We would LOVE to share a bit more background on our incredibly accomplished speakers cheering YOU on!

8am: Game Jolt

Yaprak DeCarmine, Founder and CEO

"Intro to Girls in Games Jam"

Yaprak is the co-founder and CEO of Game Jolt, one of the largest communities for gamers. Yaprak has led partnerships with the biggest influencers and brands in the world to create opportunities for creators and is dedicated to build the platform where 3 billion gamers can call home.

8:30am: Sucker Punch Productions

Sara Eggers, Senior Content Designer

"A Career in Game Design"

Sara Eggers is a Sr. Content Designer at Sucker Punch Productions, who worked on the critically acclaimed Ghost of Tsushima. Sara’s been in the game industry for 14 years and has held multiple different roles, from QA to Animation before finally finding the perfect fit of Game Design. When she is not making awesome games, Sara enjoys hiking, craft beer and talking about horses.

9am: Netflix

Leanne Loombe, Head of External Games

"A Career in Game Development & Publishing"

Leanne started making games over 18 years ago in the UK working on titles such as Scrabble, Risk and Magic the Gathering. After working for a 3rd party publishing division in Japan for a couple of years, she returned to the UK and joined Electronic Arts as Senior Producer. It was here that Leanne married her love for cars and games by heading up multiple Need for Speed titles including leading the transition to a community run live service. She then went on to create and head up Riot Forge - the external publishing division of Riot Games, making a variety of League of Legends story games. Leanne is currently at Netflix heading up External Games and helping to change the way we play games through Netflix. Leanne is a passionate ambassador for Women In Game and focuses on encouraging women to join the industry and creating diversity in teams through mentorship, panels, and events.

9:30am: Warner Bros. Games

Kirsten Gavoni, Executive Producer

"A Career in Game Production"

Kirsten Gavoni is Executive Producer at Warner Bros. Games (WBG). An 22-year entertainment industry veteran leading publishing efforts on the highly anticipated open world action RPG Hogwarts Legacy. Prior to her current role within WBG, she has held leadership roles in project management, production, promotions and localization across a wide variety of WBG titles including LEGO Dimensions, the Scribblenauts franchise, Sesame Street: Once Upon a Monster, and 2014’s critically acclaimed hit Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor. Kirsten has also held production and project management roles at Disney Interactive, Vivendi Universal Games, Sony and Lionbridge. Outside of work, Gavoni enjoys traveling, skiing and spending time with husband and daughters.

10am: Twitch

Mary Kish, Director of Community Marketing

"Streaming and Beyond"

Mary Kish is the Director of Community Marketing at Twitch. She helps run events like TwitchCon, Marketing Activations like Pride and Creative Week! Her goal is to help people find their community on Twitch. When she's not working, she's streaming at Twitch.tv/merrykish and Podcasting about videogames on FireEscapeCast.com

10:30am: Dreamhaven

Laura Puerto, Platform Engineer

"A Career in Programming"

Laura Puerto is a software engineer who has been in the video games industry for 15 years working at large companies including Electronic Arts, Blizzard, and Amazon, as well as a few small studios. Currently Laura works as part of the publishing team at Dreamhaven where she evaluates and develops platform systems and central technologies for all of Dreamhaven and its studios.

11am: Sony Interactive Entertainment Roundtable

"Career Discussion with the Women of Sony Interactive Entertainment"

PJ Camp Malik

PJ Camp Malik is working to bring art and science together through Data Storytelling for PlayStation, focusing on Ethics and Fairness. A massive fan of the Legend of Zelda, Street Fighter and Dance Central franchises, she’s always looking for the next beautiful game. Always up for a cup of chai, and excited to talk about equality and representation in gaming.

Merilly Ruglas
Born and raised in San Pedro Sula, Honduras, a first-generation college graduate. For over 6 years, Merilly has worked as a Freelance Designer across many industries before pursuing her passion into the games industry in 2019. Currently she is a Senior User Experience Designer for PlayStation Visual Arts Studio.

