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Scientist, inventor, and entrepreneur. Areej is the Founder and Director of Alfaisal's AI Center, a Center of Excellence for AI research, teaching, theory, and practice. She joined Alfaisal University in 2020 after serving as the Executive Director of IP Enablement in the Saudi Authority for Intellectual Property, where she spearheaded the national network of technology and innovation support centers (TISCs). Prior to this, she was Principal Investigator at the King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST) within the Center for Complex Engineering Systems at KACST and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). She is currently a Research Affiliate with MIT's Media Lab and the Director of the Masters in Applied AI (MAI) in the College of Engineering and Advanced Computing at Alfaisal Computing, with a teaching focus on Human-Centric AI in Extended Reality and Generative AI for Creativity and the Arts. She held a series of leadership positions of increasing responsibility in various academic and research institutions within the Kingdom, particularly in the scope of research and development. Areej holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science, with a Postdoc from (MIT)'s School of Engineering and received her MSc degree in Computer Graphics and Multimedia from the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at George Washington University. With over 15 years in research and development, she has led humanistic co-design programs across the public, private, and non-profit sectors and has been an industry champion for diversity and inclusion. She is involved in several professional and civic organizations, including the Advisory Board of the Technical and Vocational Training Corporation (TVTC) for women and the national IEEE Women in Engineering Affinity Group in Saudi Arabia and serves on the jury for the pre-collegiate National Olympiad for STEM; and was formerly the founder and president of the chartered chapter of the Arab Women in Computing for Saudi Arabia. Areej's research experience includes extended reality (XR), AI in health, neurotechnology and brain-computer interfaces (BCI). Her current work focuses on human-centric AI and the impact of AI-generated art on defining art, the dynamic between artists and their tools, the process of digital curation, and the question of whether AI systems can match human creativity. In her research leaders roles, director of the AI Center and HCI Lab at Alfaisal University, her research strategies focus on driving organizational and societal transformation by strengthening the role of science and promoting innovation through strategic initiatives, academic alliances, and governance processes.

William "Chip" Beaman is CEO and co-founder of The Halp Network, where he champions diversity by connecting underrepresented talent with opportunities in games, animation, and media. With over 30 years in entertainment, he's contributed to major titles like Uncharted and Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Chip is a member of MPSE, BAFTA, and serves as Chairman of the Governing and Advisory Board for Kollab Youth. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife and enjoys music, travel, and storytelling.

Natalie Checo does Community work at Black Tabby Games and is a Community and Social Media Manager and Writer at Sunset Visitor by day, and a consultant with companies like Hit Detection and Magid by night. Before her current jobs, she was a PR Consultant at Future Friends Games and a journalist with bylines at publications like Fanbyte, IGN, PC Gamer, and more. She is part of the inaugural Future Class from The Game Awards and an advocate for diversity in the stories we tell as an industry.

Vickie Chen is the CEO and Founder of AviaGames, a mobile game company headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area. She leads Avia's strategy across product, growth, and platform development for skill-based competitive games including Solitaire Clash, Bingo Tour, and 8 Ball Strike, scaling a player-first ecosystem that combines engaging gameplay, fair competition, and performance-driven growth. Under her leadership, Avia has grown to millions of players worldwide and earned industry recognition for innovation, diversity, and leadership.

Laureline Chiapello is a game design professor at the NAD School of Digital Arts (UQAC). She creates experimental games that explore inclusive and feminist approaches to design. Her research projects connect students and creators from local studios, sparking dialogue between academic and professional practices and celebrating the diversity of perspectives shaping game development. Her work has been showcased at MUTEK, ISEA, and the Festival du Nouveau Cinéma. Her latest project, CLTRS, pushes boundaries by critically examining representations of female sexual pleasure in games, inviting new conversations within the industry

Krystal Cooper is a technical production leader with 15+ years of experience architecting scalable systems across AAA games, XR, VFX, Animation and AI platforms.She entered game production in 2016 through the development of social impact games, applying systems engineering principles to interactive storytelling and community-driven design. Since then, she has led multidisciplinary teams across engine development, real-time rendering, audio systems, and immersive XR production. Her work spans Rhythm & Hues, Apple, Industrial Light & Magic, Disney, Unity Technologies and Adobe. As Founder of Diversity in Gaming and CEO of Optical Creatures Game Studio, she focuses on building sustainable, technically rigorous studios and inclusive production cultures. In parallel, she serves as an adjunct professor at Rochester Institute of Technology mentoring the next generation of technical creators at the intersection of systems architecture and interactive media.

Jordan Devries built their interface, a website, over 20 years ago. Since then they've designed concert sites for pop stars, given design talks to spies, led UX projects for some of the biggest names in tech and travel, and is now the UI/UX Director on the STAR WARS Jedi team at Respawn Entertainment. As the oldest child of a biracial immigrant family, Jordan advocates for diversity, equity and inclusion, both within game development and beyond. Outside of work, Jordan's passions include elaborate custom LEGO builds, recovering stolen LEGO pieces from Jordan's mischievous black cat, and struggling through the humidity of Washington, DC.

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. Toiya 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 co-founded 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. Her 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, and editing Our Brilliant Ruin. As 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 co-authored 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.

