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Dena Simmons, Ed.D., is a lifelong activist, educator and student of life. A native of the Bronx, New York, Dena grew up in a one-bedroom apartment with her two sisters and immigrant mother. There, Dena learned and lived the violence of injustice and inequity and decided to dedicate her life to educating and empowering others. As the director of implementation at the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence, she works with schools to use the power of emotions to create a more effective and compassionate society. Prior to her work at the Center, Dena served as an educator, teacher educator

Joi Miner has been writing for as long as she can remember, but began her career as a spoken word artist. After making it to the finals in the Turner South “My South Speaks” competition, she appeared in a commercial and won slams at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival and the Green Mill in Chicago. Miner has four poetry collections under her belt: Graffitied Gypsy (2003), Fun House Mirrors (2005), Socioanthropologicfeminisms (2010) and Outrun The Night (2012). (Hear her read “ The Day I Swam Into a New World,” Teaching Tolerance’s first-ever audio Story Corner.)A domestic violence and sexual

Rebecca VanderMeulen is a freelance writer in Exton, Pennsylvania. She is an M.Ed. candidate in School Counseling at West Chester University.