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Elisa Pollard teaches English and language arts an alternative school setting in North Carolina. For more than a decade, she has served on the State Superintendent's Ethic Advisory committee. As a single parent with two children of her own who have received free/reduced lunch, Pollard recognizes that students often don't come to school "ready to learn." She actively searches for literature and written material to meet her students where they are and to address their educational needs by way of their social issues.

Chris Avery is the director of programs of Steppingstone Scholars in Philadelphia, Penn., which helps underserved students achieve academic success. Formerly an eighth-grade world cultures teacher and director of community and diversity at The Haverford School, he also consults for TURNING STONEchoice, a nonprofit dedicated to helping students make self-empowering choices and publisher of his most recent work, ANGST: Overcoming Freshman Year of High School, a young adult novel. He is also a receipient of the 2014 Teaching Tolerance Award for Excellence in Teaching.

Warren Hynes is a teacher and free-lance writer living in North Plainfield, N.J. You can follow his blog.

Vanessa D’Egidio is a second-grade teacher in New York City and member of the Teaching Tolerance Advisory Board.

Erica Guillama is a tenth year kindergarten through grade five general and choral music teacher in Blackwood, N.J.

Nelson graduates next week from Redondo Union High School and plans to continue working as an activist.

Amir Whitaker is a recent law school graduate and a lawyer in the Southern Poverty Law Center's Florida office.

Nancy Barno Reynolds is a Doctoral Candidate in The Graduate School of Education at Binghamton University in Binghamton, N.Y. and is planning to graduate in May. A former public school teacher for many years, her research now focuses on critical literacy, Democratic education, and the influence of the standardization movement on her profession.

Edna Brown is a veteran English Language Arts teacher, essayist, poet and social justice advocate residing in St. Louis. She began her career with a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Maryville University and teaching adults with disabilities in one of the first community-based group homes in the St. Louis metropolitan area. Edna went on to study social work at the George Warren Brown School of Social Work at Washington University. Finally, she earned master’s degrees in both Secondary Education (Curriculum and Instruction) and English (Composition) from the University of Missouri, St. Louis

Jeff Sapp is a professor of education at California State University Dominguez Hills and a frequent contributor to Teaching Tolerance.