Ellie Dix has been obsessed with board games from an early age. Not only playing them, but tweaking the rules for fun and designing her own. She firmly believes that board games have positively influenced her ability to interact with others, manage failure, work creatively with available resources, experiment with multiple paths to success, solve interesting problems, adapt to changing situations and make decisions quickly.

A teacher and educationalist, Ellie was previously owner and Director of Pivotal Education, the UK’s largest team of school behaviour specialists. Pivotal has helped thousands of teachers transform their classrooms and improve outcomes for learners.

A mother of two teenage boys, Ellie is now putting all her understanding of behaviour, experience with gamification, teaching skills and game-playing history to use, by helping other parents to introduce board games to family life. She believes they are a sure-fire antidote to unhealthy online distractions, and a means to a happier, more social family unit.

Ellie is author of the book, The Board Game Family: Reclaim your children from the screen, and designer of all Dark Imp games. Having reduced the self-publishing arm of The Dark Imp, Ellie now spends most of her time designing games for other companies. She designs games which she pitches to bigger publishers, develops games created by others and collaborates on interesting commission. 

In her spare time, she’ll usually be found playing a board game (unsurprisingly). But also loves singing, acting and ballroom dancing. Ellie has recently completed an OU maths degree… for fun.