2021 Faculty & Staff
Founders, Anne Deane Berman, PhD & Dr. Steven Lee Berman
Since 1998, DIGIVATIONS’ Founders have invested their decades of experience acquired in Academia (UCLA, UBC), Government, Creative Arts, and Technology Industries, in establishing and positively enabling an international community of thousands of youth, educators and professionals to exponentially advance the fabric of society paralleling the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals.
The Founders of DIGIVATIONS Education Ventures (Canada) DIGIVATIONS CAMP DEMIGOD INSTITUTE (US Federal 501(C)3) and DIGIVATIONS XGENS (Model UN) are Anne Deane Berman, Ph.D. and Dr. Steven Lee Berman. Both were former professors at UCSB and UCLA, respectively. They represented the entire University of California establishing one of the most successful industry-university matching grants programs in digital technologies and content (Advanced Computing- SETI@home, AI, Precision Agriculture, Drug Discovery, Energy, Intelligent Infrastructure, Remote Medicine, 21st Century Entertainment, among others) generating over $300 million in revenue for the State of California from the late 90’s through the mid-2000’s. Dr. Anne Deane Berman is also an internationally performed composer and a former faculty member at UCSB, Iowa State University and University of British Columbia.
Heavily influenced by the United States and U.S.S.R. Space Race, Dr. Steven Lee Berman has served as a materials and computation engineer writing computer programs to analyze some of the first moon rock samples, and he also contributed to the research and design for some of the most advanced engineering and bioengineering applications including the Space Shuttle's heat shield. For the past 30 years, he has actively served as an Intellectual Property, Entertainment, Corporate and Non-Profit Attorney in Los Angeles and Silicon Valley. He continues to be involved in numerous educational, technology and interactive media content start-ups and established the first formal enterprise to connect Silicon Valley technologists and creatives with the then more established entertainment corporate and talent communities in Hollywood (see Wired Magazine Article). He also co-designed the curriculum for the first Digital Media Masters Degree program in Canada at the Great Northern Way Consortium Campus in British Columbia, Canada (ECU, UBC, BCIT and SFU).
Dr. Steve has also established economic partnerships and designed innovation pipeline programs for cities, governments, states, universities, and countries including founding the California-Canada Strategic Innovation Partnership which focused on Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine, Infectious Diseases, Nanotechnology, as well as Advanced Transportation and Energy.
Both Drs. Steve and Anne Berman established a NASA award winning STEM+ARTS+MOVEMENT 501(c)(3) educational non-profit in the United States, DIGIVATIONS CAMP DEMIGOD INSTITUTE, and Innovation & Literary Camps featuring the world’s first and only overnight Camp Half-Blood (for which Jacob Berman was the creative force and a Founder); Harry Potter Campincluding Harry Potter Sustainable Universe focused on teaching students and adults about the United Nations 17 Sustainable Development Goals and how to implement creative works and innovations supporting them, and Camp Fandom. To date, Drs. Berman through DIGIVATIONS have taught over 5,000 students, ages 5-25.
DIGIVATIONS also established and operates its educational programs in BC, Canada through an entity known as DIGIVATIONS EDUCATION VENTURES. The collective programs also focus on professional development having taught 2,000 educators and community innovation entities.
Through our organizations, many high school and college students have received substantial benefits ranging from service credit hours and other awards, positions in our organizations and other professional enterprises, and university scholarships based on their work in our programs.
Drs. Bermans’ current focus is on further developing its high school, Running Start, university and young professionals Model UN non-profit initiatives, DIGIVATIONS XGENS, and its academic and industry programs focused on the application and implementation of the United Nations 17 Sustainable Development Goals.
Heavily influenced by the United States and U.S.S.R. Space Race, Dr. Steven Lee Berman has served as a materials and computation engineer writing computer programs to analyze some of the first moon rock samples, and he also contributed to the research and design for some of the most advanced engineering and bioengineering applications including the Space Shuttle's heat shield. For the past 30 years, he has actively served as an Intellectual Property, Entertainment, Corporate and Non-Profit Attorney in Los Angeles and Silicon Valley. He continues to be involved in numerous educational, technology and interactive media content start-ups and established the first formal enterprise to connect Silicon Valley technologists and creatives with the then more established entertainment corporate and talent communities in Hollywood (see Wired Magazine Article). He also co-designed the curriculum for the first Digital Media Masters Degree program in Canada at the Great Northern Way Consortium Campus in British Columbia, Canada (ECU, UBC, BCIT and SFU).
Dr. Steve has also established economic partnerships and designed innovation pipeline programs for cities, governments, states, universities, and countries including founding the California-Canada Strategic Innovation Partnership which focused on Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine, Infectious Diseases, Nanotechnology, as well as Advanced Transportation and Energy.
Both Drs. Steve and Anne Berman established a NASA award winning STEM+ARTS+MOVEMENT 501(c)(3) educational non-profit in the United States, DIGIVATIONS CAMP DEMIGOD INSTITUTE, and Innovation & Literary Camps featuring the world’s first and only overnight Camp Half-Blood (for which Jacob Berman was the creative force and a Founder); Harry Potter Campincluding Harry Potter Sustainable Universe focused on teaching students and adults about the United Nations 17 Sustainable Development Goals and how to implement creative works and innovations supporting them, and Camp Fandom. To date, Drs. Berman through DIGIVATIONS have taught over 5,000 students, ages 5-25.
