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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

Ernest Morrell is an associate professor in the Urban Schooling division of the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies (GSE&IS) and Associate Director for Youth Research at the Institute for Democracy, Education, and Access (IDEA) at the University of California at Los Angeles. For more than a decade he has worked with adolescents, drawing on their involvement with popular culture to promote academic literacy development. Morrell is also interested in the applications of critical pedagogy in urban education and working with teens as critical researchers. Morrell previously taught

Natalie Sturdevant is a Teach For America alum and taught eighth grade reading in a small Texas town on the border of Mexico. As a librarian, at Crazy Horse School on Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in Wanblee, S.D., since 2012, she’s created and executed a media class using current events as a lens for students to reflect on and develop their identities. Natalie seeks to help students develop a critical consciousness of their community and our world by wrestling with topics such as race, oppression, and socioeconomics.

Dr. Brittney Beck is an assistant professor of teacher education at California State University, Bakersfield and a Faculty Fellow with the Kegley Institute of Ethics. Her teaching and research focus on preparing educators to design curricula and pedagogies that foster social emotional learning, ethical reasoning and democratic competency. She can be reached at bbeck4@csub.edu.