About Us
Our Company
Every great journey starts with an idea, and ours began with Journey to Recovery™, our flagship educational board game. The Journey to Recovery™ game started as a fun and creative way to teach pharmacy students about interprofessional collaboration in opioid use disorder treatment. As an Adjunct Assistant Professor at Purdue University College of Pharmacy, our co-founder, Molly Nichols, wanted to help revamp how substance use was taught to pharmacy students. An avid board game player herself, one day, as she was playing Harry Potter™ Hogwarts™ Battle with friends, lightning struck (pun intended) – and the early concept for Journey to Recovery™ was born! With the help of co-founder Carolanne “CC” Wartman, an Assistant Clinical Professor at the University of Arizona College of Pharmacy, Journey to Recovery™ was brought to life one card at a time.
After pilot testing the Journey to Recovery™ game at universities across the United States – including Purdue University, the University of Arizona, and the University of Texas at Austin – Molly and CC were struck by the overwhelmingly positive feedback from instructors and students about how unique and effective their game was at teaching health professionals about compassionate and evidence-based care for people who use drugs. Fast forward a few years full of marketing workshops, business webinars, and advice from mentors and friends, and Blue Opal Games was born!
Our company was founded on the idea that education and training for health professionals could – and should! – be fun. We leverage the research behind serious games and gamification to create more engaging and effective learning experiences for health professionals. Our company exclusively focuses on developing games about drug use, harm reduction, and substance use disorder treatment to address a clear and well-defined gap in health professional training on these topics. Plus, like many people across the United States, our founders have been personally impacted by substance use disorder and are fierce advocates for loving, person-centered care.
We invite you to explore our website and learn more about what we do. We’re proud of what we’ve built, and we’re excited you’re here to share it with you!
Our Team
Molly A. Nichols, PharmD, MS, MATS, is the Co-Owner and President of Blue Opal Games. A pharmacist and health services researcher by training, Molly specializes in substance use disorder education and research. Her passion for this work is driven by her personal experiences, including the loss of her mom from complications of a decades-long battle with alcohol use disorder. Molly has helped lead several statewide educational initiatives about evidence-based care for substance use disorders, including Texans Expanding Access to Compassionate Healthcare for Opioid Use Disorder (TEACH OUD) and Improving Pharmacy Awareness of Compassionate Treatment for Opioid Use Disorder (ImPACT OUD) in Indiana. She has delivered over 500 hours of education to a variety of health care practitioners and learners through these initiatives as well as through her adjunct faculty appointments at Purdue University and Butler University. You can learn more about her work at her Purdue faculty page here or see what she’s been up to on LinkedIn here!
Carolanne C. “CC” Wartman, PharmD, BCPS, BCPP, is the Co-Owner and Vice President of Blue Opal Games. A board-certified psychiatric pharmacist and Assistant Clinical Professor at the University of Arizona, CC is passionate about advancing mental health care through education, stigma reduction, and evidence-based practice. She specializes in psychiatric pharmacy practice, education, and research, with expertise spanning serious mental illness, substance use disorders, and health equity. CC has been an invited speaker at national and regional professional conferences to share her work on the treatment and stigma surrounding substance use disorders. CC’s passion for this space is also deeply personal, shaped by her experiences supporting both her brother and her best friend in overcoming long battles with addiction. You can learn more about her work at her University of Arizona faculty page here!