Staff & Board of Directors

Ashley Baker is a technical designer and co-lead of Women@Bungie where she is an advocate and volunteer for initiatives that support women in the gaming industry. She earned her MFA in Costume Design from the University of Oregon and received national and international recognition for her design work. When she isn’t designing game mechanics or costumes she is likely baking delicious cupcakes, trying (and probably failing) to not fall while skating, or going on adventures with her incredible husband.

As the Arts/Lit Featured Contributor Coordinator Ali works with artists, authors, and publishers to coordinate their public appearances. She loves getting the chance to connect with her Seattle community and all it has to offer. Her current geeky obsessions are DC Comics, Star Wars, and sports history!

When a career as a deadly ninja assassin proved too tame, Raychelle turned to chemistry. She’s currently an Assistant Professor at a super-secret-but-not-that-secret institution. To relax from a day of mad scientist duties, Raychelle enjoys sci-fi/horror movies, knitting, and consuming books of all genres. In her spare time, she writes about science and culture for a number of blogs and tweets up a storm.

Stenmark is an award-winning costumer and a college chemistry instructor at Shoreline Community College. The same skill set (attention to detail, exacting record-keeping, and refusal to be intimidated by new problems, among others) that earned her a master’s degree in organic chemistry has enabled her to compete and win in the masters division of costume contests on the local and national levels. Follow Torrey on Twitter @tereshkova2001.

Teal (she/her) joined GeekGirlCon in 2016 as writer for the blog and now works on the Programming team. Outside of GeekGirlCon, Teal is a library worker at King County Library System and a part-time librarian for the Seattle Colleges. Teal’s primary geeky domains are books and TV, specifically of the romance and sci fi/fantasy variety. She lives in Seattle with her giant fluffy black cat, Prince Charmont.

Born on the East Coast and raised in the Midwest, Sadie is pleased to be now living in the Pacific Northwest. With many years spent volunteering at event registrations for years as well as attendance at several conventions and extensive administrative work experience, she is bringing a solid presence to the role of Registration Coordinator.

Like many other neurodivergent people, she has a small amount of knowledge on any number of subjects, and her interest jumps from topic to topic regularly. If you ever want to have a discussion on scifi shows shot in Vancouver, the Queens of Crime, lesser known GBA titles, pi shawls, blackwork, British cozy mystery series, that one fantasy novel series you grew up with, obstacle course races, how cats have the squishiest paws, Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything, homemade gummy bears or button making, she’s your person.

Emily Gitelman is a game developer and producer who has worked in all manner of games, from video games and virtual reality to
live play and tabletop RPGs.

She is also an artist who earned her BFA in Art History, Theory, and Criticism at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Her thesis, Beyond Princess Peach: Gender Issues and the Boy’s Club Hegemony of Game Development, was an unprecedented addition to the Art History department that raised new and interesting questions like, “are video games art?” (Sigh, yes.) and “okay, but what’s an NPC?” (Oh boy.).

She loves people with a passion for all things nerdy and is excited to join Geek Girl Con to help foster a fun space for people to share what they love.

Abby is a Midwestern raised geek who found the good books at the small public library in the 1900s. They work in healthcare by day, and by night can be found gaming, or reading, or finishing up that pesky degree. They can be easily distracted by shiny things, caffeine, pretty books, or amazing board game bits. Abby is very excited to be back and to make the tabletop area bigger, better, more accessible, and even more exciting!

Growing up, Kay went from reading under the desk in math class to studying math, physics, and computer science in college. Since graduating, she has worked to improve representation in stem fields as an informal educator and tutor, and is excited to bring this perspective to GeekGirlCon workshops.
Alongside her existing crafting and baking hobbies, she is always seeking out new things to learn. She is currently learning how to stay upright on a snowboard and how to keep plants alive.
Kay’s interests include Star Wars, Star Trek, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Lord of the Rings, and most stories where a woman has a sword. She spends her time planning board game nights, replaying Dragon Age for the millionth time, and overthinking her favorite stories.

Max is excited to be helping with Sponsorships and Grants for GeekGirlCon! A queer, neurospicy lover of games of all kinds, his geeky interests include Deep Space Nine and D&D. Max enjoys nerding out about bees and beekeeping and wishes he was a better gardener and dog trainer. He currently lives in south Renton on a micro-hobbyfarm with his spouse, three dogs, two cats, and what plants he can manage to keep alive.

