Matt is a freelance writer and editor in Healdsburg, California. He has penned pieces for numerous publications including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, TIME, Newsweek, Entrepreneur, AFAR, Travel + Leisure and Sunset. He is also involved with anti-hate journalism project 500 Pens. Learn more about him at whalehead.com.
Bob is principal of Fox Road Magnet Elementary School, an IB World School in Raleigh, North Carolina. He has served in a variety of roles during his long career, including special education director and consulting roles. Most of his career has focused on working with culturally diverse, at-risk and high-poverty populations. Lewis holds great passion for the mission of building successful learners and works as a workshop leader for the International Baccalaureate organization; he has also served as a consultant for this organization.
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.
Chris Avery is the director of programs of Steppingstone Scholars in Philadelphia, Penn., which helps underserved students achieve academic success. Formerly an eighth-grade world cultures teacher and director of community and diversity at The Haverford School, he also consults for TURNING STONEchoice, a nonprofit dedicated to helping students make self-empowering choices and publisher of his most recent work, ANGST: Overcoming Freshman Year of High School, a young adult novel. He is also a receipient of the 2014 Teaching Tolerance Award for Excellence in Teaching.
