Advisory Board

• Rayna Anderson: Game Designer, Gameloft - Montreal; Advisory Board, IGDA Montreal
• Stephanie Barish: Founder and President of Creative Media Collaborative / IndieCade
• Phaedra Boinodiris: Product Manager, Serious Games, IBM Software Group; Founder, WomenGamers.Com
• Kim Callery: Game Production Program Chair, International Academy of Design & Technology
• Amber Dalton: PMS Clan Leader
• Torrie Dorrell: SVP, Global Sales & Marketing, Sony Online Entertainment
• Tracy Fullerton: Associate Professor, USC School of Cinematic Arts, Interactive Media Division; Director, Electronic Arts Game Innovation Lab
• Megan Gaiser: President & CEO, Her Interactive Inc.
• Susan Gold: Director, Program Review; Chairperson, IGDA Education SIG
• Gano Haine: President, ONAG Consulting
• Michelle Hinn: Instructor, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign; Chair, IGDA Game Accessibility SIG; Co-Chair, IGDA Diversity Committee; Executive Director, AbleGamers.com
• Sonja Kangas: Game Director, GuppyLife MMO at GuppyWorks: IGDA Finland Coordinator; Advisory Board Member, Nordic Game Program
• Dina N. Lewallen: Diversity Specialist, Entertainment and Devices Division, Microsoft Corporation
• Jen MacLean: Senior Vice President of Business Development, 38 Studios
• Jane Pinckard: Business Development Analyst at Foundation 9 Entertainment; Founder at GameGirlAdvance
• Sheri (Pocilujko) Rubin: CEO/President of Design, Direct, Deliver; Chair, IGDA Quality Assurance SIG
• Kellee Santiago: Co-Founder/President, thatgamecompany
• Mary Margaret Walker: CEO, Mary-Margaret Network

Steering Committee

• Fiona Cherbak: VP, Business Development, GameX (Games & Media Expo); Chairperson, IGDA Women in Games
• Tristin Hightower: Producer, X Points Studio; Project Manager, GameX (Games & Media Expo); Webmaster, IGDA Women in Games
• Alex Raymond: Programmer Analyst, CSC; Forum Manager, IGDA Women in Games
• Anne Toole: Game Writer and Narrative Designer; Chair, IGDA Women in Games Mentor Program Committee
• Tina Tyndal: Marketing and Brand Consultant, Girls Who Game; Editor, IGDA Women in Games Newsletter

Advisory Board Biographies

Rayna Anderson Looking for a new challenge after working in public relations, Rayna found her way into the gaming industry. Currently working at Gameloft Montreal as a designer, she's developing for multiple platforms, primarily handhelds. Given her background in journalism, she often takes on the writing tasks in her projects, taking particular pleasure in subjecting the players to her terrible puns and alliterations. Involved in the IGDA for several years, Rayna can be found posting news to the Women in Games and Game Design SIG blogs, as well as to the Montreal Chapter blog, where she also serves on their advisory board. back to top

Stephanie Barish Stephanie Barish is an award-winning producer and a prominent figure behind leading initiatives that are guiding the direction of the digital media, interactive arts, and multimedia community in the twenty-first century. In 1999, she founded and created the blueprint for the Annenberg Center for Communications’ Institute for Multimedia Literacy (IML), urged by George Lucas. Previously, Ms. Barish worked as producer and director of multimedia publications and creative director of Steven Speilberg's Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation. In these positions she designed and produced the Foundation’s acclaimed multimedia publications, research interface, and award-winning CD-ROMs and websites, and participated in Emmy- and Academy-Award-winning documentary films. Between her work at these two organizations, her programs attracted nearly $20 million in support. She continues to foster innovations in multimedia expression as Founder and President of Creative Media Collaborative / IndieCade. back to top

