Rebecca Horrace, Ed.D., has been consistently involved in children’s education, from brick-and-mortar classrooms to running a homeschool cooperative program and even founding and leading a 4-H club for military youth. She is an educational expert in the areas of child development, child-centered learning, children's play, and developmentally appropriate best practices. Rebecca founded Playful Insights Consulting to bridge the gap between play and education across toys, content, media, and curricula using UX research, child-development knowledge, and childhood play expertise.
Rebecca holds both her Bachelors and Masters in Elementary Education from Northern Arizona University, along with her Reading Specialist and Structured English Immersion Endorsements. She earned her Doctorate in Education through Indiana University with a research focus on the intersection of play and popular media with literacy components while utilizing technology to expand the definition of local by converting distant interactions into a common, shared space.
Rebecca has taught elementary school, both in public schools and homeschool cooperative environments, and at the university level as a Lecturer for pre-service educators. As a play expert, Rebecca contributes as Editor to the Play in Education Newsletter, which is a quarterly publication that advocates for play in the classroom. Her expertise and passion have earned her title of Play Ambassador for the Genius of Play, a non-profit website devoted to play advocacy. It is Rebecca’s passion to reignite the dwindling spark between play and education along her career journey.