Monet Gardiner is a Sound Designer with 12+ years of experience in video games, film, television, music, and multimedia. As a Sound Design graduate from Savannah College of Art and Design, Monet has worked with 343 Industries at Microsoft on Halo Infinite and Electronic Arts on NBA Live 19 and NBA Live 20. Noteworthy achievements include Production Mixer & Supervisor on Emmy award-winning live sitcom "The BUZZ", multiple MPSE Golden Reel Nominations for Sound Editing, and Dialogue Designer on 2023 BAFTA Best Audio and EE Game of the Year "God of War:Ragnarok". Recently in addition to her work on God of War: Ragnarok, Monet has been working on titles such as The Last of Us 2 Remastered and Death Stranding 2 as a Dialogue Designer with Sony Interactive Entertainment PlayStation. Monet's impact continues to reverberate through the industry through her commitment to giving back to the game audio community by fostering diversity and inclusion as a proactive board member of the Game Audio Diversity Alliance, a non-profit charity which aims to provide career advancement opportunities for underrepresented voices through education, mentoring, and financial support.

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 and the 2019 recipient of the 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.

Samantha Halloran is an engineer from Boston, Massachusetts based in Tokyo, Japan. Currently working with an international team of developers at Unseen Inc on their upcoming game Kemuri, her credits also include rhythm and music games from Harmonix and Epic games such as Fornite Music Festival, Fuser, and Dance Central. A voice for diversity and representation in AAA, Samantha has helped include transgender and nonbinary people on development teams and represented in the games they make. In Japan, she is dedicated to creating space for LGBTQIA+ developers immigrating to Tokyo.  

Gina Jackson OBE is a veteran of the UK games industry, with 30+ years of experience working on around 300 games across platforms from SNES to PS5. She founded her consultancy Skillfull in 2011 and co-founded Pitchify, a marketplace that connects developers with investors to speed up game funding. An advocate for diversity, mental health, and skills development, she is driving positive change for sustainable growth in the industry.

Diandra Anne Lasrado's vast experience spans nearly two decades working for industry behemoths such as Riot Games, BioWare, Blizzard, and Aniplex. Diandra is an industry veteran with a narrative background that covers editorial, characters, dialogue, and carries throughout the voice-over pipeline. Her experience covers AAA, mobile and indie games. With Diandra's focus on diversity, great imagination and team first mentality she has built a name for herself as a positive and creative influence for games. She currently is Narrative Director for iwot games making a Wheel of Time game.

Sandy is a creative team leader with decades of industry experience as a video game developer. As an Art Director, she is well experienced in articulating artistic visions with clarity, meaning and purpose. Sandy supervises the visual directions across all the art disciplines worldwide ranging from concept art, character design, environment, set dressing, VFX, lighting to cinematics. Her role is to steer production pipeline and hire quality developers. She finds opportunities to partner with other development disciplines to constitute creative pillars, drive toward a singular vision, and strategize through technical and artistic lenses. Sandy is an energetic leader who values and fosters an open, inclusive and collaborative team dynamic that provides creative freedom within set boundaries to ensure her team reaches the highest level of innovation, productivity and quality. Sandy's past experience as an individual content contributor on various game genre has provided solid foundations for her to become an intuitive and well-rounded art leader and manager in the video game and entertainment industry. She seeks growth both professionally and personally, and constantly adjusts to lead with courage, compassion, integrity and honesty. Sandy cares greatly about her community both at work and outside. She volunteers as a mentor and a coach to students, peers and women leaders in other organizations. Her hope is that positive influences will bring more diversity to the video game and entertainment industry. In her spare time, she stays physically active with her children who inspire her mindfully as they grow old together.

Sonia Mokhtari is a French-American composer and sound designer, recognized as one of the few women leading audio and composition in the video game industry. Based in San Francisco since 2010, she currently works full-time at Take-Two/Zynga, specializing in audio design and music composition for live mobile games. Her previous experience includes roles at Meta, VGW, CALM, and Electronic Arts (The Sims). Sonia's background combines rigorous musical training—including classical, jazz, and world music—with advanced studies in composition and sound design for film, television, and games at Berklee College of Music. She brings a rich, diverse musical palette to her game audio work, blending orchestration with adaptive sound design to create immersive player experiences. In addition to her professional work, Sonia teaches at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and actively mentors emerging talent through programs like Genheration and Reel Stories. She is a passionate advocate for diversity and inclusion in the gaming and audio industries. A member of SACEM, Sonia composes for games, films, and interactive media, continuously pushing creative and technical boundaries in game audio.

With a degree in Game Design, she has been a member of Abragames since 2016, focusing on the international expansion of the Brazilian game industry. As executive manager of Brazil Games, she leads internationalization strategies for companies at different stages of development, building partnerships and opportunities in key global markets. Her work is guided by the diversity of companies and talent, and by strengthening games as a driver of innovation, creative economy development, and the export of Brazilian culture.

Dr. Jakin Vela (he/him) serves as the Executive Director of the International Game Developers Association (IGDA). He is a sociologist and researcher focused on socio-technical cultures, minority stress, stigma, and diversity inclusion in tech (especially games and the games industry). His work highlights the effects of marginalization, group solidarity, and inclusion in virtual gaming spaces and organizational structures, especially among underrepresented groups. He also serves as CEO of Astral Interactive, a small indie studio focused on highlighting player empathy in gameplay, as well as MagiTech Management Solutions, a consulting firm on project management and process efficiency.

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.