Meet Game Chica San Francisco 2018 Keynote Speaker: Cristina Rufeisen
Cristina Rufeisen is the Director of Program Management at Electronic Art’s Information Technology Department. She holds a B.S. Degree in Computer Science from the University of Campinas (Brazil) and has over 20 years of experience in IT roles across Technology, Medical Sciences, and Media & Entertainment industries. She started her career as an application developer at Hewlett-Packard in Brazil, and after a few years moved to California to work at HP Headquarters. In her more recent role with EA, she oversees large-scale projects supporting different business functions within the company.
Cristina is committed to creating an awesome work environment where people can perform to the best of their ability. She serves as Co-Chair of SOMOS EA Board, the Hispanic/Latinos Employee Resource Group (ERG) at Electronic Arts, and is also a part of BRAVE — Brasileiras do Vale — a group created in 2013 to support, inform, connect and inspire Brazilian women living in Silicon Valley.
What got you interested in being a part of Game Chica?
SOMOS EA (EA’s Hispanic/Latinx Employee Resource Group) in Austin had an opportunity to sponsor and volunteer with Game Chica earlier this year and they told us about how great the experience was for the girls and the volunteers. So, when we learned Latinitas was about to host their first Game Chica conference in the Bay Area, we jumped at the opportunity! What can be more fun than helping young girls to unlock their superpowers?
What is your favorite part about your current position at Electronic Arts (EA)?
I get to work with a lot of great people delivering solutions to challenging business problems. I love the flexibility to work in different areas of the business, and that no matter what project we are working on everyone has one goal in mind: creating amazing games to delight our players!
When or how did you realize this was your passion?
I started my career as a software engineer developing applications and over time, as I became more experienced and had exposure to the whole software development life cycle, I realized that I really enjoy planning and overseeing the delivery of solutions and participating in the process end-to-end. So Project & Program management became a natural fit for me.
Tell us about someone who motivated you to pursue this career path.
My parents, by always telling me that I could do whatever I put my mind to. Believe it or not, I had not been exposed to coding until I got to college. When I was selecting a career — which in Brazilian universities at the time you had to do when applying — I was not sure exactly what to do. I didn’t know anybody else working with computers. I only knew I wanted to ‘build stuff’. Then I thought, which area would enable me to get a solid technical foundation and still retain a lot of flexibility so that I could work in multiple fields and in different roles? Computer Science rose to the top of the list! I started ‘building stuff’ right away and fell in love with the process of creating solutions and putting them in the hands of end-users. It enabled me to work in Tech, Life Sciences, Media and Entertainment; it enabled me to travel around the world, and even move to a different country!
If you could, what would you tell your younger self when you first started pursuing this career path?
Pace yourself ! Leverage the ever-growing resources that are available in the tech area, online, meetups, etc. And early on, find one or two mentors, folks that have blazed the trail professionally, whose personal values you identify with. It be can a teacher in your early years, then a professional, a former boss, etc. Ask for their inputs and assistance with your thought process as you assess different paths.
Tell us about a challenge you’ve faced while working in the tech sector and what you learned from it.
Being in the tech field for many years, I noticed that at times I was one of the few women in the meeting, working on a project, and sitting in the room. At times, it can be challenging if you don’t see a lot of people like you doing what you do and in the roles that you want to grow into. What I learned from that on-going challenge is that you can turn it into an advantage. Remember: your perspective is important and your voice carries weight precisely because you bring a different point of view! This is the power of diversity!
Latinitas’ Game Chica Conference is a daylong event where girls ages 9–18 will explore the gaming industry as it exists today as well as their perspective and representation in video games. In addition, participating girls will learn how to develop elements of game art and design using the Scratch platform, and engage with local professionals to inspire the exploration of STEM careers.
Game Chica takes place November 17th from 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM at Seven Tepees Youth Program’s Learning Center. Tickets are free. Register your chica on our Evenbrite! This event is a collaboration Seven Tepees Youth Program and is sponsored by Electronic Arts (EA).
