JC Lau, PhD

In addition to being a senior advanced producer at ProbablyMonsters with experience developing multiple award-winning video games, Dr. JC Lau (she/they) is a speaker and advocate for diversity, inclusion, equity, and representation in the games industry. Her professional experience includes credits on Destiny 2, The Lamplighters League, BattleTech, and their expansions. She is also the creator of #WhatAGameDevLooksLike, an online movement to share and celebrate the diversity in game development and challenge stereotypes about game developers.

A fierce proponent of empathy and giving back to the profession, JC serves on the Board of Directors for Global Game Jam, focusing on sustainable pathways into game development. She is the 2022 recipient of the Individual Diversity Advocate award at the Women in Games Global Awards, and a member of acclaimed industry leadership programs such as the IGDA Foundation’s Next Gen Leaders, AIAS Amplifying New Voices, BAFTA Connect, and the Game Awards Future Class. She aspires to build a sustainable games industry where everyone regardless of their background or experience can have a fulfilling and healthy career.

Jarryd Huntley is Sr. Lead Performance Engineer at VR studio, Owlchemy Labs. He plays important roles in Cleveland’s game development scene, as an educator running workshops and teaching classes, and as an organizer with the Cleveland Game Developers community group. He was lead programmer on the 2022 game/music project, We are OFK, which notably was a recipient of a Peabody Award in 2024. He was also co-author of the 2017 book Game Programming for Artists. Jarryd was also an inductee in the Video Game Awards Future Class 2021.

With talks at universities and conferences around the world, he brings a unique perspective by drawing on his experiences from enterprise software engineering and as a professional musician. Jarryd has marked his career by helping to create spaces and help more marginalized voices get into programming and into game development. His studio, Polytundra LLC, has helped port console games like Quench, and EarthNight on Switch and PS4. Polytundra released its debut title Art Club Challenge in 2018, which was featured in the 2017 Smithsonian American Art Museum Arcade.

Rachel Romero is the SVP of Marketing at Critical Role and a board member for Critical Role Foundation. At Critical Role, Rachel oversees design, event, product marketing, and content marketing teams and was one of the lead forces behind the crowdfunding campaign for The Legend of Vox Machina, which raised over $11.3M and remains the highest funded project in the animation / film vertical. The campaign still ranks within the top 10 funded campaigns of all time.

Previously, she was the VP of Marketing for Legendary Digital Networks, a subsidiary of Legendary Entertainment, and prior to that, she served as Director of Audience Development for Machinima. Rachel has worked in online media for close to two decades, with a special focus on fostering community.

Throughout her career, Rachel has been responsible for consumer marketing and promotion efforts around large-scale digital content distribution, online and offline events, subscription, mobile and OTT apps, and ecommerce. She has developed successful marketing campaigns utilizing the perfect blend of social media, integrated video, engaging content creators, public relations, and offline/out of home marketing methods.

Image by Black Jackson

Malek Teffaha (he/him) is a games industry professional originally from Beirut, Lebanon. He got his start in the industry in 2014, when he joined Ubisoft to help set up their MENA team in Dubai. In his role there, he helped develop the company’s regional strategy, especially in communications and the expansion of Arabic localization support across key franchises like Assassin’s Creed, The Division, Far Cry, and more.

In 2021, Malek moved to Paris to join the Global Diversity, Inclusion, Accessibility, and Social Impact team at Ubisoft HQ where he is not Senior Manager, Project Management. In addition to collaborating with HR, communications, production, ERG, and development teams across the globe on projects to promote inclusion in Ubisoft’s workplace, he also heads up Ubisoft’s Award-Winning Content Review Group, which empowers team members from around the world to lend their diverse perspectives during the game production and marketing processes.

Working in the games industry always felt like a farfetched dream for Malek, and his ambition is now to ensure that that dream is a possibility for all and to expand the reach of video games within communities that have often been overlooked. He hopes to contribute to building an inclusive games community where people from all backgrounds not only have the opportunity to see themselves represented in games but get to have a hand in making them.

Lae Lin

Jae Lin is the founder and executive director of ReSpec, an accountability support project, which guides people who have caused harm towards understanding, responsibility, and change. They served as the Hotline Director at the Games and Online Harassment Hotline for four years and have roots in queer community health and collegiate esports. 

Jae Lin is an artist and community organizer in Austin, TX. With buoyant artwork and hand lettering, their work as Doodle Me Alive focuses on trans liberation, loving affirmations, and the possibilities of healing. Jae is the executive director of Gender Unbound, which uplifts trans and intersex artists in central Texas, and they also host biweekly Queer Art Nights in Austin. They believe art and belonging are critical pathways towards building our shared vision of collective liberation.