Each month, I’ll be featuring a write-up from one person, talking about themselves and what they do. If you know someone who should be featured, shoot me an email to contact@ginnyloveday.com
Jonathon Connor Self (he/they)
Founder and President of D8 Summit Charities Incorporated (501c3), Connor is a vocal proponent for positivity, mental health, love, and inclusivity in gaming spaces. He has 30+ content creation titles under his belt, many for D&D Adventurers League but recently wider D&D titles such as The Red City and in an upcoming article about dark fey for Arcadia Magazine. Connor is also a top-rated Professional Dungeon Master on Start Playing Games, where his campaign offerings are highly sought (and often sold out). Connor is a subject matter expert on psychology, diversity, and folk tales. This fluency blends with his desire to foster healing and hope, merging into a “hope punk” style of rebellious storycrafting where heroes can make fictional worlds better in seemingly insignificant yet deeply profound ways.
Connor was born on the east side of Joliet, a Rust Belt city near Chicago. His experiences growing up taught him to value education and its power to help youth escape poverty. After several years living across the country and abroad, Connor returned to the cornfields of home to pursue his passion – helping children and families find health, learning, and hope as a mental health counselor in a Title I school. Connor volunteers for both his town’s public library board as well as on the board of his state counseling association
Connor’s gaming history stretches back to childhood. Connor has played tabletop roleplaying games since 1990, beginning with TSR’s Marvel Super Heroes but quickly moving to Dungeons & Dragons and World of Darkness. Connor administrates gaming experiences at public events across the Midwest, including: D8 Summity Charity Convention, Gamehole Con, Maydays Tenday Charity Convention, Gary Con, Who’s Yer Con, Jasper’s Game Day, Vote Pipyap, and many more. Connor prides himself in creating safe spaces for gamers – particularly marginalized groups – and is forever the “hugbear” at events he attends. He consulted with DM’s Guild to help make their content creation guidelines more inclusive of queer creatives, and he quietly consults with organizations looking to resolve conflict and promote mental health and inclusivity in their offerings.
Connor is happy to work with others on various creative projects and public events, including adding charity components to their events. Connor is also grateful for donations to D8 Summit Charities.
More information about Connor can be found at his website, thehealerdm.carrd.com, and at d8summit.org. He can be directly contacted at jonconnorself@gmail.com or on Twitter @thehealerdm.