Shelby Kolb

Shelby Kolb is a Digital Communications Data Analyst at Sony San Diego Studios where she supports multiple teams on the MLB The Show annual game franchise.

Prior to joining the team, Shelby was living in Ireland where she received a Master’s Degree in Digital Marketing Strategy.

Although Sony PlayStation is her first opportunity in the Gaming Industry, Shelby has quickly fallen in love with the community, the challenges, and the rewards that come with working on video games. She is passionate about supporting and encouraging others who strive to pursue a career in this industry.

[Moderator] Madeline Lewis
Madeline Lewis is an Amazon Web Services Global Account Representative. During her 6 years at AWS, she has had the pleasure of working with leading global Media & Entertainment companies. Madeline is passionate about sharing Amazon’s innovation story to ignite strategic discussions focused on how AWS can help companies innovate for their customers and is a certified Culture of Innovation speaker for Amazon. Madeline is excited to partner with her customers on making the games industry and game experiences as inclusive and joyous as possible. On a personal note, she enjoys mentorship and spoke to her Alma Mater’s Women in Business group in October 2021 to share career advice and practical tips on getting into business and tech. She received “Delivers Results” and “Ownership” Leadership Principle awards in 2021 and 2020 respectively. She is a Certified Cloud Practitioner and obtained a certificate in Positive Psychology in 2021.

12pm: Santa Monica Studio

Mila Pavlin, Lead UX Designer

"Inclusivity and Accessibility in Games"

Mila Pavlin is the Lead User Experience designer for San Monic Studio (Sony Santa Monica), who empowers her teams to set standards of ethical & accessible content. She guided video game design, software UX flows and hardware innovation teams to create seamless & engaging content, to remove unintended frustrations. She has shipped 14 hardware products including a phone, multiple laptops, and many computer peripherals. Her work in games includes God of War’s PC release and the upcoming God of War Ragnarök, with a recently announced set of over 60 accessibility features!

She spent years advocating for marginalized communities including work with disability rights advocates and advocates for the LGBTQ community and is dedicated to finding solutions to address equity & equality.

She is excited to share her love for accessible design.

12:30pm: Electronic Arts

Rachel Franklin, Senior Vice President

"Positive Play"

Rachel is SVP of Positive Play at Electronic Arts, where she leads the company’s commitment to deliver Positive Play experiences that are inclusive, safe and fair to player communities around the world. Over her multi-decade career in the consumer entertainment and technology space, Rachel served as the GM and VP of Maxis for five years, where she oversaw EA’s highly celebrated The Sims franchise that has driven over $5 billion in revenue over its 20 year history. As GM and VP of The Sims Studio, she was also the executive producer of The Sims 4, which has brought in more than 30 million players over its 6 years of live service, with millions of new players still joining in today. Prior to rejoining EA, Rachel served as the Head of Social VR at Facebook, where she was responsible for AR/VR experiences that spanned a range of immersive products and platforms, such as Facebook Spaces, Oculus Venues and Facebook Horizon. She also previously worked at the cloud gaming startup OnLive, as well as Activision.

Rachel holds a bachelor's degree from Carnegie Mellon in applied mathematics and computer science.

1pm: Electronic Arts, Warner Bros Games, Amazon Game Studio Round Table

"Representation of Women and Girls in Games"

 Jessie Wan

Jessie Wan is the Director of Global Brand Management for The Sims, leading brand and marketing for The Sims 4. Jessie joined Electronic Arts in 2018 after working in a variety of brand management and digital marketing roles at Mattel, Activision and Disney. In her role, she focuses on brand building, go-to-market strategy and product development for The Sims 4. In order to keep a healthy balance in her life, Jessie enjoys cooking/baking, practices aerial arts and is mom to a delightful little human named Lucy.

