Suzanne Seggerman
Photo by MIT Media Lab Director Joi Ito

Suzanne Seggerman is the co-founder of Games for Change and is a public speaker and adviser on new media and social impact. At the 2015 Annual Game Developers Conference she was given an award by the Higher Education Video Game Alliance along with Dr. Mary Flanagan, Professor of Film and Media at Dartmouth College and Dr. James Paul Gee, Professor of Literacy Studies at Arizona State University.[1]

Career

Seggerman was co-founder and former president of Games for Change (G4C),[2] a non-profit that promotes and supports the emerging uses of video games for humanitarian and educational purposes.[3] The mission of G4C is to harness the extraordinary power of video games to engage people in the most pressing issues of our day, and to foster and promote new kinds of games. Early examples of games for change include Honorable Justice Sandra Day O'Connor's suite of games called iCivics; Food Force a game about global hunger created by the World Food Program; and Ayiti: the Cost of Life , a game about poverty set in Haiti. Seggerman ran G4C since its inception in 2004,[4] acting as the curator of the Games for Change Festival, and a frequent speaker and advisor on video games and social impact.

Seggerman also co-founded PETLab (Prototyping Education and Technology Lab), a public interest design and research lab at Parsons The New School for Design, supported by grants from MTV and the MacArthur Foundation.[5]

Her speaker resume includes Sundance Film Festival,[6] PopTech,[7] and TEDx.[8] As an invited expert on various new media projects, she has advised on Microsoft’s Imagine Cup,[9] Scholastic Art and Writing Awards[10] and the Knight Foundation News Challenge.[11]

Known for her expertise in games and social impact, she has often been featured in the press.[4][9][12][13][14][15][16][17]

Before co-founding Games for Change, Seggerman was a director at new media think tank Web Lab,[18] where she worked since its inception, with its founder Marc Weiss,[3] the creator of the PBS Independent film series P.O.V. Web Lab started as an early think tank dedicated to exploring and funding serious issues at the outset of the World Wide Web[19] While at Web Lab, Seggerman also co-curated Provocations in 2003, an exhibition dedicated to digital games and social issues, featuring artists Natalie Jeremijenko, Tamiko Thiel, Michael Mateas, Brody Condon, Eddo Stern and Anne-Marie Schleiner.

Previous to her work in new media, Seggerman was production manager for the PBS documentary series by Ken Burns and Stephen Ives called "The West".[3]

Early life and education

Seggerman grew up in Fairfield, Connecticut,[20] the daughter of Harry G. A. Seggerman, who had been vice chairman of Fidelity, and Anne Crellin Seggerman.[21] She has five siblings; Patricia Seggerman, Marianne Seggerman, Yvonne Seggerman, Henry Seggerman, and Ed Seggerman.[21] Seggerman received a B.A. from Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio,[20] and a master's degree from New York University’s Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP).[22]

In October 2010, Seggerman pleaded guilty to conspiracy and tax fraud related to a $12M 2001 inheritance her family received in a Swiss bank account from her father.[23][24] As of September 9, 2014, her sentencing has been postponed pending the outcome of the family financial adviser, Michael Little's, trial.[25] She was a cooperating witness in that trial, and in 2014, and again in 2019, the probation department recommended probation.[26]

In a surprise decision, on June 26, 2019 the four siblings Henry, Yvonne, Suzanne and Ed were each sentenced to prison. Suzanne received a four month sentence which she completed in December 2019.[27] The siblings, all well-educated and accomplished people, had funneled their inherited money into the U.S. tax-free through a variety of means: shell companies, a fraudulent foundation and carrying just under $10,000 cash on return trips from Switzerland.[28]

References

  1. ↑ "HIGHER EDUCATION VIDEO GAME ALLIANCE RECOGNIZES LEADERS WITH AWARDS PROGRAM" (PDF).
  2. ↑ "Mike Musgrove - Not the Usual Game Application". Washingtonpost.com. 2008-06-22. Archived from the original on 2008-06-22. Retrieved 2015-05-28.
  3. 1 2 3 Bio Archived 2011-12-28 at the Wayback Machine at Games for Change] web site
  4. 1 2 Watson, Tom. "Are You A Social Entrepreneur? 5 Key Questions You Need to Ask". Forbes.com. Retrieved 2015-05-28.
  5. ↑ "The New School News Releases". Newschool.edu. 2007-12-12. Retrieved 2015-05-28.
  6. ↑ "Filmmakers at Sundance look to indie video game industry - CNET News". News.cnet.com. Retrieved 2015-05-28.
  7. ↑ "PopCasts : Suzanne Seggerman - PopTech 2008". PopTech.org. Retrieved 2015-05-28.
  8. ↑ "Watch "TEDxBinghamtonUniversity - Suzanne Seggerman - Games are Growing Up" Video at TEDxTalks". Tedxtalks.ted.com. 2012-04-23. Retrieved 2015-05-28.
  9. 1 2 "Mike Musgrove - Not the Usual Game Application". Washingtonpost.com. 2008-06-22. Retrieved 2015-05-28.
  10. ↑ "The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards" (PDF). D3kino9lsjew8j.cloudfront.net. Retrieved 2015-05-28.
  11. ↑ "What's the Score?: News Games" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2016-09-13.
  12. ↑ Thompson, Clive (2006-07-23). "Saving the World, One Video Game at a Time". New York Times. Retrieved 2015-05-28.
  13. ↑ "Moving beyond 'shoot 'em up'". CSMonitor.com. 2005-12-22. Retrieved 2015-05-28.
  14. ↑ "'Ethical' computer games take on the shoot-'em-up classics". Tmcnet.com. 2006-06-29. Retrieved 2015-05-28.
  15. ↑ "Nation: For a virtual dose of reality, a different kind of video game". Natcath.org. 2008-03-07. Retrieved 2015-05-28.
  16. ↑ "Lab aims for video games with a conscience - Technology & science - Games". Nbcnews.com. 2007-12-12. Retrieved 2015-05-28.
  17. ↑ "Activists Build Video Games". Newsweek.com. 10 July 2006. Retrieved 2015-05-28.
  18. ↑ "Connecting People and Ideas". Weblab.org. Retrieved 2015-05-28.
  19. ↑ "Web Development Fund Announces Grant Recipients". Weblab.org. 1998-05-04. Retrieved 2015-05-28.
  20. 1 2 Elstein, Aaron (2014-09-08). "Sentencing near for Seggerman heir | Crain's New York Business". Crainsnewyork.com. Retrieved 2015-05-28.
  21. 1 2 Schwartz, John (2001-05-23). "Harry G. A. Seggerman, 73, a Pioneer Investor in Asian Companies". NYTimes.com. Retrieved 2015-05-28.
  22. ↑ "News & Events » ITP at Pop!Tech 2008". Itp.nyu.edu. 2008-10-22. Retrieved 2015-05-28.
  23. ↑ Voreacos, David (2013-11-01). "Offshore Tax Scorecard: UBS, Credit Suisse, HSBC, Baer - Bloomberg Business". Bloomberg.com. Retrieved 2015-05-28.
  24. ↑ Archived May 22, 2012, at the Wayback Machine
  25. ↑ Elstein, Aaron (2014-09-09). "Seggerman sentencing postponed pending adviser, Michael Little's trial | Crain's New York Business". Crainsnewyork.com. Retrieved 2015-05-28.
  26. ↑ "British lawyer set $2m dollar bail over alleged tax dodge advice". TheGuardian.com. 12 May 2012.
  27. ↑ "BOP: Federal Inmates by Name".
  28. ↑ "In surprise, New York's first family of tax evasion sentenced to prison". 26 June 2019.
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