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Maureen Costello, retired director of Teaching Tolerance, has been a teacher and educational leader for over 40 years. Before joining the Southern Poverty Law Center, Costello worked for Scholastic, Inc. and directed the Newsweek Education Program. She began her career as a history and economics teacher at Notre Dame Academy High School in Staten Island. Throughout her career, Costello has been committed to fostering the ideals of democracy and citizenship in young people. She is a graduate of the New School University and the New York University Graduate School of Arts & Sciences. In

Kathleen Melville teaches English, Spanish and playwriting at a small public high school in Philadelphia. A graduate of Swarthmore College, her degree is in English and education. Her teaching career includes two years at a bilingual school in Guatemala City and two years at a small Friends school for students with learning differences. She is also a teaching consultant with the Philadelphia Writing Project and enjoys reading, traveling and spending time outdoors.

Katie is a high school writing and English teacher at The Hill Center, a K–12 school for children with learning differences in Durham, North Carolina. She previously taught at a middle school in Boston and at a secondary school in rural Tanzania. Mgongolwa has a passion for diversifying curricula, helping students and teachers develop strategies for courageous conversations, and working with schools to close the opportunity gap.

Lauren has been an educator since 2000 and has served as a diversity coordinator and a grade-level team leader. She consults with teachers and administrators on designing curriculum and professional development. Porosoff is the lead author of Curriculum at Your Core: Meaningful Teaching in the Age of Standards, EMPOWER Your Students: ​Tools to Inspire a Meaningful School Experience, and Two-for-One Teaching: Connecting Instruction to Student Values.

Becki Cohn-Vargas is the director of Not In Our School (NIOS) and a national speaker on the subject of school-based bullying. Currently she develops standards-based bullying prevention curriculum and has worked with over 150 NIOS efforts at schools and colleges across the United States. Earlier in her career, she spent over 35 years in public education in California. Her new book,“ Identity Safe Classrooms: Places to Belong and Learn,” co-authored with Dorothy Steele, was published by Corwin Press .

Susan Gelber Cannon is an educator with over 30 years of experience in elementary and middle school classrooms. She advises the Middle School Student Council, serves as Diversity Coordinator and teaches history, English, Model UN and debate at The Episcopal Academy, in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania. She has trained teachers in China and Japan and at international conferences to develop teaching methods to empower students to think, care and act as informed global citizens. She is eager to share resources in character, global, multicultural and peace education via her book— Think, Care, Act

Monisha Bajaj, Ed.D., is a professor of international and multicultural education at the University of San Francisco, where she directs the M.A. program in human rights education. She has authored multiple books, including the award-winning Schooling for Social Change: The Rise and Impact of Human Rights Education in India (Bloomsbury, 2012), as well as numerous articles. Bajaj has also developed curriculum—particularly related to peace education, human rights, anti-bullying efforts and sustainability—for nonprofit organizations and inter-governmental organizations, such as UNICEF and UNESCO

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.