Organizers
Carlos Gabriel Kelly González Ph.D.
Panelists & Workshop Leaders
Frederick Luis Aldama
Katelynn Alonzo
Priscila Álvarez
Samantha Blackmon (@nymg_Saffista) is a native of Detroit, Michigan and serves as Associate Professor of English at Purdue University. She earned her Ph.D. in Rhetoric and Composition from Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan in 2001 in Rhetoric and Composition. Dr. Blackmon is the editor and co-founder of Not Your Mama’s Gamer (NYMG) and regularly creates content on Twitch (Twitch.tv/Saffista) and YouTube. She does crafts, gaming, and just chill chats. Her research and teaching interests are in Minority Rhetoric and Computers and Composition. Her more recent research project looks at how minority issues play out in the Computerized Writing Environment. She serves as Area editor of The Writing Instructor and as a member of the Purdue Advisory Committee for Modern Fiction Studies.
Rhett Brady
Kimberly Caballero
Arturo Camacho
Mateo Carrasco
Samantha Ceballos
Maria Colbert
Kaye Cruz
Elena Foulis
John Frazee
Hector Garza
Kishonna Gray is an Associate Professor in Writing, Rhetoric, and Digital Studies at the University of Kentucky. Gray previously served as an MLK Scholar and Visiting Assistant Professor at MIT in Comparative Media Studies and the Women & Gender Studies Program. She has also served as a Faculty Visitor at the Social Media Collective at Microsoft Research (Cambridge). Gray’s scholarship is influenced by her interdisciplinary training and grounded in critical race theory and feminist approaches to knowledge production. She interrogates the impact that technology has on culture and how Black users, in particular, influence the creation of technological products and the dissemination of digital artifacts. While her extensive publication record explores how technology disparately impacts women and people of color, current research interrogates the possibilities and potentials of what that technology can afford Black communities who are traditionally excluded from public spaces, including digital ones.
Ana Gutierrez
Marina Humphrey
Kali Johnson
Denisse Kreeger is the head of global localization production at Riot Games, and the Los Angeles chapter manager at Women in Localization. With over 15 years of experience in the localization industry, she has also managed localization production at Blizzard Entertainment and Netflix, where she helped build much of the localization infrastructure. Denisse graduated from UCLA and has an MA from the University of Roehampton in audiovisual translation.
Bucky Lemmons
Jakejames Lugo has been creating content about and discussing video games for over a decade. He is a writer, content creator, podcaster, and host with Puerto Rican heritage that has been deeply involved in covering the games industry for a long time. Jakejames has worked with and published content at some of the biggest outlets in the field, including places like IGN, Red Bull Gaming, Playboy, and many others. Jakejames continues to write and publish content online, including videos on his YouTube channel and content across various social media pages.
Rebbeca Macias
Ivan Martinez
Regina Marie Mills
Camila Núñez-Bergsneider
Annie Ortiz
Anthony Ramirez
Cj Peters – As founder of Konsole Kingz, Cj Peters created a blueprint for urban gaming brands before the idea ever existed. After initially creating Konsole Kingz as a DVD magazine dedicated to lovers of Hip Hop and video games, Peters has cultivated it into a one of a kind company that he describes as a video game lifestyle brand, centered in Hip Hop Culture. The idea was a no-brainer being that Hip Hop and gaming have been two of Peters’ passions since childhood. In addition, Peters used his platform to leverage deals with companies like Microsoft, 2K Sports and Allied Marketing to become the ambassador for their products in the urban and Hip Hop community. Peters and Konsole Kingz specialize in PR and virtual goods with highlights including several engagements with Xbox, Capcom and 2K Sports’ NBA2K series. Prior to launching Konsole Kingz, Peters attended Louisiana State University and worked for corporations including IBM, Motorola, Silicon Graphics and Turner. While at LSU he hosted an underground Hip-Hop radio show and music video show on campus radio and television, respectively. His background in gaming goes back as far as the Magnavox Odyssey2, and playing King’s Quest on his IBM desktop PC. He has recently celebrated the 5th anniversary of his mobile game Black Spades, and has several apps and games slated to launch this year. When he’s not in front of a console, he enjoys his spare time cooking, making art and raising a family of four.
Rick Pulos
Hadeel Ramadan is an Instructional Associate Professor & the Visualization undergraduate program director, School of Performance, Visualization & Fine Arts at Texas A&M University. Mrs. Ramadan earned her Master of Fine Arts in Creative Technologies degree from the School of Visual Arts at Virginia Tech in 2014 and a bachelor’s degree of Fine Arts in Architecture from Alexandria University, Egypt in 2003. She teaches undergraduate studios and courses in both the game design and the animation tracks. Mrs. Ramadan’s research focuses on game-based learning, interactive technologies, game design, and 3D animation. As a former co-director of the LIVE lab, Mrs. Ramadan developed with her team several award-winning educational games for college level students such as: Variant (Calculus). Also she developed with the team ARTé; Lumiére (Impressionism), and ARTé;Hemut (Ancient Egypt).
Mark Solis
Luis Vazquez
George Villanueva
Sophie Villarreal
Zayno