Jesyca Durchin

Jesyca Durchin is an award-winning media producer and entrepreneur with a deep interest in how girls and women like to play. An early advocate for translating toy play patterns to video game platforms, Jesyca produced the early blockbuster Barbie Fashion Designer with Digital Domain, one of the earliest TV advertised games. Jesyca went on to lead the creative team behind the classic library of Barbie game titles across a variety of platforms. Seeing a growing population of girls and women interested in technology, Jesyca formed her own creative consultancy-Nena Media- to focus on that audience across all content platforms including film, theme parks, toys and social media. She is best known for producing the first seven animated Barbie movies including the original Barbie in the Nutcracker (2001 Winner Best DVD), creating the original sports game IP All Star Cheer Squad (THQ Wii and DS) and launching one of the earliest design home social games on Facebook-Dreamhouse Designer. Jesyca is currently senior producer on Wonder Woman’s first AAA game at Warner Bros. Discovery Games.

Rachel Barnum

Rachel Barnum joined Amazon in 2018 and is a game designer on New World at Amazon Game Studios. Before becoming a designer, she worked in player experience and was a founding board member for Women in Games at Amazon.

Rachel had an untraditional path to games; she was previously an award-winning learning experience designer working in industries such as retail, finance, and healthcare. When not working on (or playing) New World, she can be found exploring the Seattle area with her dog, Tycho, usually on a float with a book.

[Moderator] Dyan Williams 

Dyan Williams leads Business Development for AWS Game Tech, with a focus on midmarket and indie game devs. Prior to AWS, Dyan held various roles in production and business development spanning a 20-year career, with roles at EA, Ubisoft, Mattel and Warner Bros Games. Outside of work, she loves international travel, learning about new cultures, gorilla trekking, and scuba diving the seven seas (in search of elusive treasure).

2pm: Double Loop Games

Shelby Moledina, Founder and Chief Operating Officer

"Moving Roles within the Games Industry"

Shelby is the Co-founder, COO, and Game Director at Double Loop Games. Formerly of WBGames and DeNA, she has worked in games for over 20 years, and has worked in mobile for 8+ years. She's a lifelong gamer, loves to draw, bake pies, play RPGs, and cuddle cute things. 

2:30pm: Electronic Arts, Maxis

Catharina Mallet, Vice President and General Manager

"Navigating Unconventional Paths Into Games"

Catharina Lavers Mallet is VP and General Manager of Maxis and The Sims Franchise at Electronic Arts. She heads up a diverse team of individuals from different backgrounds who are continuously innovating and exploring new forms of gameplay for their global community of players. Prior to EA, Catharina managed and redefined the strategies for the high growth Consumer Wearables business for Bose Corporation. From 2012-2016 she acted as General Manager and Head of Studio at King Digital (developer of Candy Crush and acquired by Activision Blizzard). She built and scaled their London games studios and played a key operational and product leadership role in the growth of the company. Before joining King, Catharina was Product Manager and Executive Producer at Playfish/Electronic Arts and instrumental in the transition from games on disc to games as a service. She has also served as an Entrepreneur in Residence at MIT, as COO at Talla, and as VP at Algorithmics. She has an MBA from MIT Sloan and a BA cum laude in history and literature from Harvard, and today resides in the Boston area with her husband and three children.

3pm: Women of Amazon Web Services for Games

"Diversity in Games"

Claire Waluch

Claire Waluch has been a Senior Account Manager on the AWS for Games team since December 2021. Her career has focused primarily in sales, strategy, and product management. While she currently works with game studios to build and run successful games in the cloud, her passion for gaming and advocating for diverse voices in the gaming world began long before. For 8 years, Claire has managed her own online side business, arranging and playing piano covers of video game music with over 15 million views/listens across YouTube, Spotify, and Apple & Amazon Music. Profits from these channels are donated to bring the joy of video games to children facing extended stays in hospitals. Claire received her MBA from Stanford University in 2020, where she studied the game industry with a focus on toxicity in gaming and game studio culture. Her career goal is to impact greater character representation in games and in the business of those who make them.