Amanda is a relative newcomer to the PNW. Having worked in various cons across the South, she is excited to bring her strengths and talents to GeekGirlCon as Exhibitor Services Manager. You can usually find Amanda dabbling in her many geeky interests from DnD to MCU to MtG and more. The consummate nerd, please come up and say, “Hi” as she can be a little shy.

Amanda is also a certified sign language interpreter and is currently pursuing her PhD in Leadership with a concentration in DEI.

Ayoub’s love of nerdery started with watching the original Star Wars trilogy on VHS (gasp!) growing up. Since then, he’s gone on adventures with the Power Rangers, Ash Ketchum, SG-1, the X-Men, and countless others!

His own adventures have taken him to far-away lands, like the UAE, China, and even Minnesota! But now he’s settled in the PNW with his wife to slowly write his stories as all good writers do: in front of a nice warm fireplace, over second breakfast… and elevensies, tea, lunch, supper, and dinner….

Perhaps the most important thing that he’s learned through everything is this: This too shall pass. So, enjoy the good times while they last, and take comfort through the hard times.

Hi, I’m Nolan. Sometimes Tess or Tesseract if we’re online. I’m here to help us all have a good time at con, staying safer so we can also enjoy the time that follows. I’ve been staffing conventions in the PNW for around 15 years, and recently found GeekGirlCon as an attendee. I was quickly captivated by the inclusive atmosphere and mindful health policies amid the challenges of a pandemic – not to mention the excellent programming and other content. I’ve always identified as a geek; a programmer by trade, board game collector, some-time gamer, and FIRST robotics mentor as a few interests I hold.

As Health and Safety Coordinator, I’m passionate about making conventions accessible to all. While I’m lucky to have few physical obstacles in my own life, I’ve learned much from people I care for in my life. A rising tide lifts all ships, and an inclusive event helps rise that tide. One focus I hope to support in my role is mitigation of transmissible disease such as COVID-19, which too often is dismissed as an inevitability, even as transmission and long-term cases reach new heights. We can make a difference, together, and run a safer con 💙

Finally, I love to find shared interests with new friends – always happy to make conversation on the con floor! Looking forward to more time in the GGC community~

Hello! I’m Viv and I wandered my way into volunteering for GeekGirlCon back in 2017 and never left. I am the current Reaction Team Coordinator and look forward to working with everyone.

Outside of GGC, you’ll find me hopping around different geeky and nerdy conventions. I love talking about video games, bikes, working out and frogs/hyraxes.

Julie Tergliafera has been working with GeekGirlCon since 2013 as a volunteer interpreter. Originally from Louisiana, she has lived in Seattle since 2008 and enjoys everything the area has to offer: from outdoors activities such as hiking and camping to game nights and craft beers. Julie is an avid knitter and crocheter and is known for completing projects during science fiction movies and Star Trek marathons.

Mary Kimball (she/her) is a former board member and the current bookkeeper for GeekGirlCon. A queer nerd who loves to garden and hike, Mary is also involved with the Edmonds Floretum Garden Club, the Northwest Community Bail Fund, and US Quadball, where she is executive director. Her geeky passions include Star Wars, Marvel comics and the MCU, and books.

Jess wants all your details and opinions! They are the creator of surveys and keeper of responses for GeekGirlCon.

If you ever need a topic to discuss with them, we recommend time travel stories or socialist utopia (eg, the Star Trek episode “Yesterday’s Enterprise” for both).

A five-year-old child once informed them that Jess’s catchphrase is “That’s true.” And that’s true.

Jannae Fong is the Volunteer Manager and a Twitch Content Producer with GeekGirlCon. She is from Los Angeles and spent most of her formative years at Disneyland. She loves Harry Potter, Marvel, Mean Girls, Star Wars, Disney/Pixar, and Broadway musicals. She is known to never turn down a cookie and to read the Wikipedia summaries of movies and TV shows she deems too scary to watch. Sometimes she eats a vegetable.

Eric Mack is an Atlanta native who wanders the world in search of the legendary Sushi-X.

His path led him to the PNW where he spends time either working on IT projects, assisting in surgery, watching anime, reading Korean subtitles, or listening to music. He is happy to join the team and put his information security skills to work.

Diversity is our strength.

Hi, I’m Ian, web admin and IT ticket enthusiast at GeekGirlCon! I’m a tech nerd and an artist currently in between work and always in between at least three personal projects. Find me obsessing over queer video games, graphic novels, comics, and animation – often all at once. I’m here to learn from all the wonderful people at GGC what it means to be a geek. I’m also here to bring that joy, passion, and confidence to all of you by making as semi-decent a website as I know how. ^-^

Sandra is thrilled to be joining the Outreach team to help find partners who are passionate about celebrating geeky women!

