Game On for Mental Health + June Networking

Windy City EdTech
Monthly notes from The Ed Tech Institute of Chicago

Welcome to the EdTech Institute of Chicago’s May newsletter! EIC is a volunteer-led organization with a mission of elevating Chicago and the Midwest as a world-class hub for edtech innovation.

What’s included:

• EIC x LEAP Summer Social & Donation Request

• Partner Spotlight: Superbetter - Game On for Mental Health

As we head into the summer, district leaders are already navigating a complex roadmap for the upcoming school year. From the realities of AI integration to the challenge of student engagement, the priorities are shifting fast.

Join The EdTech Institute of Chicago (EIC) and LEAP Innovations for a Summer Social and Panel Discussion where we pull back the curtain on what administrators are actually prioritizing for the 2026-2027 academic year.

Why you should be there:

• Insights: Hear directly from an expert panel on national research trends and on-the-ground administrator perspectives.

• Community: Network with Chicago’s brightest founders, educators, and advocates.

• Mission: Support EIC’s work in strengthening our local edtech ecosystem.

The Details:

• 📍 Where: LEAP Innovations (Steps from the UIC-Halsted Blue Line)

• 🍹 Vibe: Casual with light refreshments, high-level insights, and great conversation.

• 🎟️ Access: Our events are “pay-what-you-can.” We suggest a $10 donation to help us keep these community gatherings running!

> Grab your spot now!

Can’t Make It but Want to Support EIC?
EIC has a goal of raising $2K to support our annual operating costs (website hosting, etc) as well as seed our budget for networking events. If you are unable to attend on June 11 but feel this community offers value, please consider making a donation via the event sign up (there is an option for “can’t attend but want to support”)

> Choose “donate only” on the event sign upThanks for contributing to the community so we can continue to enhance the value for all of us!

We sat down with Keith Wakeman, CEO of SuperBetter, to talk about resilience science, gameful learning, and why taking care of educators is just as important as reaching students.

What if the tools we use to build resilience, mental health and student success could feel less like homework and more like a game? Keith Wakeman has spent the last decade building exactly that.

SuperBetter is an evidence-based mental health and performance platform grounded in more than a decade of peer-reviewed research. The mindset-led program is designed with the simple idea that we can use the same strengths naturally displayed in game play (e.g. optimism, agency, social connection, willingness to fail forward, etc.) to overcome obstacles in real life — SuperBetter is now making its way into classrooms, college campuses, and teacher professional development programs across the country.

Keith Wakeman didn’t arrive at SuperBetter by way of psychology or education. He spent his early career in the U.S. food industry, moving from brand management into innovation and new venture development. His throughline? A love of building things that didn’t exist yet.

“I love innovation,” he says. “That’s what I kept chasing.”

That instinct led him to SuperBetter, a framework invented by game designer and researcher Jane McGonigal to help herself heal from a serious concussion. A San Francisco startup launched an initial SuperBetter app in 2012 before quickly running out of runway and closing its doors. In 2015, Wakeman founded a company in Chicago and acquired the SuperBetter IP. Under his leadership, SuperBetter has transformed from a ‘self-help app’ into a global innovation platform for health and performance, with a growing footprint in education, and future opportunities in digital health, sports and cybersecurity.

The SuperBetter Mindset is an easy-to-teach mental framework. It has 7 pillars and feels like playing life as a game. Students challenge themselves and go for epic wins. They complete quests, reframe obstacles as bad guys to battle, activate power-ups, recruit allies, and adopt a secret identity. The gameful framework builds resilience and fosters a supportive culture of thriving. It can be taught and activated with or without technology.

This mindset-led approach makes SuperBetter unique from traditional, education-led programs. Ten peer-reviewed studies back the SuperBetter approach. The published studies show significant reductions in anxiety and depression, and improvements in resilience, self-efficacy, grades and attendance. The data shows mental health and wellbeing improvements in weeks, and sustained over the long-term.,

In recent years, Keith has focused SuperBetter on the education channel. His goal is to fill the gap for a proactive solution to the youth mental health crisis that is practical, evidence-based, and globally scalable.

Indiana University quickly became a customer and partner. They have added SuperBetter to a required course for first year students, used it as a framework for student mentoring, and created an 8-week course now offered twice each semester that teaches the SuperBetter Mindset to support student success and retention.

SupeBetter is now developing a Classroom Toolkit — a card-based program with 10-minute activities for high school and college settings. The toolkit is flexible for use in Tier 1, Tier 2 and Tier 3 settings, and equips educators to help students overcome learning barriers related to mental, emotional and social wellbeing.

Perhaps most meaningfully, SuperBetter is also developing a new Teacher Wellbeing Program as a resource for school districts and universities to improve teacher retention and reduce burnout.

SuperBetter is headquartered in Glen Ellyn and Keith was raised in Joliet, so the organization’s Illinois roots run deep. A state grant is supporting the company’s growth by fueling an active R&D collaboration with Northern Illinois University. The team’s global reach — including published studies showing efficacy on 5 continents, recognition by the World Economic Forum as a Top Innovator in Youth Mental Health, and partnerships in SubSaharan Africa and the U.S. — is built on a foundation that starts here.

Wakeman is candid about where SuperBetter is in its journey. The edtech product was a great place to start. It is proven to be effective, and creates valuable in-market learning, but faces a challenge familiar to many in this space: it’s not readily scalable as a standalone offering.

Keith’s focus in 2026 is to expand SuperBetter Classroom into a platform for schools and universities by adding the Teacher Wellbeing Program and Classroom Toolkit. The company plans to implement these new products with lead customers this fall before expanding next year.

When we asked Keith what he’d share with other edtech leaders, his answer was immediate: practice self-care.

“Entrepreneurs are visionary by nature. But real mental health foundations aren’t just what we’re selling — they’re what allow us to keep building. You have to actually do the work yourself.”

Sustainable leadership requires the same gameful mindset he’s trying to teach: treat challenges as bad guys to battle, build in recovery time, and recognize that failing forward is still moving forward.

SuperBetter is actively seeking school and district partners to pilot the Classroom Toolkit and Teacher Wellbeing Program. Reach out to Keith on LinkedIn or visit superbetter.com to learn more.

• LEAP Innovations Spring Virtual Series | May 19 & 21
  Register for free for two sessions this month: May 19 - Prevent the Summer Math Slide, and May 21 - Preparing Chicagoland Students for an AI-Enabled World. Recordings of past sessions also are available.

• EIC x LEAP Summer Social: Deep Dive on District Priorities for 2026-27 | June 11

  Brief panel and networking open to all who are part of Chicago’s edtech innovation eco-system. Register today!

• Leaders in Tutoring: Chicago Breakfast | June 18
  Tutoring community event with breakfast and talks on the future of AI in tutoring.

• EIC Tech Walk | August 9
  Get outside and do some speed networking with edtech innovators while you walk! Full details coming soon, please save the date.

• Scholarship funds are available to those who apply for the LEAP Pilot Network 2026-27 Chicagoland-Area Cohort by the May 29 priority deadline. This significantly reduces the cost to participate in this yearlong cohort-based design approach to sustainable school improvement and student-centered learning.

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Got something the community should know? Share a win, an event or an opportunity — we’ll amplify it next month.