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Heather A. O'Connell is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Kinder Institute for Urban Research at Rice University, and a recent graduate from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Her work contributes to understandings of race and racial inequalities in the United States by examining differences across places. This spatial lens has led to a focus on processes connected to racial composition, history, region, and migration.

Alice Pettway is the author of four collections of poetry: Dawn Chorus (2023), Station Lights (2021), Moth (2019), and The Time of Hunger (2017). Her work, which spans poetry, non-fiction, and fiction, has appeared in AGNI, Learning for Justice magazine, Rattle, The Progressive, The Southern Review, The Threepenny Review and many other respected publications. She is a former Chulitna Artist Fellow and Art Omi: Writers resident. Currently, Pettway lives and writes near Seattle, Washington.

Darnell Fine is a classroom teacher and writer whose work focuses on questions of power and critical thought. He facilitates creative writing seminars and social justice workshops nationally and internationally. An educator by trade, he applies radical imagination to the profession of teaching. He seeks to empower his students and encourages them to transform society into a more just place. Darnell was also a 2012 recipient of the Teaching Tolerance Award for Excellence in Cullturally Responsive Teaching.

Rebecca Coven is a high-school English and social studies teacher at Sullivan High School in Chicago, Illinois. She is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education and a member of the Caucus of Working Educators. Rebecca uses her work in the classroom to help her students become active and engaged citizens in their communities. She is a recipient of the 2018 Teaching Tolerance Award for Excellence in Teaching. Follow her on Twitter at @RCovs1201.

Shinae Park teaches physics and engineering at The Lawrenceville School, an independent high school in New Jersey. In her work as a mentor teacher, she explores school culture and pedagogical approaches to teaching and learning with new educators. She is passionate about fostering equity and belonging in the science classroom and serves as an editor of the Underrepresentation Curriculum. Shinae is a graduate of UC Berkeley and holds a Ph.D. in Astronomy from Harvard University.

Chris is a teacher, speaker and spiritual life coach based in Los Angeles, California. Tompkins’ advocacy work takes him to conferences and classrooms nationwide with a mission to help prevent homophobia and bullying before they begin. He currently serves on the Los Angeles PFLAG Speaker’s Bureau and is part of Los Angeles’ Youth Advocacy Coalition. For more information, visit aroadtriptolove.com or find him on Twitter and Instagram: @aroadtriptolove.