Mark Deppe currently serves as Director of UCI Esports, leading the effort to create the world-renowned program at UCI. Working closely with student leaders, administrators, faculty, and industry partners, Mark built a business plan that is both cost-neutral to the university and that broadly approaches the world of esports through the five pillars of Competition, Research, Community, Entertainment, and Careers. While at UCI, Mark has helped UCI break six world records and led their League of Legends team to a 2018 Collegiate Championship. Mark has a B.S. in psychobiology from UCLA and a MBA from Cal State Fullerton's Mihaylo College of Business and Economics.

Kathy Chiang manages the arena and student staff for the Esports department at the University of California, Irvine. She graduated from UCI's Computer Game Science major after co-founding and leading one of the largest clubs on campus, The Association of Gamers. Recognized for her work with the campus gaming community and collegiate esports space since 2011, she was brought on as a key adviser for shaping the new esports program. Her favorite games include World of Warcraft, FFXIV, Path of Exile, and TypeRacer

Samantha Anton currently serves as the Chief Operating Officer for the North America Scholastic Esports Federation (NASEF). Operating out of UCI Esports, Samantha oversees daily operations including tournament governance and organization, event production and marketing. In her previous roles, Samantha worked in higher education event production, coordinating and supporting events for prospective and incoming students. Samantha is a proud graduate of the University of California, Irvine, with a bachelor’s degree in Film & Media Studies and Political Science. Go Anteaters!

Taylor Johnson is an esport performance consultant with the vision to promote health and wellness to millions of people worldwide through esports. He's built comprehensive health/wellness/performance initiatives for elite training,research, and education for 5 esports organization, 15 professional teams,developmental academies, and esport training camps.

Taylor consults organizations, teams, players, and startups on how to build strategic programs to enhance all aspects of in-game and out of game performance. He also advises starts up on go to market strategies for their products.

He has both a Master’s Degree in Exercise Science and Rehabilitation and a Bachelor’s in Exercise Biology as well as certifications in strength and conditioning training, corrective exercise, nutrition, and sports performance.

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Hillary Phan works closely with both the scholarship teams and program staff. Once an esports intern, she now specializes in providing personal and professional development, team management, and event coordination. Hillary recently graduated from the University of California, Irvine, with bachelor's degrees in Criminology, Law & Society, and Psychology & Social Behavior.

Jessamyn Acebes serves as the League Operations Coordinator. She has been an active leader in the esports community since 2008. Previously, she worked as a supervisor and intern for UCI Esports, helping shape and cultivate the program in its inaugural years. She specializes in event planning, media production, team management, and training future generations of esports talent. Jessamyn is a recent graduate of the University of California, Irvine, with a bachelor's degree in Political Science.

Recovering child actor Abby Sherlock, (real last name, no she’s not related to Sherlock Holmes) grew up in South Carolina before achieving her final form as a Forbes 30 under 30 in Games Finalist at the University of California, San Diego. (One of the top 60 individuals in the running for the list at only age 21.) She’s been broadcasted on the live page of Twitch as a personality, led panels with VAs from Overwatch, appeared on the E3 2018 ESL Gaming stage, interviewed pro players from CLG plus produced and hosted an all female gaming podcast. Besides interning at Geek & Sundry and Nerdist, she now works as a Community Coordinator for Tespa, while starting at University of Southern California this Fall in their Interactive Media, Master of Fine Arts game design program.