Staff

The staff at the International Center for the History of Electronic Games® (ICHEG) studies and interprets the cultural history of video games, other electronic games, and related materials to ensure that they are collected and preserved for future generations and that present generations understand their impact on society. ICHEG’s leadership team develops exhibits, participates at industry conferences and offers weekly insights on the CHEGheads Blog.

Jon-Paul Dyson

Jon-Paul C. Dyson, Director

J. P. is a gamer and an expert on the history of video games. He holds a doctorate in American cultural history with an emphasis on the history of science and is vice president for exhibit research and development at The Strong. His productions for The Strong's National Museum of Play include eGameRevolution, Reading Adventureland, and American Comic Book Heroes: the Battle of Good vs. Evil, all of which combine artifacts and interactivity in unique ways and include literary items that helped inspire electronic games.

Jeremy Saucier  

Jeremy K. Saucier,
Assistant Director

Jeremy spearheads ICHEG’s digital preservation efforts and serves as liaison to collections donors, scholars, historians, and industry leaders. He holds an undergraduate degree in American studies and a doctorate in American history with minors in film studies and Africans in the Americas. He is the author of scholarly articles and essays on video game history and has taught in adjunct and visiting assistant professor capacities at the University of Rochester, Hobart and William Smith Colleges, and St. Bonaventure University.

Shannon

Shannon Symonds,
Acquisitions Cataloger

Shannon is a gamer and collections management specialist at The Strong. She has a background in journalism and Japanese cultural studies, holds a master’s degree in history, and has taught as an adjunct at the State University of New York College at Brockport.

John Villard

John Villard, Arcade Video Game Conservation Engineer

John provides care and repair for ICHEG’s arcade video game collection. He holds a degree in electrical engineering and has been playing and professionally conserving arcade games for more than two decades. His experience includes computer hardware and software engineering, technical writing, and installing and servicing arcade machines in retail settings.

Michelle Parnett

Michelle Parnett,
CHEGheads Blog Editor

Michelle is special assistant to the president and CEO of The Strong. She hold degrees in English and creative writing and is assistant editor of The Strong’s American Journal of Play. She also blogs for Global Toy News and has taught creative writing at several Rochester-area colleges.

Don Daglow

Don Daglow, Collections Development Consultant

Don is an experienced game designer, programmer, and producer with a 40-year career in game development. He is widely recognized for designing a series of pioneering simulation and role-playing games, as well as the first interactive  baseball simulation game. In 2003 he received the CGE Achievement Award for “groundbreaking achievements that shaped the video game industry,” and in 2008 his work was selected for an Emmy Award for Technology and Engineering.

Stephen Jacobs

Stephen Jacobs,
Visiting Scholar

Steve is associate professor of interactive games and media in the Golisano College of Computing and Information Sciences at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT). He teaches courses in computer game history and design, interactive narrative, and humanitarian free and open software, and directs RIT’s Lab for Technological Literacy. Steve has more than two decades of experience as a freelance technology journalist, was founder of the pioneering blog The Gadget Boy Gazette, and was a contributing editor to CNET.com and Television 2.0.

RIT Co-op Students

As part of an ongoing partnership with Rochester Institute of Technology, co-op students from the university assist ICHEG’s efforts to preserve video game history in a variety of ways. Currently on board are game design and development students Nick Buonarota (2013), Carl Burdick (2014), James Hoyt (2013), and Alexander Williams (2014).

    

  
This core team is supported by the rest of The Strong’s curatorial, library and archives, exhibits, and education staff and especially by Scott G. Eberle, vice president for play studies and G. Rollie Adams, president and CEO. Scott holds a doctorate in American intellectual history, has executed scores of museum exhibits, is author of Classic Toys of the National Toy Hall of Fame, and is currently writing—in partnership with noted play scholar Stuart Brown—a book on the elements of play. Rollie holds a master’s degree in social science education and a doctorate in American history, has served on the staff of the American Association for State and Local History and the board of the American Association of Museums, and is editor in chief of The Strong’s American Journal of Play.