The whole story
A scholar who never
stopped making things.
Erik A. Dewey was born in St. Petersburg Florida and lived there about two weeks before being whisked off to the coast of Maine. He spent some time living in Massachusetts and Rhode Island before leaving New England to live in Oklahoma. He graduated from the University of Tulsa with a B.S. in Marketing, from Southern Nazarene University with an MBA, and Oklahoma State University with a PhD in Educational Psychology.
St. Petersburg · Maine · Oklahoma The first publication of his work was in Hilti Today, a magazine from where his father worked, at the early age of 10. He continued to write off and on and began submitting his work for publication during college. He has written or contributed to ten books, twenty magazine articles, and is a popular reviewer of games. He is particularly fond of the work he did for the Star Wars line of games. Some of his books have sold internationally and he occasionally gets fan mail from across the globe.
He met his beautiful and talented wife at a court-ordered Defensive Driving class and has a precious daughter and a beloved son. He has a closet full of board games (most of them in English) and loves nothing more than to invite company over for an evening of dinner and game play.
Family strength and identity are important to Erik and he is a big proponent of family game play and adventures as a way to build that unity and strength. Focusing on the family unit as a whole builds strong bonds between family members that enhance the happy times and bring strength in the trying times.
Erik’s motto is “I want to make things better.”
Credentials & career
Three degrees, two decades of systems, one classroom at a time
A PhD earned out of pure conviction, ~20 years untangling corporate systems, and a long habit of teaching whatever he had just learned.
- 2020
Doctorate
PhD, Educational Psychology
Oklahoma State University · Stillwater / Tulsa, OK
Studying how games help people learn.
- 2016 – now
Day job
Business Systems Analyst
HireRight LLC · Tulsa, OK
The latest chapter in ~20 years as a business-systems analyst.
- 2008 – 2018
Teaching
Continuing Education Instructor
Tulsa Community College · Tulsa, OK
Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Access for working adults.
- 2003
Graduate
Master of Business Administration
Southern Nazarene University · Bethany, OK
Delta Mu Delta Honor Society.
- 1996 – 2015
Business analyst
Corporate Business Analyst
American Airlines · Tulsa, OK
Disbursements, then receivables — nearly two decades of untangling systems.
- 1994
Undergraduate
B.S. in Marketing
The University of Tulsa · Tulsa, OK
Minor in Management Information Systems · Golden Key Honor Society.
- First Place · OSU-Tulsa Creative Writing Contest, 2017
- 3 Minute Thesis · 2nd in department, 3rd in college
- Reviewer · Journal of Applied Research in Higher Education
- Golden Key & Delta Mu Delta Honor Societies
Ed-psych research
Publications & presentations
Peer-reviewed and conference work on games, motivation, and how people learn.
- Dewey, E. (2020). Using Games to Increase Classroom Interest. Oklahoma Association of Family and Consumer Sciences Conference, Stillwater, OK.
- Dewey, E. (2019). Using Games to Increase Classroom Interest. OSU 3-Minute Thesis Competition, Stillwater, OK.
- Dewey, E., Leggett, C., Strickland, C., & Tierney, A. J. (2018). Analysis of Factors in School Contexts: NCES School Data Across Surveys. Critical Questions in Education Symposium, Kansas City, MO.
- Leggett, C., Dewey, E., Strickland, C., & Tierney, A. J. (2018). Understanding Motivation and Choice in the College and Career Decision-Making Process. Critical Questions in Education Symposium, Kansas City, MO.
- Yough, M., Gordon, S. R., Finney, E., Haken, A., Matthew, S., Dewey, E., & Leggett, C. (2018). Diversity in the Undergraduate Classroom: Faculty Perspectives. Globalization, Diversity, and Education Conference, Airway Heights, WA.
- Stansberry, S. L., et al. (2017). 2006–2016 Trends and Issues in Educational Technology. Association for Educational Communications and Technology, Jacksonville, FL.
Beyond the CV
Family & community, first
The résumé lines that don’t pay, but matter most — where the “make things better” motto actually lives.
Service
Sunday School Teacher
Service
Boy Scout Merit Badge Councilor
Service
Treasurer, Arms Around BA
Service
Volunteer, Elementary Gifted Class
For over 15 years he’s co-hosted the On Board Games podcast — one of the longest-lasting shows in the subject — and still keeps a closet full of board games (most of them in English).