Welcome Community Specialist @NianticThia

NianticBrian · June 2021

We're very excited to introduce the newest member of the Ingress Team, @NianticThia. An explorer at heart, Thia has more than a decade's experience building and managing communities. She's a passionate Agent, First Saturday event organizer, and is committed to being both a bridge and champion for the global Agent community and our team. Please give Thia a warm welcome here in the forum or on COMM by tagging @tristeele.

In her own words:

Hi everyone - I’m @NianticThia (she/her/they/their) and I’m excited to be your Community Specialist! The thing I love most about Ingress is that there are so many ways to enjoy the game. Getting out and exploring the world and looking at it in a way I wasn’t before is a close second.

I’ve been in the game industry for over 15 years and before joining Niantic, I spent 8 years supporting game developer communities around the world. Previous roles have involved community management, production, operations, and events. I’ve also spent a lot of time encouraging women to get into tech and games spaces by volunteering with global initiatives like Girl Geek Dinners and Global Game Jam as well as organizing regional tech and game events in the US-Northeast and speaking in the US and Europe about the importance and benefits of both having a community and mentorship (separately).

I believe that everyone can and should be able to enjoy games as a medium (if they want to!) and that in order to do that, we need to have everyone involved in the process of making them.

I’m mom to a human and 2 canines, play Ingress way more than I should, and have been WoW-free since BoA. I love to travel and experience new places and perspectives - and wish I had the photography skills to document it better than I do!