Author, Journalist
Leigh Alexander is a journalist working at the intersection of technology and popular culture. She hosts the Guardian’s tech podcast, writes a technomancy column at Motherboard called "Oracles of the Web", and occasionally does narrative design for independent video games. She recently published Monitor, a cyberpunk novella, and launched an ASMR video series devoted to vintage computing. More projects can be found at leighalexander.net/about
VP of Design
Harley Baldwin has been a designer and leader in the AAA console game industry at notable game studios, including 2K, Nihilistic Software, Demiurge, Crystal Dynamics, LucasArts, and Her Interactive. She has worked on many titles and in many genres, from Rock Band and Tomb Raider to Call of Duty and XCOM. As a regular on the conference circuit, she is often found representing Schell Games as speaker and participant. Harley also makes sure to poke at things, look under rocks, and play every day.
CEO & Co-Founder, Author
Maria Burns Ortiz is co-founder and CEO of 7 Generation Games, which makes educational immersive video games and interactive apps. As a startup leader, she works on everything from business development to game design to fundraising. A NY Times bestselling author, Maria also leads the company's creative and narrative teams. She is a frequent speaker on entrepreneurship and women in tech, co-host of the More Than Ordinary podcast and believer in the power of games to have a transformative societal impact.
Publisher, Game Designer
Simon Carless has been working in and around the video game industry for the past 20+ years. He’s passionate about games, art, people, and bringing amazing creative endeavors to light via discoverability and curation. He’s most known for his role helping to shape the Game Developers Conference and the Independent Games Festival for the past decade plus, runs the popular Game Discoverability Weekly newsletter, and is also an investor and partner in indie game publisher No More Robots, which has published notable independent & PC console games including Yes, Your Grace, Hypnospace Outlaw, Descenders, & Not Tonight.
Consultant
Brian Crecente founded video gaming site Kotaku and co-founded Polygon. He was also the video games editor for Rolling Stone and for Variety and wrote a weekly gaming column for McClatchy-Tribune News Service for about a decade. He currently consults for publishers and the video game industry. Past and current clients include The Washington Post, LEGO, Minute Media, Survios, and Epic Games. He can be reached at Pad and Pixel.
Executive Director, Publisher
Drew Crecente is founder and executive director of Jennifer Ann's Group, a nonprofit charity preventing teen dating violence. He is also a teen dating violence lead at Emory's Injury Prevention Research Center (IPRCE) and a published researcher on violence prevention through pro-social video games. Drew speaks at conferences about the use of video games for positive change. His speaking engagements include GDC, Games for Change, Games for Health, and National Youth at Risk conferences. Drew produced Rispek Danis a 2019 Games for Change Awards Most Significant Impact nominee. He is the father of Jennifer Ann Crecente.
Game Designer
Sabrina Culyba is an independent designer with experience on a wide range of products including online games, mobile games, VR, board games, theme park rides, animatronics, and toys. She holds a degree in Computer Science and a Masters of Entertainment Technology from Carnegie Mellon University. Her professional work has spanned online games, VR, mobile apps, location-based entertainment, board games, and interactive animatronics. Sabrina is the author of The Transformational Framework (ETC Press, 2018), a handbook for creative teams working on transformation games to create change in players. She is a former Principal Designer at Schell Games, Pennsylvania's largest video game studio located in Pittsburgh. She also serves on the Executive Committee of the Global Game Jam, which hosts the world's largest game creation event at locations around the world every January.
Psychologist, Public Policy Expert
Pat is an American psychologist, former chief of staff for United States Senator Daniel Inouye and past president of the American Psychological Association. He has written nearly 175 peer-reviewed papers and has served as a faculty member at several U.S. universities. He is a member of the National Academy of Medicine, is a recipient of the APA Award for Lifetime Contributions to Psychology, and has been named an Honorary Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing.
