Play. Ask. Learn. Come Get Immersed in the Esports Experience

Chris Aviles is a teacher at Knollwood Middle School in Fair Haven, New Jersey, where he runs the FH Innovates program he created in 2015. The program includes the FH Knights, the first middle school esports team in the country. As coach of the FH Knights, Aviles and his players take on all comers from around the country, including other middle schools, high schools and even colleges. Aviles has been involved in esports since 1998, and he’s passionate about growing the esportsedu movement. He authored The Esports In Education Playbook, and runs the North American Scholastic Esports Federation-affiliated nonprofit Garden State Esports to help other educators start teams in their New Jersey schools.

Heidi Baynes is a Google Certified Trainer and Innovator and Raspberry Pi Certified Educator. She works as a Coordinator of Educational Technology for the Riverside County Office of Education. She specializes in the integration of technology into classroom instruction and is a strong advocate of computer science education and the #CSforALL movement. Her experience in K-12 education includes online, blended, and traditional classroom models where she has taught multiple subjects and grade levels. She is invested in the importance of the Maker Movement and ways to merge the maker mentality with lesson design to enhance the student learning experience.

Kevin Brown is a licensed CTE instructor, mentor teacher and wears the mantle of “esports Program Specialist” in a joint position with the Orange County (CA) Department of Education and the North America Scholastic esports Federation (NASEF). As a life-long gamer, he sees his job as the perfect linkage between parents, educators and administrators, helping them cross the seemingly impossible divide between video game play and all of its inherent scholastic, health and social-emotional merits. Polyglot, inventor, monastic and beast-master round out his eclectic skill set.

Kathy Chiang is the Assistant Director of the esports department at the University of California, Irvine. She manages the UCI Esports Arena, oversees program staff, and leads key initiatives including training programs, outreach, summer camps, and operations for the UCI Esports Conference. She graduated from UCI with a B.S. in Computer Game Science after co-founding one of the largest clubs on campus, The Association of Gamers. Recognized for her work with the campus gaming community and collegiate esports space since 2011, she was brought on as a key advisor for shaping the new esports program in 2016.

Camilla Gagliolo is the senior director of event content at ISTE where she’s charged with planning the program for the ISTE Annual Conference & Expo as well as ISTE’s regional events. She’s worked as the instructional technology coordinator for Arlington Public Schools in Virginia, facilitating and leading technology integration to enhance teaching and learning for students. Her passion for innovation in education has made her an international leader in implementing new technologies in all curriculum areas. Gagliolo has presented at numerous national and international conferences on technology integration, foreign and immersion language learning, digital portfolio creation, multimedia integration, and the use of emergent and mobile technologies in instructional environments. She’s also presented and led workshops on technology integration at international conferences, including the ISTE Conference & Expo, the Virginia Society for Technology in Education (VSTE) annual conference, the Educational Collaborative for International Schools Conference (ECIS) and the Future of Education Technology Conference (FETC).

Joe McAllister is a nerdthelete. Joe is a former high school teacher. During his time in the classroom he lead the varsity wrestling team, supported the gaming club and served on his school’s one to one device board. Joe has worked with hundreds of schools, both in K12 and Higher Education, to help with their esports programs. He can speak to stakeholders athletics, curriculum, IT and leadership as he has lived in each of those worlds. His understanding of those roles and what is important to each of them has led to the success of CDW•G's esports in education initiative.