Rosalie Franks is a professor of writing, literature and philosophy at Roger Williams University in Bristol, Rhode Island. She designs lessons that inspire students to examine their values and to take action on social issues. A graduate of Smith College in English literature, she earned her master’s degrees in childhood education and curriculum development from Teachers College, Columbia University and her doctorate in humanistic education from Boston University. Early in her career, Rosalie was a fourth-grade teacher on Boston’s WGBH TV.
Pam Watts writes, teaches and blogs about childhood adversity and children’s books. She is an expert in graphic novels, and first became interested in them when she studied them in the Writing for Children & Young Adults program at Vermont College of Fine Arts. Since then, she has spoken about graphic novels to audiences of other writers and teachers, and she can often be found in dark corners scribbling her own. She lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Pamela Cytrynbaum teaches writing and multimedia storytelling at Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism. At Brandeis University she taught in American Studies, served as associate director of the Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism and director of the Justice Brandeis Innocence Project. She taught courses in writing and in New Media Communications in the English Department at Oregon State University. She writes for NBC Universal in Woman on the Verge and is a former staff writer for The Chicago Tribune and The (New Orleans) Times-Picayune. Her writing has also
Henry “Cody” Miller is an assistant professor of English education at SUNY Brockport. During his seven years as a high school English teacher and in his current role, he positions texts as vehicles to discuss broader socio-political issues in students’ lives and worlds. He leads professional development focused on creating affirming classrooms for LBGTQ youth and supporting teachers in publishing blogs and articles. Cody currently acts as the chair of the National Council of Teachers of English LGBTQ advisory board. He was awarded the Teaching Tolerance Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2016
Alicia taught for 30 years in the Brookline Public Schools in Brookline, Massachusetts. She was a Chinese bilingual teacher, then a first-grade educator and finally a third-grade teacher. In 2008, Hsu was awarded the Ernest R. Caverly Award for teaching excellence by the Brookline Education Foundation. She is committed to exploring the ways in which art and story can connect young people, families and communities.
Lynea is a pioneer in the field of health and wellness education for youth. Her Yoga Calm program was developed in a behavior classroom in a rural Oregon elementary school over 16 years ago. The program is now being used with tens of thousands of children around the world in diverse settings, such as classrooms, clinics and psychiatric hospitals like the Mayo Clinic.
Bonnie DeSimone is a freelance writer who lives outside Philadelphia. She first became interested in Norse mythology in 4th grade when she read Marvel comic books featuring Thor, and in 8th grade drew and wrote her own strip about her classmates.
Amanda Leigh Lichtenstein, a poet and educator, is currently a master's candidate in the Arts in Education program at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
