Elizabeth LaPensée, Ph.D. is an award-winning designer, writer, artist, and researcher of games, comics, and animation. She is Anishinaabe, Métis, and settler Irish, connected to Bay Mills Indian Community through her mother and grandfather. Most recently, she designed and created art for Thunderbird Strike, a lightning-searing side-scroller game which won Best Digital Media at imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival.