Emily is an elementary school educator. She worked for 4 years with abused and neglected children in a residential setting before becoming a school counselor in the Brighton 27J school district, where she has been employed for the past seven years.
Gregg Barrios taught in the Crystal City schools for 10 years. Since then he has been a successful journalist for the Los Angeles Times and more recently was book editor of the San Antonio Express-News. He is now a full-time playwright.
Joan F. Goodman is a professor of education at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. She is the co-author, with Howard Lesnick, a professor of law at the University of Pennsylvania, of The Moral Stake in Education: Contested Premises and Practices (Addison-Wesley-Longman, 2001).
Ted Palenski is a teacher in a play-based kindergarten classroom in Connecticut. He graduated from Yale with a bachelor’s degree in linguistics in 2010. As an undergraduate working with 3-year-olds in a play-based early-learning environment, he became interested in early childhood education, in both center- and home-based settings.
Kim has been at the Woodstown School District in many capacities for the last 11 years. Kim started as a high school mathematics teacher and then worked as an elementary school counselor before taking her current position as the school counselor for Woodstown Middle School.
Danna Bell is an Educational Resource Specialist at the Library of Congress. Trained as a librarian and archivist, she provides reference support for the Library's teacher programs. Prior to joining the Library's K-12 efforts, she provided support for members of the public using the Library's online collections.
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.
