Hi, I'm Kay.
I build communities, play games, and use words professionally

I have built and grown communities for more than fifteen years and specialize in crafting creative, out-of-the-box ideas. Ultimately, I am a communicator striving to make my favorite spaces more open and welcoming to everyone.

My experience includes DeviantArt, Red Bull Gaming, Avalanche Studios Group, and gaming journalism. I've been a panelist at San Diego Comic-Con, New York Comic Con, Anime Expo, and have given a number of talks on fandom and how to build communities.

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A Brief History

The Early Days

I discovered my love for videogames back in the exit-to-DOS days, and cut my teeth on classics such as Oregon Trail and Quest for Glory. I attended multiple North Texas conventions and Free Comic Book Day events where I displayed my artwork and got to meet many of my heroes, including Gail Simone, Larry Dixon, and Alex Cherry. I spent my summer and winter breaks working at Blockbuster Video and GameStop before making the leap into production at AMS Studios, and comics, as a colorist.

Gaming Trend
2016 - Present

In 2016, I yearned to explore and expand my communication skills, and joined Gaming Trend as a volunteer writer. I soon found myself promoted to Lead Editor, where I focused on editorial content and connection coverage, as well as tackling behind the scenes and administrative work, including overhauling our assignment system. I built and executed our streaming plan, growing our Twitch channel’s followers and subscribers and upgrading our channel to Twitch Affiliate. oversee onboarding, peer edit reviews, and our Discord channel.

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I can often be found livestreaming video games, D&D sessions, and chatting while I make custom rubber ducky D20s.

DeviantArt

2006 - 2018

My love of writing, art, and fandom eventually led me to DeviantArt, where I became a volunteer mod, then a full time employee as a member of the Community and Moderation team. I worked remotely for the first five years, when I helped write site policy, community guidelines, and FAQs. I took on a number of roles during my fifteen years with DeviantArt, including taking over and project managing an overhaul of the entire moderation system and related admin tools, writing policy updates, answering customer service tickets via Zendesk and other in house tools, organizing convention booths, town hall meetings, and parties, speaking on behalf of the company at San Diego Comic-Con, and hosting sponsored live streams.

Red Bull Gaming
2018 - 2020

Avalanche Studios Group
2021 - Present

In the spring of 2021, I moved across the country to New York to embark on a new adventure as Lead Community Manager for Avalanche Studios Group! I'm so excited for this new opportunity and I can't wait to share what I'm working on.

In 2018 I stepped away from DeviantArt, striking  off on a bold new adventure at Red Bull. As the first Community Manager for Red Bull Gaming, I created their first community plan and subsequently helped build Red Bull Gaming's first influencer program. Through this, I worked with some of the biggest names in the industry, and even collaborated with Shen Comix to write multiple comics for Red Bull Rage Quit. My first project was Ninja New Year, where I worked directly with Twitch and ran the debut of their new trivia and polling system. Since then, I've built campaigns, organized events, crafted messaging for, and created unique livestreamed content with Anne Munition, GrandPOOBear, Cloud9, The ESA Foundation, and more.