Co-Founder, Game Consultant
Mark DeLoura leads Level Up Games, a learning game consultancy in Seattle, and is CTO/Co-founder of Games and Learning Inc. Mark worked as Senior Advisor for Digital Media in the Obama White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, finding ways to increase the use of games for impact and broadening the availability of K-12 computer science education. He's spent 25 years building games and game platforms at companies such as Sony, Nintendo, Google, THQ, and Ubisoft. In 2017, Mark was awarded the Ambassador Award at the Game Developers Choice Awards to recognize his contributions to the game industry.
Executive Director, Game Developer
Andrew Greenberg, executive director of the Georgia Game Developers Association, has been making his living as a game developer since 1990. Andrew co-created the “Fading Suns” roleplaying and computer games and was the original developer of White Wolf’s “Vampire: The Masquerade.” He has also worked on products with other roleplaying game companies, including “Star Trek Next Generation” and “Deep Space Nine.” His computer game credits include Noble Armada: Lost Worlds, Dracula Unleashed, Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, Emperor of the Fading Suns, Warhammer 40K: Final Liberation, Merchant Prince II, Mall Tycoon, Dungeon Crawlers, Dungeon Lords, The Virtual World of Kaneva, Railroad Tycoon Mobile, and the Global Agenda MMO. A fellow with the Mythic Imagination Institute, Andrew is also organizer of the Southeast Interactive Entertainment and Games Expo (SIEGE). He chairs the DeKalb Entertainment Commission.
Lecturer, Researcher
Ruud Jacobs is an assistant professor at the Department of Communication Science of the University of Twente. His research is mediapsychological, mostly focusing on the impacts of persuasive games and the ways in which they work to change attitudes. In 2017 he defended his dissertation, titled 'Playing to Win Over', as part of the Persuasive Gaming in Context joint research effort. Ruud lectures in technological aspects of communication science, and talks about games whenever he can.
Keen is a fourth-year doctoral candidate in the Clinical Psychology PhD program. He has an interest in the role of stress and stress markers in the relationship between sleep disorders, traumatic brain injury, posttraumatic stress disorder, and physical health among military service members and veterans. He is active in volunteerism and has organized several efforts to raise awareness on gender and diversity issues in his community, including Walk A Mile in Her Shoes and Operation Beautiful.
Director of Education, Transformational Games
Dr. Brooke Morrill serves as the Director of Education at Schell Games. Morrill uses her expertise in behavioral science, psychology, and research evaluation to increase the impact of and engagement in the company’s educational and transformational games. She identifies and secures extramural project funding in both the federal and private sectors in order to create and iteratively develop innovative, interactive experiences. In addition, she collaborates with universities and research institutions for product development and evaluation. She also maintains an active Board Certified Behavior Analyst-Doctoral credential from the Behavior Analyst Certification Board.
Psychologist
Dr. Elizabeth L. Richeson is a Psychologist in El Paso, Texas, the head of the Advisory Board for Jennifer Ann's Group, and former president of the Texas Psychological Foundation. She was recognized as the 2018 Psychologist of the Year by the Texas Psychological Association, is an expert on teen dating violence, appears regularly on news and talk shows, and lectures nationwide on a variety of issues related to teenagers, young adults, and relationships. She is the grandmother of Jennifer Ann Crecente.
Domestic Abuse Specialist
Jo Sharpen is the policy manager of the Children and Young People's Project at AVA (Against Violence and Abuse) in the U.K. and wrote the National U.K. Toolkit on children, young people and domestic violence for practitioners, Improving Safety, Reducing Harm, published by the Department of Health in 2009. She has also written numerous policy briefings, guidance and training packages on violence against women and girls; currently she is writing a book on domestic violence in teenage relationships.
Creative Producer, Critic
Peter's work at Auroch Digital includes Games Workshop's Dark Future: Blood Red States and Modiphius's Agatha Christie - Death on the Cards, as well as numerous other original IP and porting projects. He has a variety of credits on many other indie titles, and runs the Staying In podcast.