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Chris Martin is a teaching-writer at Unrestricted Interest and has worked with unconventional students, ASD students and twice-exceptional students for over a decade, specializing in creative writing and executive function. He earned his BA in English at Carleton College; his MA in Poetry, Performance, and Education from NYU’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study; and his MFA in Poetry from the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop. His first collection of poems, American Music (Copper Canyon Press, 2007), was selected by C. D. Wright for the Hayden Carruth Prize. Becoming Weather, his

Sarah-SoonLing Blackburn, Ed.D., is Learning for Justice’s associate director for learning in schools. Sarah has experience teaching at both the secondary and elementary levels and in 2011 was named Teacher of the Year at Lakeside Upper Elementary School in Lake Village, Arkansas. As a teacher educator, her areas of focus have included classroom culture, learning environments, and diversity, equity and inclusiveness. Sarah has an M.A. in Social Justice and Education from University College London’s Institute of Education and her doctorate from Johns Hopkins University. She is based out of

Dena Simmons, Ed.D., is a lifelong activist, educator and student of life. A native of the Bronx, New York, Dena grew up in a one-bedroom apartment with her two sisters and immigrant mother. There, Dena learned and lived the violence of injustice and inequity and decided to dedicate her life to educating and empowering others. As the director of implementation at the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence, she works with schools to use the power of emotions to create a more effective and compassionate society. Prior to her work at the Center, Dena served as an educator, teacher educator