Dear Friends,
Join the Yale Center for Environmental Communication and the Yale Center for Health and Learning Games on Friday, December 9, noon-1pm ET for a panel discussion on video gaming and climate change. RSVP HERE We will explore the ways in which digital games can be utilized for large-scale social change and discuss our recent report of video gamers’ opinions on global warming. Leading researchers and professionals in the gaming industry will share how they have approached video games as tools to influence public opinions and to address the urgency of the climate crisis.
Deborah Mensah-Bonsu is the founder of Games for Good, which focuses on harnessing games and industry for social impact. She and her team consult for console and mobile studios as well as UNEP’s Playing for the Planet, where she co-created the Green Game Jam which won Best Innovation at the PG Mobile Game Awards 2022. She thrives on collaborating to create healthier cultures, products and communities. She was a print and tv journalist before becoming a producer and content guru in games at Xbox and Space Ape. She is a Special Effect Ambassador, Develop: Diversity Star Nominee 2022, named one of the Top 100 Women in Games in 2019, MCV Career Mentor of the Year 2018, and has been a speaker at conferences around the world.
Marina Psaros is the head of sustainability at Unity Technologies and the author of The Atlas of Disappearing Places: Our Coasts and Oceans in the Climate Crisis. She is a Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Arsht-Rock Resilience Center and has led climate change action programs across the public, private, and non-profit sectors for over fifteen years. She holds a Master’s in Environmental Policy and Urban Planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and is a recipient of the C40 Cities Award. Her mission is to unite science, technology, and creativity to solve our most pressing environmental issues.
Jennifer Carman, PhD, is the Deputy Research Manager at the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication. Her research focuses on how people can both protect themselves and advance the common good in the face of increasing climate change impacts. Her past work was in the energy sector as a program evaluation research analyst for energy utility and government clients. At YPCCC, she develops and supports survey research on public attitudes, behaviors, and policy support regarding climate change both in the U.S. and globally.
Moderating is Lynn E. Fiellin, M.D., a Professor of Medicine at the Yale School of Medicine, the Yale 
Child Study Center, and the Yale School of Public Health. Her work focuses on developing and testing novel videogame interventions to promote health and reduce risk in youth and young adults. She builds collaborations and partnerships between researchers, educators, commercial game developers, and community-based organizations with the goal of developing and rigorously testing innovative, effective, and targeted game interventions, tailored for specific populations and with the scientific data behind them to demonstrate that they work.
This event is hosted by the Yale Center for Environmental Communication, the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication, and the Yale Center for Health and Learning Games
