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Samantha has been a social studies teacher in New York City public schools since 2007. During this time, she has taught a wide range of history, art, health, research and writing courses to high school students. In 2013, she was the recipient of the Teachers Who Make a Difference Award from Scholarship Plus.

Kevin Baxter has been teaching for almost forty years. Though an Early Childhood specialist, Kevin has taught or coached students at every grade level from pre-school through high school, as well as Gifted Education. He currently works in Asheville N.C., substitute teaching, writing, and volunteer teaching for the Buncombe County Literacy Council.

Peter J. Elliott has worked with adolescents for almost 20 years as an English teacher and social justice educator. After completing a bachelor’s degree in English at Amherst College, he obtained a master’s degree in education from Harvard University. A fan of fairy tales in all their forms, he loves sharing good stories with his two children at home.

Kim Westheimer is the Director of Strategic Initiatives at Gender Spectrum. Her career has centered on generating opportunities for educators, students and parents to work together to create inclusive spaces for all students, including directing the launching of the Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s Welcoming Schools Program, created in 2007 to foster LGBT inclusion in elementary schools.

With the help of three others, Laurie created Mindful Schools, a vibrant organization that has trained over 300,000 teachers and students in the last 10 years. In 2014, she joined the team at Inner Explorer to spread mindfulness to schools. In 2016, New Harbinger published a book she wrote with fifth-graders in East Oakland called Master of Mindfulness: How to Be Your Own Superhero in Times of Stress.

Ann Van Etten teaches eighth-grade language arts in Iowa. She received a bachelor’s degree in English education with a minor in creative writing from the University of Northern Iowa, and a master’s in English education at the University of Iowa. She earned her National Board Certification in English language arts in 2010. Van Etten also teaches creative writing to middle school students at the Eastern Iowa Arts Academy, a non-profit after school arts organization.

Dr. Trey Adcock is a former secondary social studies teach who went on to earn a doctorate in Education at the University of North at Carolina Chapel Hill where he was named to the Royster Society of Fellows as a Sequoyah Scholar. His research interests pertain to issues of representation in school curriculum, social studies education and technology integration. He currently serves as an Assistant Professor at the University of North Carolina, Asheville.

Thomas Bean is a professor in literacy/reading. Dr. Bean is considered a leading scholar in content area literacy. He is the co-author of 15 books, 21 book chapters, and 88 journal articles. He currently serves as co-editor of the International Reading Association Literacy Studies Series centering on the publication of high quality research monographs. He was recently honored with the UNLV College of Education Distinguished Research Award for his studies of reader responses to multicultural young adult literature in content area classrooms. He is the co-author of the International Reading