Phaedra Boinodiris Phaedra Boinodiris is the Product Manager for Serious Games within IBM's Software Group. She is the originator of the game Innov8- a business simulation tool built on a 3D game engine that is currently being used by over 100 universities worldwide to train students on Business Process Management. Innov8 is this year's winner of the Datamation Product of the Year. Boinodiris has been an entrepreneur and founder of WomenGamers.Com. In addition to being one of the largest women's gaming portal on the Internet, WomenGamers.Com provides game consulting to game studios that want to target women and to companies that wish to use games to extend their brand reach. Through WomenGamers, she started the first US scholarship for women to get degrees in game design and development. Boinodiris is a graduate from UNC- Chapel Hill with an MBA and a degree in Mathematics. back to top

Kim Callery Kim Callery obtained her B.F.A. in Animation & Digital Media from the College for Creative Studies and M.A. in Interactive Design & Game Development from Savannah College of Art & Design. Kim started her career as an Artist-In-Residence at Berkley High School, and then became a Multimedia Designer at MosaicMedia. Over five years ago, she began teaching at the International Academy of Design & Technology. She has written and runs the Game Production Program. She also is an ACICS program evaluator and runs the Interfaces game conference, annually in Michigan. back to top

Amber "Athena Twin" Dalton Amber "Athena Twin" Dalton is the Leader and Co-Founder of the well-known female gaming group Pandora's Mighty Solders (PMS Clan). As one of the most known faces in professional gaming, Amber Dalton (a.k.a Athena Twin) has helped create a decidedly female mark in the traditional male-dominated gaming arena. Her skills in community development, ability with a Battle Rifle, and inspiring leadership have helped taken women teams where they were never before... playing against professional male gamers in respected professional tournaments globally. back to top

Torrie Dorrell Torrie Dorrell, Senior Vice President of Global Sales and Marketing for Sony Online Entertainment LLC, is responsible for managing the company's global marketing, sales, web presence and public relations departments, as well as helping to establish the long-term strategic direction for the company's efforts to reach new audiences. Dorrell is a seasoned entertainment industry executive with a wide range of experience across multiple mediums. She began her career in the music industry, where she created family record imprints for Disney, Warner Bros. and Rhino Entertainment. She moved into film and television to create the Licensing & Merchandising division for PolyGram Filmed Entertainment, and the Music Merchandising division for Universal Studios. Prior to joining SOE, Dorrell was General Manager of Black Label Games and VP of Marketing at Vivendi Universal Games. Dorrell started her career in journalism, working as an editor and writer for various national and regional magazines, and weekly newspapers. She holds a Bachelor in Journalism from Pepperdine University. back to top

Tracy Fullerton Tracy Fullerton, M.F.A., is a game designer, educator and writer with fifteen years of professional experience. She is currently an Associate Professor in the Interactive Media Division of the USC School of Cinematic Arts where she is Director of the Electronic Arts Game Innovation Lab and holder of the Electronic Arts Endowed Chair in Interactive Entertainment. Tracy is the author of Game Design Workshop: A Playcentric Approach to Creating Innovative Games, a design textbook in use at game programs worldwide. Recent credits include faculty advisor for the award-winning student games Cloud, flOw, Dafur is Dying and The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom, and game designer for The Night Journey a unique game/art project with artist Bill Viola. Prior to joining USC, she was president and founder of the interactive television game developer, Spiderdance, Inc. Spiderdance's games included NBC's Weakest Link, MTV's webRIOT, The WB's No Boundaries, History Channel's History IQ, Sony Game Show Network's Inquizition and TBS's Cyber Bond. Before starting Spiderdance, Tracy was a founding member of the New York design firm R/GA Interactive, Creative Director at the interactive film studio Interfilm and a designer at Robert Abel's early interactive company Synapse. Notable projects include Sony's Multiplayer Jeopardy! and Multiplayer Wheel of Fortune and MSN's NetWits, the first multiplayer casual game. Tracy's work has received numerous industry honors including an Emmy nomination for interactive television and Time Magazine’s Best of the Web. back to top

