The non-profit organization Games for Change, which is focused on designing digital games that create social change, has named new co-Presidents.
The two new leaders are Asi Burak, co-Founder of Impact Games, and Michelle Byrd, who has served 12 years as the Executive Director of the Independent Filmmaker Project (IFP). Burak’s role will center on “curation, development, and execution of programs and services to raise the production, quality and influence of social impact games,” while Byrd will concern herself with “institutional relationship and partnership efforts, along with fundraising, business affairs, financial management, and communications strategy.”
Games for Change stated that it is “looking to expand beyond its well-established Games for Change Festival.” Its latest project involves working with authors Nick Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn in order to adapt their book Half the Sky to the videogame arena. The tome centers on the message “the best way to fight poverty and extremism is to educate and empower women and girls.”
It’s hoped that using videogames as a medium will bring the book’s message to a mass audience.
