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Nahir Fajardo is the CEO & Executive Producer of Dreams of Heaven Games, an independent game studio based in rural Chile, and a licensed Social Worker. Her work bridges game development and social research, focusing on psychological horror, accessibility, neurodiversity, community building, and indie production. She has organized panels, moderated discussions, and spoken at GDC, NarraScope, GDoCExpo, universities, and international game development events. Alongside developing games, she conducts exploratory research on player experience, examining how interdisciplinary perspectives can inform game design and foster more inclusive development practices. Her goal is to strengthen the connection between social sciences and game development through research, production, education, and international collaboration.

Nashville native Toiya Kristen Finley, Ph.D., has been a freelancing writer and editor her entire adult life. She earned a doctorate in literature and creative writing from Binghamton University. Over her career, she has published more than 80 works of fiction, nonfiction, comics/manga, and games, and has over 20 years of experience writing in a range of genres, tones, styles, and voices. She gained editorial experience interning at Henry Holt's imprint, Owl Books. At Binghamton, she founded the literary journal Harpur Palate and served as its managing/fiction editor. In 2011, she cofounded the Game Writing Tutorial at GDC Online with Tobias Heussner and served as an instructor in 2011 and 2012. In videogames, she has worked as a game designer, narrative designer, game writer, editor, and diversity/narrative consultant (or some combination of the five) on everything from AAA titles to mobile games to games for children to small indie projects. Recent work includes writing visual novel Siren Song (Stardust Works), copyediting for Destiny 2 (Bungie), developmental editing on Insecure: The Come Up Game (Glow Up Games), writing/editing on Ritual of Raven, writing for the Interview with the Vampire TTRPG, and editing Our Brilliant Ruin. A presenter at conferences throughout the year, she has lectured on freelancing and storytelling and led workshops on narrative design and game design. She is a member of the IGDA Game Writing Special Interest Group's Executive Board. The Game Narrative Toolbox (CRC Press), a book on narrative design she coauthored with Jennifer Brandes Hepler, Ann Lemay, and Tobias Heussner, was published in 2015. Narrative Tactics for Mobile and Social Games: Pocket-Sized Storytelling (CRC Press), which she edited and contributed to, was published in 2019. Her latest books are Freelance Video Game Writing: The Life & Business of Digital Mercenary for Hire (2022) and Branching Story, Unlocked Dialogue: Designing and Writing Visual Novels (2023) both from CRC Press. Of late, she has been working on her own visual novel series, beginning with Incarnō: Everything Is Written. Speaking History: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-vZf3N5I_8Nclp0dkZ1UVpBcTQ/view?usp=drive_link&resourcekey=0-Hw0yQbGXjCsqC1CiPu9lmA

Dr. Lindsay Grace is Knight Chair in Interactive Media and a full professor at the University of Miami School of Communication. He is Vice President for the Higher Education Video Game Alliance andthe principal of Mindtoggle Consulting. He has received the 2026 IndieCade Horizons Faculty of Excellence Lifetime Achievement Award and the 2019 Games for Change Vanguard award. Lindsay's book, Doing Things with Games, Social Impact through Design, is a well-received guide to game design. In 2020, he edited and authored Love and Electronic Affection: a Design Primer on designing love and affection in games. In 2021 he published the Amazon best seller, Black Game Studies, an Introduction to the games, game makers, and scholarship of the African diaspora His work has received awards and recognition from the Games for Change Festival, the Digital Diversity Network, the Association of Computing Machinery's digital arts community , Black Enterprise and others. He authored or co-authored more than 95 papers, articles and book chapters on games since 2009. His creative work has been selected for showcase internationally including New York, Paris, São Paulo, Singapore, Chicago, Vancouver, Istanbul, and others. Lindsay curated or co-curated Blank Arcade (2014-2016), Smithsonian American Art Museum's SAAM Arcade (2014-2017), the Games for Change Festival (2017, 2022, 2023) and others. He has given talks at the Game Developers Conference, SXSW, Games for Change Festival, the Online News Association, the Society for News Design, and many other industry events. He has had appearances on domestic and international television and radio and written editorials published by CNN and others. Between 2013 and 2018 he was the founding director of the American University Game Lab and Studio. He served as Vice President and on the board of directors for the Global Game Jam™ non-profit between 2014-2019. From 2009 to 2013 he was the Armstrong Professor at Miami University's School of Art. Lindsay also served on the board for the Digital Games Research Association (DiGRA) between 2013-2015.

Jaclyn Seto (she/her) is a Chinese Canadian writer with experience in AAA and mobile games, currently working on Respawn's Apex Legends as a Senior Game Writer. She graduated from the University of British Columbia with a degree in Kinesiology and worked as a kinesiologist and medical writer for a number of years before deciding to pursue her dream of writing for video games. She graduated from the Writing for Film, Television & Games program at Vancouver Film School (VFS) in 2020 and was the recipient of the Academic Achievement Award. Since entering the industry, she has been committed to mentorship, promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion, and creating powerful stories that resonate with players.

Briana White is a professional actress and content creator, best known as the voice of lead character Aerith Gainsborough in the hit video game series Final Fantasy VII Remake. Her reprisal of the role in 2024's Final Fantasy VII Rebirth earned her a Best Supporting Performance win from the Golden Joystick Awards and a nomination for Best Performance from The Game Awards. Beyond performance, she has her own gaming YouTube & Twitch channel, Strange Rebel Gaming, and has built a loyal and wildly engaged viewer base of over 470k+ with more than 21+ million cross-platform views. Drawing from her firsthand experience collaborating with game teams and engaging deeply with player communities, Briana offers a perspective in games that bridges development, performance, and audience impact. She is deeply aligned with causes of diversity and inclusion in games and digital spaces, often leveraging the power of community-driven events and livestreams. Having raised over $120,000 to date for charitable organizations, she is experienced in demonstrating how engaged audiences can be mobilized for meaningful social impact.