Bubba Gaeddert
Varsity Esports Foundation Leading change with STEM through esports in schools.
United States
Bubba currently is the Executive Director of the Varsity Esports Foundation (VEF), as well as an adjunct professor in higher-ed since 2013. The VEF is a non-profit that strives to increase literacy around esports and how to be proactive with such initiatives as healthy lifestyles, curriculum, mental health, diversity and inclusion, toxicity, addictions, suicide prevention, internet safety, and belonging through STEM education and digital citizenship. Bubba has worked in the non-profit and traditional sports industry for 20 years with the YMCA, NCAA, NAIA, Parks and Recs, Sports Commissions, and the Chamber of Commerce. He has been a gamer and self-proclaimed NERD ever since he was a kid when his dad managed Radio Shacks in Oklahoma. Back in 2017, he dove deep into the esports industry through streaming and marketing, then realizing that students in disenfranchised low-income areas did not have the same access as students in the suburbs he partnered with many esports organizations to create this foundation. He now works to educate businesses, organizations, and schools about being proactive around the foundation's initiatives and providing a pathway to provide STEM education through gaming and esports clubs in schools.