Shayne Hayes
Shayne Hayes is the associate director of the climate games and technology initiative at the Atlantic Council’s Adrienne Arsht–Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Center (Arsht-Rock). 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 worked initially as a hobbyist and then as a developer at ReWrite Media. 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. Hayes currently serves as co-chair of the International Game Developers Association Climate Special Interest Group, supporting game industry professionals in telling stories for climate mitigation and resilience.
Hayes has contributed to leading climate gaming publications, including the “Environmental Game Design Playbook.”
Hayes graduated summa cum laude from the University of California, Santa Cruz with a BS in computer science: game design.