DIGIVATIONS also established and operates its educational programs in BC, Canada through an entity known as DIGIVATIONS EDUCATION VENTURES. The collective programs also focus on professional development having taught 2,000 educators and community innovation entities.
Through our organizations, many high school and college students have received substantial benefits ranging from service credit hours and other awards, positions in our organizations and other professional enterprises, and university scholarships based on their work in our programs.
Drs. Bermans’ current focus is on further developing its high school, Running Start, university and young professionals Model UN non-profit initiatives, DIGIVATIONS XGENS, and its academic and industry programs focused on the application and implementation of the United Nations 17 Sustainable Development Goals.
Artist Edward Buendia
Edward Buendia (New Jersey: DRAWING, PAINTING, WEAPON DESIGN, INTERESTS IN SCIENCE, HISTORY, HUMAN RIGHTS, & ADVOCACY FOR CHILDREN) For a decade, Artist Edward Buendia has collaborated with Drs. Steve and Anne to visually express Dr. Steve's ideas which often juxtapose seemingly disparate concepts. The result is a repertoire of dozens of new works, from intimate drawings, to acrylic paintings and large murals, which help define many DIGIVATIONS Innovation Class topics, including Ancient Greek History to Commercial Space; Artificial Intelligence to Language, among many others.
DIGIVATIONS™ Camp Demigod Artist and Senior Faculty (2010-present), has created over a hundred images in collaboration with Co-Founders Steven Lee Berman and Anne Deane Berman, PhD. “His collaborative relationship with Dr. Steve is extraordinary. Eddie is able to interpret Steve’s complex concepts to create evocative images.” These images include illustrations for their “Rocketry Playbook”, “Sphere of Influence Game”, and murals, paintings and drawings created at Camp Demigod. He teaches drawing and painting and illustrates the camper’s characters and worlds. |
He is the Founder and Creator of the non-profit “Eyes of the Innocent” children’s art program. Since 1975, he has taught over 3,000 children and adults in fine arts. In addition to his expert teaching, he has a long history of establishing and collaborating on the development of socially valuable multi-disciplinary artistic initiatives. In the 1970s, he founded Artistas Del Barrio, a collective of muralists in Southern California whose murals have taken on historical significance and influenced generations of muralists. In the last two years, he painted four shrines at Our Lady of Guadalupe/St. Lawrence Catholic Church in Lindenwold, New Jersey. In winter 2018, At Our Lady of Soledad in Coachella, California he repaint murals he painted in 1977. In two years he has been commissioned to paint a shrine for Our Lady of Soledad in in Coachella.
Jacob Alan Berman (Leavenworth, WA: INTERESTS: MEDICINE, GLOBAL AFFAIRS, LEADERSHIP, HISTORY, INNOVATION/SCIENCE, AI, and COOKING) is the son of the founders of DIGIVATIONS CAMP DEMIGOD INSTITUTE and DIGIVATIONS XGENS. Much of the curriculum they developed over the last 10 years has been driven by his interests starting when he was seven years old, including science innovations, history, theater, creative writing, LEGO, Robotics, Minecraft, VR, Camp Half-Blood, Camp Fandom and Harry Potter Camps. Starting in 2017, his international experience as a Delegate to the Model UN in Geneva, Switzerland, as a Vice Chair at WIMUN New York 2019, and as a selected member of the Ad Hoc Crisis Committee where he represented the KGB at Yale University Model UN, is helping to shape DIGIVATIONS XGENS Model UN summer Academy and Conference as well as the XGENS Delegation. He also attended AIPAC leadership conference in Washington DC in 2019.
Jacob attends the Honors College at Central Washington University as a Running Start High School Student. Jacob finished third place nationally in the 2019 Kenpo karate and is a snowshoe guide in Leavenworth, Washington. Jacob is an education and fish production intern for the United States Department of the Interior Leavenworth Fish Hatchery. He is active in his regional USY leadership group. He enjoys cooking, memes, computer games, D&D, traveling and immersing himself in historical and current events. He also has two Leonberger Service Dogs.
When he was nine, Jacob inspired the founding of the World's First Overnight Camp Half-Blood, motivated by Rick Riordan’s novel series Percy Jackson, and Jacob’s passion of Greek history, language, culture, innovations and mythology. This DIGIVATIONS’ Camp encompasses other literary themes with a significant STEM+ARTS+MOVEMENT backdrop. This has provided Jacob with the opportunity to develop friendships from all around the world and gifted him the ability to empathize with other cultures. At age 14, he inspired the creation of the DIGIVATIONS XGENS Global College Preparatory, Model United Nations Academies, Delegation and Cascade Conferences (DXCIMUN), a non-profit North American affiliate of DIGIVATIONS. |
Our Staff Recruitment Deadline is May 1, 2021 learn more
XGENS
DIGIVATIONS XGENS is the North American Recruitment Partner for World Federation of United Nations Associations (WFUNA) WIMUN GENEVA 2019 and NEW YORK 2020, and an International Delegation. DIGIVATIONS XGENS Global College Preparatory, Model UN Academies, and Cascadia Conferences (DXCIMUN) is a non-profit North American affiliate of NASA award winning DIGIVATIONS’ family of K-25 educational entities. XGENS.org offers global, multidisciplinary career, professional development and leadership programs in fields encompassing the creative arts, cultural heritage, diplomacy, technology policy and scientific exploration.