IGDA Foundation Names Alyssa Walles as New Executive Director

The IGDA (International Game Developers Association) Foundation has named Alyssa Walles as their new Executive Director. The announcement comes after the position has officially sat vacant for over 8 months.

Alyssa Walles has experience in the games industry with major roles as far back as 2000 when she was the “Director of Sales Planning” at Sony Interactive Entertainment. This was at a time when Sony was enjoying the success of the original PlayStation and the release of the PlayStation 2.

The IGDA Foundation is a part of the IGDA which emphasizes creating a diverse and inclusive environment for game developers. You can read about the Foundation here.

The IGDA Foundation focuses on improving the lives of game developers by making game development a more diverse and inclusive community.  We want every person on the planet to love playing games, and we think the best way to make that happen is to have a game development community that is inclusive of, and welcoming to, every person who wants to make games.  We believe that diversity of all kinds in game development leads to better and more successful products and companies, and happier and more successful game developers.

Participants in our programs are selected both for their excellence as individuals and for the promotion of a more diverse and inclusive community.  We value diversity of all kinds, including gender, race, socio-economic background, sexual orientation, country of residence, age, and life experiences.  We’ve designed our programs to be as welcoming to participants as possible, with attention to features like a travel stipend to make the program experiences accessible regardless of economic status.

We encourage you to join us, our volunteers, our participants, our partners, and our sponsors in building a more inclusive game development community.

IGDA Foundation

Alyssa Walles is succeeding the last Executive Director Nika Nour, who retired in September of last year. In the interim, the position’s duties have been fulfilled by Director of Global Development Sarah Spiers.

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