JumpStart will generate dramatically improved and inclusive economic outcomes by supporting diverse entrepreneurs, optimizing entrepreneurial ecosystems and accelerating innovation.