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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.

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.

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.