2019 Games for Change Festival

Katie Salen is a Professor in the Department of Informatics at the University of California at Irvine, a member of the Connected Learning Lab, and Chief Designer and co-founder of Connected Camps. Her work focuses on meeting kids where they are at in order to design engaging, play-based... Read More →

J is an educator, game-based education evangelist, and LGBTQ+ advocate. They are the CEO of Liminal Data, a data driven game-based education startup, and previously led game-based education policy at the U.S. Department of Education and the Smithsonian Institution. J founded and coached... Read More →

Reeran's 14yo, Yunhee, played video games since childhood.  Reeran has supported her daughter’s evolving interests in games including Nintendo DS, Minecraft, Roblox, Overwatch, Apex. As Yunhee's home-schooling teacher, and biggest fan, she has helped her daughter balance her interests... Read More →

Yunhee Chi (aka Aniyun) is a 15yo Overwatch master flex support and aspiring pro player.  She has played video games since childhood, starting with the Nintendo DS and progressing on to PC games like Minecraft, Roblox, Overwatch, Apex.  Through esports she enjoys meeting people... Read More →

Chris Aviles is a teacher at Knollwood middle school in Fair Haven, New Jersey. There he runs the renown Fair Haven Innovates program he created in 2015. Part of the FH Innovates program includes the FH Knights, a first of its kind esports team. As coach of the FH Knights, Aviles... Read More →

Josh Hafkin is the founder of the Game Gym club esports team and training center in Potomac, MD. The Game Gym is dedicated to changing the stereotypes surrounding video games by emphasizing playing together as a team. Before the Game Gym, Josh worked for Bethesda Softworks as a brand... Read More →

Maya Kushner is an attorney, cosplayer, shoutcaster, and gamer. She enjoys sharing her knowledge with others, and has over a decade of experience teaching subjects like Calculus, Python programming, and League of Legends. In her current role as COO of Game Gym she is excited to be... Read More →

Gerald Solomon has served as Executive Director of the Samueli Foundation since 2008, overseeing philanthropic activities focused on STEM Education, Youth, Integrative Health, and Jewish Leadership. He led the design and development of the North America Scholastic Esports Federation... Read More →

Nathan is the Sr. Director, Global Sponsorships at Twitch. An esports veteran, Nathan is dedicated to educating brands about the competitive gaming phenomenon and ways to leverage Twitch to reach marketing goals. Nathan’s esports experience began in 2010 at Curse Media as VP of... Read More →

Ben Nichol is the Head of Events and Business Development for New York Excelsior (NYXL), the first professional esports team to represent New York City. Ben entered esports in 2010 as a StarCraft streamer and coach, eventually transitioning to casting and hosting professional esports... Read More →