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Girlstart @ SXSW Interactive Conference March 13-17
Girlstart is presenting a panel at this year's South by South West (SXSW) Interactive Conference and we hope to see you there! The panel, titled "Gaming as a Gateway Drug: Getting Girls Interested in Technology", will open up a conversation between the gaming industry, educators, and the non-profit community to discuss how we can successfully use video games to spark girls' interest in technology from a young age and throughout their education./p>
The panel will be moderated by Girlstart's Technology & Program Coordinator-Dee Kapila, and will feature a panel consisting of Sony Online Entertainment's senior designer, Sheri Graner Ray; the Educator's Coop's Co-Founder, Joe Sanchez; Texas State University's Assistant New Media Professor, Dr. Cindy Royal, and Her Interactive CEO & President, Megan Gaiser.
Speaker Bios
Dee Kapila
Dee Kapila is the Technology & Program Coordinator for Girlstart (www.girlstart.org, a non-profit organization dedicated to empowering girls in math, science and technology). She is involved with Girlstart’s Project IT Girl Initiative-an exclusive three year nationally recognized program for high school girls living in Austin to learn how to change the world through the use of Information Technology. Project IT Girl increases participants’ competency and confidence in math, science, technology and engineering, and prepares participants for college and beyond. Dee has developed the curriculum for Girlstart's technology programs which include a week long camp at Texas State Technical College for Project IT Girl where participants discussed female portrayal in video games, marketing strategies used by the gaming industry and the niche that female gamers have found in the online world of video games.
Dee received her Bachelors of Science in Creative Advertising from the University of Texas at Austin and also received a certification in Business Foundations from UT’s McCombs School of Business. Dee was awarded her M.A. in Mass Communication with a focus in New Media from Texas State University, San Marcos. Her graduate research focused on the portrayal of females in video games from the 1980s to the present. Dee has worked in both the Marketing and Tech Industries and brought her love for video games and programming to serve Girlstart’s unique mission.
Joe Sanchez
Joe Sanchez is a doctoral candidate in the School of Information at the University of Texas at Austin. His research focuses on collaboration in social virtual worlds and the interplay between digital-media, play, and learning. His innovative approaches to teaching and learning in the university setting have been featured in national media outlets including The Chronicle of Higher Education, USA TODAY, and ABC News. Joe Sanchez has been teaching in Second Life since the Fall of 2006 and was recently awarded the first Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Academic Service Entrepreneur grant for Service learning in a virtual world. Joe Sanchez is a co-founder of the non-profit project The Educators Coop (Co-op), a community of researchers and educators who teach and work in virtual worlds.
Sheri Graner Ray
Sheri Graner Ray is a Senior Game Designer with Schell Games in Austin Texas. In the game industry since 1989, she has worked for such companies as Electronic Arts, Origin Systems, Sony Online Entertainment and Cartoon Network, and has worked on such licenses as Star Wars Galaxies, Ultima, and Nancy Drew. She is author of the book, “Gender Inclusive Game Design-Expanding the Market” and is the game industry’s leading expert on gender and computer games. In 2005 she was awarded the IGDA’s Game Developer’s Choice award for her work in gender and games. Corporate Board magazine named her one of the the 50 most Innovative Women in Technology and Hollywood Reporter has named her one of the 25 most Influential Women in Computer Entertainment. She is currently serving as the chair of Women In Games International; an organization she co-founded.
While she has worked as everything from a writer/designer to head of her own studio, her first love is game design and she describes herself as a
“hard-core gamer.” She currently lives in Austin, Texas with her husband, Tim, their four dogs and three cats.
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 four 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.
Cindy Royal
Cindy Royal is an assistant professor in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Texas State University in San Marcos. She completed Ph.D. studies in Journalism and Mass Communication at The University of Texas at Austin in May 2005. At UT, she focused on the effects of the Internet on communication and culture. Her dissertation, entitled Gendered Spaces and Digital Discourse: Framing Women's Relationship with the Internet, dealt with the ways women's media and Web sites represent women's usage of the Internet.
Prior to doctoral studies, Dr. Royal had a career in Marketing at Compaq Computer (now part of Hewlett Packard) in Houston, TX and NCR Corporation in Dayton, OH. She has a Master of Business Administration from the University of Richmond and a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
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