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Sheila Esshaki is an English and English as a Second Language high school teacher in the metropolitan Detroit area. She has taught in high schools in Caracas, Venezuela; Cairo, Egypt; and Ankara, Turkey. She is a first-generation Arab American who speaks fluent Arabic and understands some of her native Chaldean (Aramaic). Her bicultural background, along with her experiences, give energy to her passion for supporting respect for and celebration of diversity.

Ann Lindsey is a curriculum integrator for Jackson Middle School, a science and math specialty school in the Anoka Hennepin district in Minnesota. She is currently on sabbatical, living in Kolkata, West Bengal, India focusing on international collaboration and inquiry-based learning with secondary students in several countries. She represents the Urban Sites Project as a teaching consultant with the Minnesota Writing Project and finds every way possible to travel whenever she can.

Murali is the Hindu American Foundation’s director of education and curriculum reform. Balaji works on empowering educators in culturally competent pedagogical approaches. He also serves as an advisor to numerous organizations around the country in promoting religious literacy and civic engagement. Balaji is the author of several books, including The Professor and The Pupil, and the co-editor of the seminal anthologies Desi Rap and Global Masculinities and Manhood.

Rick Mula is an Equal Justice Works Fellow at the Southern Poverty Law Center. The aim of Rick’s fellowship project is to reduce the discrimination that LGBT youth living in Tennessee and Alabama experience in the education, child welfare and juvenile justice systems. His fellowship is sponsored by the Mansfield Family Foundation. Rick graduated cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania Law School in 2015 where he received a graduate certificate in gender, sexuality and women’s studies. Rick was also awarded the Dean Jefferson B. Fordham Human Rights Award and the Blank Rome Alvin Ackerman

Michele Israel owns Educational Writing & Consulting (www.micheleisrael.com), where she works with large and small educational, non-profit and media organizations to bolster products and programs. Her rich career spans over 25 years of successfully developing educational materials and resources, designing and facilitating training, generating communication materials and grant proposals, and assisting in organizational and program development. In addition to lesson plans and other teacher resources, Michele’s portfolio includes published articles, instructional guides, and a booklet entitled

Jill Spain is a middle school language arts teacher in New Jersey. She has earned a bachelor of arts degree in special education and a master of arts in Holocaust and Genocide Studies. She is the recipient of an Outstanding Lessons Award for a Holocaust lesson for sixth graders, has participated in the “Lest We Forget” study tour to historic Holocaust sites in Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic and is a member of her school’s curriculum council.

Kaplan teaches in the Africana Studies Department at the University of South Florida, Tampa. He was the Executive Director of the National Conference of Christians and Jews for Tampa Bay and served as an advisor to President Clinton’s race relations task force. In 1998, he received a National Hero of Education Award from the U.S. Department of Education for his multicultural work in Florida schools. His most recent book is The Myth of Post-Racial America.

Kellie Bliss has been in the field of early childhood education for over 26 years, primarily as a classroom teacher. She pulls stories from personal teaching experiences, as well as from a parent’s perspective. Being Native Alaskan and living in diverse cities has brought insight and awareness to racial and cultural issues. She studied human development at Pacific Oaks College, where she received her master’s degree. She currently teaches at a local community college in Northern California.

Paula began her career as a high school social studies teacher in California and later became the Program Director at the Center for Ethics and Education in 2015. McAvoy’s research focuses on the aims of schooling in a democratic society, and she has recently used the tools of moral and political philosophy to consider cases of cultural and religious accommodation, the aims of sex education, and the ethics of teaching about politics in schools.

Chris teaches senior-level science in the same Rochester school district he attended as a student. At World of Inquiry School #58, he uses science instruction to empower his students, emphasizing the links between math, science and social justice. Widmaier holds multiple leadership roles at his school and is a founding member of the Rochester Regional Teacher Empowerment Network. He received the Teaching Tolerance Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2016.