J.C. Herz is a researcher and designer with a background in ecology and computer game design. Drawing from an understanding of ecology, online social dynamics, complex systems and information theory, J.C.'s focus is multiplayer interaction design, and systems that leverage the intrinsic characteristics of networked communication. Clients include multinational corporations (Nokia, Herman Miller), nonprofit organizations (PBS, MacArthur Foundation, AARP) and the U.S. Defense Department.

J.C. is a White House special consultant to the Office of the Secretary of Defense (Networks and Information Integration). Current DOD projects include the creation of a collaborative web site for humanitarian relief and reconstruction operations, and a collaborative interface for tactical satellite data. She has lead several DARPA projects, most recently a computer-game derived interface for next generation UAV's. As of September 2005, she has been tasked to support the CIO of the newly established National Center for Counter-Terrorism in the development of collaborative tools and interfaces for information sharing and knowledge creation in the intelligence community.

J.C. serves on the federal advisory committee for NSF’s Education and Human Resources directorate, and was a member of the National Research Council’s committee on IT and Creative Practice. She is a Fellow at the University of Southern California's Center for Public Diplomacy, and on the advisory board of USC's Center for Creative Technologies, a research lab funded by the Army to explore technologies of mutual interest to the Defense Department and the entertainment industry. She has taught at the graduate level at NYU's Interactive Telecommunications Program, and has lectured at Stanford, Yale, Carnegie Mellon, the Naval Strategic Studies Group, and NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab.

Publications: J.C. is the author of two books, Surfing on the Internet (Little Brown, 1994), an ethnography of cyberspace before the web, and Joystick Nation: How Videogames Ate Our Quarters, Won Our Hearts, and Rewired Our Minds (Little Brown, 1997), a history of videogames which traces the cultural and technological evolution of the first medium that was born digital, and how it shaped the minds of a generation weaned on Atari. J.C. published 100 essays on the grammar and syntax of game design in New York Times between 1998-2000. She has also contributed to Esther Dyson's Release 1.0, Wired Magazine, Defense Horizons, and the Educause Journal.