Megan Gaiser As president and CEO of Her Interactive, the pioneer in interactive entertainment targeted towards female play preferences, Ms. Gaiser is responsible for short and long term corporate strategy as well as day-to-day operations. Under her stewardship, Her Interactive has experienced continued growth and achieved combined sales of more than six million units worldwide for the company's Nancy Drew PC game franchise. The series has garnered 17 consecutive awards for excellence from the respected Parents' Choice Awards and for the last three years has been the #1 PC adventure franchise in units in the US. Megan was named one of the "Game Industry's 100 Most Influential Women" by Next Generation. Prior to joining Her Interactive in 1997, Ms. Gaiser spent eleven years as Editor and Producer of several award-winning documentaries as well as corporate, educational films and public service announcements. She then went to Microsoft Corporation as producer of CarPoint, the company's first online-specific product. She is the recipient of over fifteen Cine Golden Eagle awards, three New York Festival awards and the International Documentary Milano Award. back to top

Susan Gold Susan is director of the Game Program Review, a consulting firm specializing in game education for both industry professionals and students. The firm offers a speakers bureau with workshops and lectures specific to the game industry. The firm also serves as an academic consultancy for schools developing game curricula. Susan's personal focus is on collaboration, which resulted in the 1st Annual Global Game Jam, an experiment in creativity and innovation with 1650 participants in 53 locations in 23 countries that inspired 360 games in a 48 hour time span. Susan is also chair of the IGDA Education SIG, sits on a number of university advisory boards worldwide. Susan's work with the IGDA Ed SIG has created many resources for instructors in game education. Currently, she is building an outreach campaign to meet the needs of educators worldwide, and she continues to develop tools and resources for educator professional development. Throughout her career, Susan has demonstrated her natural talent of working with industry to help build relationships and integrate their recommendations in education. Susan is an artist, teacher, and activist with a specialization in digital art, new media and videogames. Her artwork and writing have been featured in numerous galleries, museums and publications. back to top

Michelle Hinn Michelle Hinn is an instructor at the University of Illinois where she teaches game design and developmental psychology courrses. She was recently named one of Edge Magazine's 100 Most Influential Women in Gaming based on her work as chair of the International Game Developer's Association's Game Accessibility Group and has won one of the IGDA's "Most Valuable Player" awards. Michelle is also the co-chair of the IGDA's Diversity committee. Michelle has worked at Microsoft Game Studios where she focused on piloting usability tests for Xbox multiplayer games. Additionally, she has worked for Computer Sciences Corporation, the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA), and the University of Nevada at Reno. She is the co-editor of the 2001 book Visions of Quality: How Evaluators Define, Understand, and Represent Program Quality and is on the editorial board of the Computers in Entertainment magazine. She has a new chapter on Game Accessibility coming out in March 2009 in Chris Crawford's book "Beyond Game Design" and is currently working on a textbook on Game Accessibility. back to top

Dina N. Lewallen Dina Lewallen is a wife, mother, sister, daughter and Diversity Specialist for Microsoft's Interactive Entertainment Business. She's been at Microsoft for four years. For the past year, Dina has spent her time helping attract diverse talent to Microsoft Entertainment and Devices Division, which includes the mobile communications, interactive entertainment and devices business units. Prior to this role she was an MBA Staffing Consultant assisting Microsoft in hiring future business leaders graduating from MBA programs across the country. Dina has a strong interest in understanding the link between employee diversification and product diversification as well as how to structure talent acquisition and talent management plans to help Microsoft broaden its consumer audience. back to top

Sonja Kangas Sonja Kangas works as the Game Director of GuppyLife MMO developed by Danish game GuppyWorks. GuppyLife is a 3D MMO targeted at teen girls. She also runs her own consulting company Souplala which focuses on independent research and game development. Sonja started her courier as a researcher in 1995. She was the co-author of first book about digital games "Mariosofia" written in Finnish. She has done practice based research with several Finnish game companies and publishers. She is IGDA Finland coordinator and advisory board member of Nordic Game Program which promotes Nordic games and funds new games development. Formerly she has been advisory board member for many Finnish game industry related events such as Games and Storytelling lecture series in 2004-2006 and national competitions like MindTrek and Pelixi. Sonja is former head of Concept & Design at Paf, a company developing and publishing online and mobile skill and money games. Before that she coordinated games related technological research and development at the Technical Research Centre of Finland (VTT). In Finland she has done research and other collaboration with many Finnish game companies, public associations and Sony Playstation, Nintendo and EA. She also contributes Finnish game media Tilt.tv and Pelaaja (Player) magazine. On voluntary basis Sonja has run girls' game clubs with an idea that girls can learn to create games and get inspired with technology without strong skills in programming or design. Girls' game clubs have been run for several years with very good results. back to top

