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).
Elizabeth Varela taught ESL in elementary and secondary schools for nine years. She holds a Ph.D. in applied linguistics from Georgetown University and has been an adjunct professor at The George Washington University and an assistant professor and acting coordinator of the TESOL program in the College of Education at the University of Maryland. Varela is an elementary ESL specialist and principal investigator for a Title VII project for the Arlington Public Schools.
Kelly Hannon is a life coach and teacher at The Excel Center University Heights, a high school for adults in Indianapolis, Indiana. She is currently pursuing her Ph.D. in urban education at Indiana University—Purdue University Indianapolis. Kelly's interests include critical literacy, social justice and student activism. In her spare time, she loves to go hiking and camping, and is currently attempting to complete the 52 Hike Challenge by the end of 2016.
Jeffrey is a seventh-grade English teacher at West Virginia’s DuPont Middle School. He holds certifications for English and social studies and often blends the two subjects in his classroom. In addition to teaching, he coaches track and field at DuPont; from time to time he uses poetry and history lessons to motivate his team. Webb has had pieces published in Vandalia, Red Mud Review, Pikeville Review and The Charleston Anvil.
Sheila Esshaki is an English and English as a Second Language high school teacher in the metropolitan Detroit area. She has taught in high schools in Caracas, Venezuela; Cairo, Egypt; and Ankara, Turkey. She is a first-generation Arab American who speaks fluent Arabic and understands some of her native Chaldean (Aramaic). Her bicultural background, along with her experiences, give energy to her passion for supporting respect for and celebration of diversity.
Helen Angell is a senior in politics and environmental studies at Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington. Her academic career has focused on the intersections of social justice and the environment. While at Whitman, she has conducted research on social exclusions in urban space and the racialized rhetoric of environmental food movements. Angell is also a news writer for The Whitman Pioneer. She is passionate about the power of education and storytelling.
Robert L. Reece is an assistant professor in the sociology department at the University of Texas at Austin, where his research revolves around the question "What is race?" as well as inquiries into the historical origins of racial inequality, colorism/skin tone stratification and racial fluidity. He received his PhD in sociology from Duke University, and he is from Leland, Mississippi, a small town in the heart of the Mississippi Delta.
