Building on a Legacy: Maria Burns Ortiz | Executive Director @ GGJ | GGJ Podcast Episode 16

In episode 16 Susan talks to Global Game Jam executive director Maria Burns Ortiz about what it means to lead a veteran global community with empathy and an eye toward underrepresented creators. Drawing on her background as a journalist for outlets like ESPN, her experience co‑founding Seven Generation Games to build educational games with tribal and marginalized communities, and her first two years at the helm of GGJ, Maria shares how she works to see the organization through the perspectives of jammers in Latin America, Africa, Asia, India and beyond, how she balances legacy with necessary change, and why expanding pathways like partner jams, multilingual programs, and micro‑grants is essential if Global Game Jam is truly going to belong to the people it serves. 00:00 Intro 01:53 Introducing Maria Burns Ortiz 03:28 Natural Storyteller 04:57 From Journalism to Games 07:36 Making the Invisible Visible 10:55 Educational Games 14:45 7th Generation Games 17:06 The Responsibility of Being a Creator 22:11 The True Impact 24:03 Sponsor: The PlayStation Hero Project 25:21 Leading the GGJ 33:58 The Huge World of Games 38:08 GGJ as an Opportunity Creator 43:09 How do you do it? 45:36 Outro Guest Bio: Maria Burns Ortiz is the executive director of the Global Game Jam, which organizes the world's largest game creation event, The Global Game Jam, and the world's largest youth game jam, GGJ Next. GGJ works year-round to support the growth of game development ecosystems and champion indie developers around the world. Through these efforts, GGJ reaches over 40,000 game creators across more than 100 countries annually. Previous to leading GGJ, she co-founded and was CEO of 7 Generation Games, creating educational and social impact games and the tools to make them. She led the development of 30+ games from concept to commercialization, aimed at closing educational and opportunity gaps in underserved communities, tackling topics from math proficiency to Indigenous language preservation to climate change. Maria transitioned to the games industry after a decade in media, where she was an award-winning journalist and NY Times bestselling author. She currently lives in Minneapolis with her husband and three children Find out more about Maria and the Global Game Jam! Maria's LinkedIn www.7generationgames.com www.globalgamejam.org GGJ Socials   / global-game-jam     / globalgamejam     / globalgamejam   Our Sponsors This episode is sponsored by the University of Miami School of Communications and the Knight Foundation https://com.miami.edu/department-of-i... https://knightfoundation.org/ This episode is sponsored by The PlayStation Hero Project. https://www.playstation.com/en-in/ind... https://www.playstation.com/en-in/chi... https://www.playstation.com/en-in/men... Wishlist Big Boot Games' Meteora: The Race Against Spacetime on Steam! - https://store.steampowered.com/app/11... Sign up for our Newsletter - https://tinyurl.com/GGJPodcastSubstack