Jen MacLean As the SVP of Business Development for 38 Studios, Jen is responsible for partnerships, business models, and product strategy for one of the most exciting independent massively multiplayer game developers in the interactive entertainment industry. Jen came to 38 Studios from Comcast, where she served as Vice President and General Manager, Games, responsible for management of all games products, strategy, and business development for the United States' largest cable company. She also held roles in sports and entertainment as part of Comcast's interactive team, negotiating and managing partnerships with Fox Sports, Major League Baseball Advanced Media, Real Networks, and Microsoft. Jen's extensive and varied experience in online content and interactive entertainment began in 1992 at Microprose Software. She joined AOL in 1996, where she held numerous positions in the AOL brand programming division, including Programming Director for the Games Channel. While at AOL, Jen managed multiple partners and products, including Electronic Arts, Kesmai, Engage Games Online, and Mythic Entertainment. Jen earned a BA in international relations from Johns Hopkins University and an MBA with a concentration in international business from the Columbia Business School. Jen was named one of the "Game Industry's 100 Most Influential Women" by Next Generation, one of the "Top 20 Women in Games" by Gamasutra, is the Chair Emeritus of the Board of Directors of the IGDA, and is a frequently-requested speaker at interactive entertainment industry events. back to top

Sheri (Pocilujko) Rubin Sheri is president and CEO of Design, Direct, Deliver, a company that provides independent contract and consulting services to businesses both in and outside the game industry. An avid and life-long game lover, she began participating in tournaments during high school and volunteered for a collectable card game company while in college. That experience ultimately inspired her to leave the accounting field for the thrilling world of video games. Sheri was elected to the International Game Developers Association's Programs and Membership Committee in 2007 and is also the founder and current chair of the Quality Assurance Special Interest Group. She has appeared on two G4TV shows and was one of only three volunteers highlighted in the 2005 IGDA Annual Report. Though she has more than 30 game credits under her belt, Sheri's greatest professional pride came from showing her father her name on the Golden Tee machine in their local Chicago pizzeria. While a volunteer for a collectible card game company, Sheri formed Matriarchal Society, a co-ed community whose goals were to help other volunteers increase their female player base and to help those females who were already players. She has spoken at GDC and local conferences and IGDA chapters on women in gaming. Sheri is an active IGDA member participating in the Casual Games, Game Design, Human Resources, Production, Online Games, Women in Games, and Writer's SIGs, Quality of Life Committee, co-founder of the Sexuality in Games SIG, and co-founder and current chair of the Quality Assurance SIG. back to top

Kellee Santiago Kellee Santiago is President and Co-Founder of thatgamecompany. thatgamecompany's goal is to make video games that communicate different emotional experiences, and expand the communicative possibilities of games. Kellee graduated from the MFA Interactive Media program at the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts where her research focused on game design, interactive narrative, and physical and gestural interfaces for digital media. While at USC she teamed up with fellow student Jenova Chen to develop the student-created game, "Cloud." The game went on to become critically acclaimed, after which the two decided to found their own studio, thatgamecompany, and landed a three game deal with Sony Computer Entertainment America, Inc. to develop downloadable games for Playstation Network. Their first two commercial releases, "flOw", and "Flower," went on to become award-winning and two of the top downloaded games on PSN. back to top

Mary Margaret Walker Walker leads the recruitment strategies and new business endeavors for Mary-Margaret Network. Prior to launching her recruiting firm in 1996, she was Manager of Studio Services for The 3DO Company, managing the milestones and development process of all projects in production and the hiring of over 200 employees. Previously, she was at Origin Systems where she created the company's Human Resources department and contributed to titles in development as a Design Manager. Walker is a charter member of the IGDA as the fifteenth person to join the organization in 1992. back to top