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Sean McCollum covers education- and justice-related topics for Teaching Tolerance, the Kennedy Center's ArtsEdge program, and other organizations. He is also an award-winning children's writer and has published more than 30 books and many articles for children, tweens and teens. He lives all over the world as a "digital nomad."

Joyce L. Epstein is director of the Center on School, Family, and Community Partnerships principal research scientist in the Center for Research on the Education of Students Placed at Risk (CRESPAR), and professor of sociology at Johns Hopkins University. She has over 100 publications on the organization and effects of school, classroom, family and peer environments, with many focused on school, family and community connections. In 1995, she established the National Network of Partnership Schools to demonstrate the important intersections of research, policy, and practice for school

Marcos Torres teaches and lives in Corona, California. He has taught for nearly a decade and currently teaches 9th-grade Language Arts and AVID at Corona High School. He is also the single-father of Phaedra and Isaiah.

Teaching for Change provides teachers and parents with the tools to create schools where students learn to read, write and change the world. Teaching for Change operates from the belief that schools can provide students the skills, knowledge and inspiration to be citizens and architects of a better world—or they can fortify the status quo. By drawing direct connections to real-world issues, Teaching for Change encourages teachers and students to question and rethink the world inside and outside their classrooms, build a more equitable, multicultural society and become active global citizens.

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

Emily Kissner teaches fourth grade in rural Pennsylvania. In her 15 years of teaching, she has worked in preschool, middle school and elementary school. She is the author of the Heinemann books Summarizing, Paraphrasing, and Retelling and The Forest AND the Trees: Helping Readers Find Details in Texts and Tests.

Elizabeth is a former high school English teacher and a Ph.D. candidate in curriculum, teaching and teacher education at the University of Florida. She currently supervises pre-service teachers and teaches courses on practitioner inquiry and the history of education.

Kimi Eisele is a freelance writer in Tucson. Also a teaching artist, she conducts residences and workshops in writing and dance for children, teens and adults.

Helene McGlauflin, MEd., LCPC, is a counselor, educator and writer. Her stories, poems and articles have appeared in books, small presses, literary journals and magazines.

John Perritano is an award-winning author and journalist who has penned many articles and books for children and teens. He lives in Southbury, Conn.