Outside of GGC, she’s probably enjoying any sliver of sunlight available or rewatching a comfort show for the millionth time.

A self-described “professional fangirl”, Sandra is an avid concert and sporting event lover. Also her favorite superhero is Spider-Man

Takeallah Rivera is the Outreach Coordinator at Geek Girl Con. In addition to her role at Geek Girl Con, Takeallah is a Postpartum Hotline Counselor, Full Spectrum Doula, and Barista professionally. She is also the owner of Hysteria Mental Health Cafe, where she is dedicated to promoting reproductive justice, neurodiversity advocacy, and mental health through peer counseling, doula support, and advocacy for health and social change.

Takeallah’s personal interests include watching horror movies, hiking, swimming, scuba diving, meditating, and playing cozy games on her Nintendo Switch.

I’m a public relations professional passionate about helping community-focused organizations reach their goals, and I am excited to bring my skills to GeekGirlCon. I do a little bit of everything under the public relations umbrella, and I can’t wait to jump in and help share the story of the community that is created at GeekGirlCon each year.

I love stories, adventure, coffee, and tattoos. I play D&D (cleric, former rogue), and I’m always up for conversations about or a rewatch/reread of a Dr. Who, Lord of the Rings, Firefly, or Buffy.

Hey there! I’m Misty Berdiel, a Senior Digital Designer with over 14 years of experience in marketing and graphic design. I love bringing stories to life through visuals, whether that’s through Adobe Creative Suite, Figma, social media. I’ve had the chance to work on some pretty cool projects, from national campaigns to designing emails for Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, and working as a senior digital designer at the Health Coach Institute.

Outside of work, I’m self proclaimed foodie and a gamer. You can find me trying out local eats, or join me on my Twitch channel, “melicious_6,” where I hang out and connect with a fun community. It’s a place where I get to share my creative journey, chat about life as a remote worker, and just have a good time with some great peeps. I’m all about finding that sweet spot between work and play and enjoying every bit of it!

INFJ Emerald Peterson is constantly on the lookout for ways to be more like a hobbit. When being a music major wasn’t for her, she instead graduated from Pacific Lutheran University with a major in history and a minor in psychology. Since learning new things is great, she then went on to receive a graduate certificate in Children’s Literature and another in Storytelling and Content Strategy. Hobbies include reading, writing, NOT ‘rithmatic, but drawing her friends as superheroes, baking for her weekly board game night, and taking life advice from her cat, Brisco. She is committed to encouraging growth, harmony, and positive change among the geek community, as well as supporting everybody’s right to enjoy both Star Wars and Star Trek.

In addition to managing email marketing for GeekGirlCon, Julia works full time as a data scientist at PSE. In her free time, she loves cosplay, science fiction, hiking, and indulging a very spoiled dog. She’s also published a video game on Steam, is a senior editor at Allegory, and has had short stories published in a number of science fiction magazines.

As the Merchandise Assistant, Amanda supports the Merchandise Manager in ensuring GeekGirlCon customers have a diverse selection of GeekGirlCon branded merchandise. Amanda celebrates her inner geek by playing and painting Warhammer miniatures, collecting Funko Pops!, Tiny Ghosts, anything Harry Potter (especially Snape related) and comic books. Amanda’s goal is to have the Warhammer/ wargaming community have more women and non-binary representation in a largely male dominated game/community and hopes to produce online painting tutorials for the community.

LaDonna (she/her) is excited to be joining GGC as a Design Manager. She fell into the world of online fandom and fan culture at a young age when she discovered other people were as obsessed with anime as she was. She loves sharing music, macarons, K-pop, anime, stickers, and board/role playing/video games. LaDonna has a degree in graphic design with a minor in web design, and wants to capture the attention of viewers, communicate the right message, and inspire and attract the target audience. Her strongest skill is making a client’s vision come to life and caring about a client’s feelings when solving design problems for them. She always brings out her best work when designing.

Teryn grew up north of Seattle researching a constant rotation of interests. After studying English and Linguistics yet ending up in the consumer electronics industry, she has worked in a variety of roles to bring new technologies to a wider audience. As a Twitch content producer, she hopes to continue showcasing what the amazing world of games and geek talent have to offer.

She can be found playing genre mashup video games, shadowboxing, unearthing a new nonfiction book to dive into, or still trying to figure out what her cat wants.