Gina Gizzi

Gena Gizzi is a technical cloud architect for Epic Games at Amazon Web Services. She has been working in the games industry for 3 years, but has been a gamer since her dad first brought home Tekken. She is a big Nintendo fan, loves Pokémon, Animal Crossing, and Zelda!

Tabitha Graves
Tabitha Graves has been with AWS on the Game Tech team for the past four years. During her time at AWS, Tabitha has led developer relations for game dev communities, launched two new game services at GDC with AWS for Games, and she recently joined a new team supporting AAA game studios globally. Tabitha loves listening and speaking with game developers of all sizes about how to use cloud technologies in game development. She avidly plays games and is a strong advocate for DEIA and representation in the industry. She is passionate about growing communities of developers and players, and supporting them in their shared vision to build a future of games that is for everyone.

Nidhi Gupta

Nidhi is a Product Manager on AWS Game Tech for a year. Prior to AWS, she launched bus-ride share services and did venture capital investing in India. She is excited about technology and the role it plays in solving real world problems and creating an impact. During her time in AWS, she led a new product launch during the Game Developers Conference. As a product manager, she loves the opportunity of being the voice of the customer and the ability to innovate on behalf of the customers.

Katie Araujo

Katie Araujo is a Senior Account Manager on the AWS Game Tech team. She joined AWS early last year, and is passionate about aligning closely with and empowering game studios and developers to build innovative and inclusive game experiences. Katie excels in solving complex challenges on behalf of her customers, and meeting each customer where they’re at in order to provide value to them in their game development journey. Katie is an advocate for IDE in both her personal and professional life, and is committed to being a catalyst in achieving more representation throughout the games industry.

Noor Fairoza

Noor Fairoza Khan has been Solutions architect for the past 3 years with AWS. During her time at AWS, She worked with various customers in commercial as well as in the public sector. She is a solutions architect for Epic Games. As a core committee member, she co-created a 2 week externship program for high school students to help them get exposed to various Tech/non-tech roles in AWS. Noor is passionate about helping young talent in the tech industry. She is an avid gamer as well.

Vanessa Holliday

Vanessa leads the AWS Greenfield Games sales team and has been at AWS for the past 4 years. During her time at AWS, Vanessa has helped customers explore new AWS services, optimize their AWS usage, and successfully launch their mobile, PC, and console games. Vanessa is passionate about diversity and inclusion, and plays an active role within AWS, the tech industry, and her community to ensure both the games and tech industries are seeking out and welcoming people with diverse backgrounds and ideas.

[Moderator] Irwin O'Donnell

Originally from North Carolina, Irwin has spent the last 10 years living and working in NYC, helping customers grow their businesses on cloud. She first began her career in publishing working with HarperCollins and Penguin Group from 2011 - 2013. In July 2020, joined AWS to support the Warner Bros. Games studios. As an outspoken ally, Irwin is committed to increasing minority representation within Big Tech and the professional gaming community. During her free time, she can be found on the back of a horse, chasing ribbons in the Hunter show ring.

4pm: Innersloth

Victoria Tran, Community Director

"Community Building"

Victoria Tran is the Community Director at Innersloth, creators of Among Us and The Henry Stickmin Collection. Her other credits include being the Community Strategist for the game Unpacking, and was the Communications Director at Kitfox Games, for projects like Boyfriend Dungeon, Dwarf Fortress, Pupperazzi, and more. She also writes a monthly Community Dev newsletter on her website victoriatran.com.

4:30pm: DreamHaven, Lightforge, Metatheory Roundtable

"Independent studios and start-ups"

Cat Varner

Cat Varner leads product work at Dreamhaven across our publishing platform, studios, and partnership program. This work includes everything from researching industry trends for in-game shops, to designing in-game economy systems, to helping our partners figure out how their games will make money while putting players first. Her game industry career thus far has been a mix of product, game economics, analytics and data science at places like Blizzard, Epic, Carbine, and S2 Games.

