Joyce Bettencourt (Rhiannon Chatnoir)
Joyce Bettencourt is an artist, interactive designer and digital media producer whose focus is where creativity, community, social good and the future converge online. She is the Online Community Manager for TechSoup Global’s NonProfit Commons in Second Life community. In addition, she is Creative Director of The Vesuvius Group, a collaborative studio specializing in developing online immersive, virtual and social environments for community-building including for the American Museum of Natural History, California Academy of Science, the Field Museum, the World Bank, Georgia Tech, Georgia State University, Arizona State University, University of Southern California’s Annenberg Institute, New York City Department of Education, and Ramapo School District.

Joyce is co-founder of the non-profit, AvaCon, Inc. dedicated to promoting the growth, enhancement, and development of the metaverse, virtual worlds, augmented reality and 3D immersive spaces. AvaCon, Inc. are organizers of the upcoming Federal Consortium for Virtual Worlds symposium, the yearly virtual OpenSimulator Community Conference, and were organizers of the Second Life Community Conference that brought together hundreds of users in cities such as Boston (2010) and Oakland (2011). She is a 2012 graduate of the Singularity University Graduate Studies program, focused on applying futurist technologies to addressing Global Grand Challenges. Previously she was digital media producer for the Online Leadership Program at the educational nonprofit Global Kids and produced digital media learning content for the web and in the former Teen Second Life, machinima projects, mixed reality events, and the Second Life social issue game CONSENT!

As the avatar Rhiannon Chatnoir, she began exploring the virtual world of Second Life in January of 2005, and has since used it as a medium for networking, marketing and creating art, as well as organizing numerous charity and social good online events, including the Virtual Haiti Relief campaign within the virtual world of Second Life that helped raise awareness and $10,000 USD in virtual micro transactions.