For Marium, her geek journey started at the age of 10 rewatching her one and only cassette of Sailor Moon. Now she enjoys illustrating, watching anime and reading comics to immerse herself in different worlds. Marium’s life goal is to create and complete at least her own comic story!

Originally from Staten Island, NY, Joe is a variety streamer on Twitch streaming both video game and tabletop content. He first ventured into tabletop gaming in 2013 when he played his first game of Pandemic.

Joe enjoys all kinds of board and video games but has an affinity for medium to heavy weight board games like 18xx, anything by Vital Lacerda, and Hansa Teutonica but definitely not opposed to trying and playing all kinds of games! As far as video games; JRPGs, Puzzle Games, Platformers, and retro games are where it’s at!

When not streaming Joe loves watching hockey and anime, cooking all kinds of food, hanging out with his fiancée, occasional co-host and fellow staffer Abby, our kid, and enjoys having (a rather large) knowledge and love of game shows!

Joe is a big proponent of maintaining and curating a welcoming, inclusive, safe space and community that folks can be comfortable being a part of and being in. You can find Joe everywhere on social media and Twitch @PhantomMeeple.

Hadeel is a fantasy writer, cosplayer, and fandom historian (that’s a real thing!). She found her way to geekdom as a child when she accidentally stumbled upon an episode of Sailor Moon and she’s been pretending to be the main character of her own Magical Girl anime ever since. You can frequently find her zipping around town on her hot pink bike, playing Dungeons & Dragons, and streaming her latest costume build or favorite video game on Twitch.

Dr. Amelia is a psychotherapist who works with geeks and gamers in the greater Seattle area. She is a Philadelphia native who fell in love with working with non-profits when she started at the age of 17. She has contributed to books and has spoken on panels about the psychology of video games and pop culture. Amelia loves fantasy and finds herself staying up late hours playing fantasy RPGs. Some of her favorite fandoms are The Elder Scrolls and The Witcher and she loves playing Destiny 2, FromSoftware games, and open-world RPGs.

“As Panel Program Manager Marina crafts the programming schedule for the con and helps curate the panels that are selected. Marina grew up in San Diego, California reading fantasy novels and watching Shaun of the Dead on repeat. She fell into the world of online fandom and fan culture at a young age when she discovered other people were as obsessed with Yu-Gi-Oh! as she was. Marina’s hobbies include learning k-pop choreo, reading copious amounts of fanfiction, and watching BL dramas from around the world.
“

Alyssa is here to utilize her geeky and organizational tendencies to lead the con operations team in coordinating all the behind the scenes logistics that are needed to keep GeekGirlCon running! In the day time, she is a producer working in the video games industry and also volunteers with the IGDA Foundation Next Gen Leaders Program.

Alyssa loves polka-dots, bows, Spider-Man, R2D2, crafting, and playing all the games. Favorite video games include Spyro the Dragon: Ripto’s Rage and Disney Dreamlight Valley. Favorite board games include any game won the first time she played, even if she never succeeds again.”

Khrystine, luminously known as K2, is Co-Director of Internal Ops — a title that barely contains the multitudes. Equal parts logistics sorceress and tabletop tactician, she has dedicated herself to the sacred art of making things work, wielding spreadsheets with the same ferocity she brings to a late-game boss fight or a particularly treacherous encounter in the Underdark. A devotee of science fiction, fantasy, and any narrative where a scrappy team beats impossible odds (for obvious professional reasons), K2 is proof that the best operations directors are simply chaotic good characters who found their calling.

Graphic Designer, Book lover, Crafting Geek, Gamer Girl, all wrapped up on one sweet package. What more could you want?

“Alyssa’s first video game experience was wielding the NES Zapper while shooting ducks on Duck Hunt with her grandpa. Since that day gaming has been a big part of her life. Today she can almost always be found scanning Steam for new deals or wrapped up in her snuggie and playing Xbox. When she’s not playing video games, you can often find her catching up on various animes, building props for Halloween parties, or streaming as part of the GeekGirlCon stream team!

Alyssa is a 10+ year video game industry veterean bringing organization to chaos as a Release Manager at Xbox. With a degree in communications and a SCRUM certificate she is always looking for new ways to improve efficiency. “

Sonja Howe is a New England native who now lives in California but plays in the Pacific Northwest. She has three children, two golden doodles, one husband, and at least a hundred “want to read” books already waiting on her bookshelf! Someday, friends. Someday!