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Elisa Pollard teaches English and language arts an alternative school setting in North Carolina. For more than a decade, she has served on the State Superintendent's Ethic Advisory committee. As a single parent with two children of her own who have received free/reduced lunch, Pollard recognizes that students often don't come to school "ready to learn." She actively searches for literature and written material to meet her students where they are and to address their educational needs by way of their social issues.

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.

Jill E. Thomas taught English at Life Academy of Health and Bioscience, a small public high school in Oakland, California, for nine years. In addition to teaching English, she had the opportunity to design and teach electives in outdoor education, mindfulness, world dance and food systems. She now works for the Oakland Unified School District coaching principals to provide meaningful, growth-oriented feedback to teachers. She holds a bachelor of arts in English and anthropology from Santa Clara University and a master of arts in education from the University of California at Berkeley.