On this episode of The Illuminare Podcast, Vanessa Castañeda Gill, CEO & Co-Founder of Social Cipher, joins Dr. Ronit Molko to discuss her journey to an autism diagnosis, as well as advocating for women and girls on the spectrum, who have been largely misdiagnosed and underserved.  

Vanessa founded Social Cipher to help neurodivergent youth navigate social-emotional learning through video games. She combined her own experiences and neuroscience research to create a platform to help youth navigate trust, communication and trying new things.

About the Guest Speaker
Vanessa Castañeda Gill
It's Vanessa Castañeda Gill's mission to unite her passions for art and stories in innovative ways that help people. Learning from her experiences growing up on the autism spectrum, she founded Social Cipher: a social-emotional learning platform that connects neurodivergent youth and their advocates (counselors, teachers, mental health professionals) in an immersive virtual world. Their empowering, game-based approach helps autistic youth fail safely for social-emotional success beyond the screen. Her 40% neurodivergent team recently released their game series, Ava: a space-pirate adventure that explores social challenges through the eyes of an autistic protagonist.

Vanessa and her team have earned recognition as Forbes 30 Under 30s, AT&T Aspire and Camelback Ventures Fellows, and Facebook Global Gaming Citizens.