Ashley ML Guajardo

Welcome

Thank you so much for taking the time to get to know more about me and the policies I will implement if elected as president of the Digital Games Research Association. Each of my policies can be found below.

Transparency

As president, I will maintain open communication by ensuring board minutes remain accessible for DiGRA members and I will ensure members have ample opportunity to have their voices heard in quarterly fire-side chats.

Equity

It has been said that talent is evenly distributed across populations, but unfortunately resources are not. As president of DiGRA, I will build on efforts to increase underrepresented groups’ access to our annual conference by initiating a two-pronged approach to fundraising. The goal of this fundraising is to create surplus revenue for the organization to support travel grants for students and early career researchers from underserved parts of our community. The first prong involves building relationships with sponsors in the games industry who are keen to see the next generation of games researchers flourish. The second prong involves working with conference committees to build in additional conference attendance fees to balance the cost of attendance more evenly. I have previously implemented this strategy in the #gamesUR Summit for the IGDA to great success.

Encouraging Connection

The best part of being a DiGRA member is the ability to connect to other members. As president, I will revamp the gamesnetwork listserv for more efficient and effective communication.