Meet The Team
Matthew Purdon
Store Owner
Matthew Purdon is the Founder, CEO & Chief Creative Officer for Woander World. Matthew has been inquiring into immersive and interactive forms of entertainment for over thirty years. He was the creator of “The Campus Beat” the first improvised, interactive sitcom for the Web in collaboration with ImprovOlympic and Del Close and co-founded Odyssey Works with Abe Burickson in 2001.
Matthew also has over 25 years of experience managing creative, development, design and product experiences for new and emerging businesses. He most recently worked as Sr. Product Director for Adobe's Digital Media Business leading Adobe's GenStudio solution to help customers use GenerativeAI to fuel their content supply chain. Prior to that, he was the Head of Enterprise Product for Adobe's Creative Cloud. He joined Adobe through the acquisition at Livefyre, where he was SVP of Product & Marketing. Matthew has helped build many other startups, including roles as the VP of High School Services for Chegg and the founding VP of Product for Suzy, an enterprise marketing research software. He has taught UX design for CSU East Bay, San Francisco State University and General Assembly and continues to invest and advise start-ups in creative technologies.
He began his journey as a theatre major at Northwestern University and has worked professionally as a director and an Equity actor. He currently serves on the board of Marin Theatre.
He holds an MFA in Art & Consciousness from JFK University, is an actively practicing landscape painter and a longtime spiritual practitioner of the Diamond Heart path. He lives in Mill Valley with his wife Liz and their 2 children with whom he play tests his latest immersive ideas.
Calvin Lin
Sr. Retail Associate
Calvin is a board game enthusiast from San Francisco. He is also a fan of escape rooms, video games, and all sorts of fun experiences. He is excited to be your guide into the Wylding Woods, and is always ready to recommend your next favorite game — just ask!
Charles Whelon
D&D Game Master
Charles S. Whelon leads our kids D&D classes and our Magic the Gathering community. Charles inborn gift of crafting and telling Fantasy stories was develoeped from a young age growing up under tutelage of his Father, Author and Illustrator Chuck Whelon. Aspiring to create captivating narratives along with exciting gameplay, the Woander community is the perfect place to deliver those experiences. Charles has completed his Associates degree in Communications at CCSF.
Colin Epstein
D&D Game Master
Colin Epstein (they/he) is a multi-disciplinary performer and professional Game Master for Dungeons & Dragons and other RPGs, born & raised in Berkeley. Their career in movement and theater has taken them from teaching kids to juggle in Taiwan to dancing in Europe to stages & sites throughout the Bay Area. You can catch them on stage with 13th Floor, Lizz Roman & Dancers, Tara Pilbrow Dance, and On Beyond; or listen to them on The Roll Report - available wherever you find your podcasts!
You can see more of their work at: Instagram/Bluesky: @therollreportcast
Jacquelyn Scott
Store Design
Jackie Scott works as a production design and scenic designer for film and theater across the Bay Area. She is designing the interior of the Woander retail store. The idea of the design is to feel as if nature is creeping back in, reclaiming the space. There will be natural elements, pops of whimsy, and lots of color throughout the store.
Josh Corn
Magic Mirror Design
Josh is one of the founders and lead creative technologist for Double Take Labs—a transdisciplinary design studio that focuses on developing unique ways of blending creative technology and physical design into interactive experiences. His work includes designing a robotic airport assistant for KLM airlines, custom vending machines and mechanical games, and hardware for immersive theater shows. Josh teaches in the Columbia University School of the Arts' Digital Storytelling Lab with a course called Creative Coding. He also teaches at New York University’s ITP program and CUNY City College of Technology in the Emerging Media Technology department.
Haley Who
Tree Design
Haley Who is a versatile artist whose career spans roles as a Specialty Costumer, Puppet Fabricator, Prop Designer, Production Designer, Puppeteer, Circus Performer, Event Producer and Art Director from film and television to live production.
She has collaborated with major studios like Jim Henson Company, Disney, Nickelodeon, Netflix, and Universal Studios on iconic projects such as The Dark Crystal, Fraggle Rock, Masked Singer, SpongeBob SquarePants, and Five Nights at Freddy’s.
After receiving her BFA in Sculpture, Haley Who has honed her expertise in sculpting, fabrication, and surface treatments, with works permanently displayed at renowned institutions including the San Francisco Zoo, Children’s Discovery Museum, Children’s Museum of Santa Rosa, Madame Tussauds Wax Museum, and the Museum of Moving Image in New York. Her clients have included Arnold Schwarzenegger and Wieden+Kennedy, among others high profile clients.
Driven by a love for creating unforgettable experiences in arts and entertainment, her travels have taken her through 13 countries to study puppetry and performance arts worldwide—from Vietnam and Tokyo to South America and Europe she has experienced the depth of performance arts cultures around the world. She has designed giant puppets for engaging audiences at art festivals such as Lightning in a Bottle, Burning Man, and Maker Faire.
Haley’s collaborations extend to experiential designers, spectacle performers, circus companies, and stage productions for clients like Google, Apple, and Airbnb to name a few. Through her artistry and performances across the globe, she aims to deliver magical experiences that captivate audiences of all ages and bring a spark of wonder to a sometimes mundane world.