Laura Puerto
Laura Puerto is a software engineer who has been in the video games industry for 15 years working at large companies including Electronic Arts, Blizzard, and Amazon, as well as a few small studios. Currently Laura works as part of the publishing team at Dreamhaven where she evaluates and develops platform systems and central technologies for all of Dreamhaven and its studios.

Molly Pease

Molly Pease is a queer artist who finds joy in writing and producing original creative content across a variety of platforms. They are currently a Senior Writer for Metatheory Inc., a technology-driven entertainment company that builds interactive stories and virtual worlds. Their previous experience includes writing award-winning queer comedy scripts, creating a queer horror podcast called Lavender Scare, and directing the short horror-comedy film Eat Rich. Molly loves teaching and using their art to build joyous queer communities.

Bridget Collins 

Bridget Collins has been designing games since 2013, working on titles such as Marvel Heroes, Heroes of the Storm, and Diablo IV. She's had experience touching many facets of game development, including gameplay system design, technical design, champion design, and content design. Currently at Lightforge Games, she's working on fostering a developer culture focused on empathy, collaboration, and inclusion.

Kirsten Kane

Kirsten Kane is a Backend Engineer at Lightforge Games! She is originally from Southern California, where she has earned a B.S. in Computer Science from the University of California, Irvine. Kirsten has worked in tech for a few years as an SDET before landing a job at Blizzard Entertainment, working on the Battle.net team. Shortly after, she moved over to the Hearthstone team as a Client engineer, then as a Server engineer. When she is not playing Horizon Forbidden West and Destiny 2, she is climbing local mountains in the Cascades up in Washington She is currently taking a class on mountain climbing, or painting and/or playing miniatures games with my friends such as Warhammer: 40,000 and Marvel Crisis Protocol.

Molly Pease

Molly Pease is a queer artist who finds joy in writing and producing original creative content across a variety of platforms. They are currently a Senior Writer for Metatheory Inc., a technology-driven entertainment company that builds interactive stories and virtual worlds. Their previous experience includes writing award-winning queer comedy scripts, creating a queer horror podcast called Lavender Scare, and directing the short horror-comedy film Eat Rich. Molly loves teaching and using their art to build joyous queer communities.

Nina Park

Nina Park is a multimedia professional with extensive training in 3D animation, 2D motion graphics, and games.  She has worked in numerous media positions, including at Cocone Korea, CJ, and Nooslab. She was invited to participate in the Annecy animation festival, AnimaMundi, SICAF, FIFDH, and NHIFF. Now she is pursuing her career in Metatheory as a 3D technical artist to create a whole new creative web-3 world.

[Moderator] Tabitha Graves
Tabitha Graves has been with AWS on the Game Tech team for the past four years. During her time at AWS, Tabitha has led developer relations for game dev communities, launched two new game services at GDC with AWS for Games, and she recently joined a new team supporting AAA game studios globally. Tabitha loves listening and speaking with game developers of all sizes about how to use cloud technologies in game development. She avidly plays games and is a strong advocate for DEIA and representation in the industry. She is passionate about growing communities of developers and players, and supporting them in their shared vision to build a future of games that is for everyone.

5:30pm: Studio Capital Management

Kristina Blanco, Director of Business Development

"Making a Great Pitch Deck"

Kristina Blanco brings close to a decade of proven experience in video game business development.  In 2017, Kristina started at Studio Capital Management (SCM) as a Business Development Manager.  She found quick success through many deals she worked on and was promoted to Director of Business Development where she oversees all incoming RFP’s for clients and supports many other Business Development activities at the company.  Prior to SCM, Kristina was a Mobile Games Business Development Manager at NetEase where she helped bring overseas games to China.