Shayne Hayes is a nonresident fellow. In this role, Hayes leads the Gaming Center of Excellence and works with AAA game studios and indie developers to advance gaming for climate resilience.

For over twelve years, Hayes has reached millions of students around the world by creating socially impactful content for Minecraft. Hayes developed content for the Minecraft Education flagship series Hour of Code and several other notable projects including Minecraft Hour of Code: Escape Estate, UNESCO’s Minecraft Peace with Nature Challenge, and Minecraft BuildAbility. In 2016, Hayes achieved a Guinness World Record for developing the most downloaded Minecraft project, Diversity 2. He currently serves as co-chair of the International Game Developers Association Climate Special Interest Group, and previously served as associate director at the Atlantic Council’s Climate Resilience Center.

Hayes graduated summa cum laude from the University of California, Santa Cruz with a BS in computer science: game design.