Jes (she/her) recently completed her MFA in Game Design at DePaul University. Since graduating, she has started teaching game design, game art, and social media at DePaul as an adjunct instructor. Jes also works in DePaul’s Center for Teaching and Learning as a Senior Instructional Designer. In 2022 she founded the DePaul Instructional Game & Innovation (DIGI) Lab to work alongside faculty across the university to design and develop games for their classes.
Before pursuing a career in games, Jes worked primarily as a copywriter, editor, and social media manager. She has always loved games, however, and has spent thousands of hours playing them. Some of her favorites are: the Suikoden Series, Tetris, World of Warcraft, Skyrim, Destiny 2, and basically any JRPG from the early 90s.
Jes' research surrounds how games can be used to create social ties for students in higher education, how games can be used to replace or supplement assessment in higher education, games in education more broadly, and the intersection of game design and pedagogy.
Research Area
Game Development, Education
Specific Research Area
Educational games, transformational games, grief, pedagogy, accessibility in gaming