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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

For the last 12 years, Michelle Garcia has been an educator and policy advisor on issues of social justice and civil rights. In Boston, as Associate Regional Director at the New England Office of the Anti-Defamation League, she worked on anti-bias education and municipal anti-hate programs. Michelle began her career designing and implementing classroom-based interventions for underserved high school students in Southern California, after which she spent five years with the City of Los Angeles Human Relations Commission as a Policy Advisor specializing in youth policy and programs. Over the

Kris D. Gutiérrez, Professor in the School of Education, is the inaugural recipient of the University of Colorado at Boulder Provost’s Chair. Gutiérrez, renowned for her groundbreaking research in language, literacy, and human development, joined the CU faculty this year. Prior to accepting a professorship at the School of Education, Gutiérrez was a Professor of Social Research Methodology in the Graduate School of Education & Information Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles, where she also served as Director of the Education Studies Minor and Director of the Center for the

Maia Ferdman (she/her) is the staff director of the UCLA Dialogue Across Difference Initiative and deputy director of the UCLA Bedari Kindness Institute. She is also the founder of Bridges Intergroup Relations Consulting, a firm that supports organizations and communities to build vibrant spaces of belonging – celebrating our complex identities, proactively exploring our differences, and fostering resilient relationships between groups. Maia has worked with and consulted for agencies and organizations including the California State Water Boards, the City of Los Angeles, Pepperdine University