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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.

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.

Maggie Messitt is an American writer and editor focused on narrative and immersion journalism in middle America & southern Africa. She lived in rural Africa for more than six years and split her life between two continents for two more. She returned to the US as a full-time resident in early 2011. Maggie currently resides in Athens, OH, where she's a doctoral fellow in Creative Writing at Ohio University. When she's not teaching or working on her next manuscript, she continues to write/report for regional and national publications. Maggie lived in Limpopo, South Africa, from 2003-2011 (6yrs

Orrin Konheim is a Virginia-based freelance journalist and writer specializing in community, human interest and film/TV reporting. His publication credits include AOL Patch News (the Washington D.C. affiliate of NBC News), the Richmond Times Dispatch, Washington City Paper, Mental Floss magazine, Nostalgia Digest Magazine and the Santa Barbara Independent.

Caitlin George is a high school English for speakers of other languages and journalism teacher in South Carolina. She earned bachelor’s degrees in English and Spanish and a master’s degree in English education from the University of Georgia. She also has a specialist's degree in curriculum & instruction from Valdosta State University.

Cheryl Lederle is an Educational Resource Specialist at the Library of Congress, where she develops classroom materials and works with teachers to incorporate the Library’s digitized primary sources into high-quality instruction. Before coming to the Library, Cheryl taught English and writing at the high school and community college levels.

Tamera Bryant writes stories, poems, songs and creative nonfiction—mostly for kids and their teachers. When she is not writing, she is usually taking photographs, playing and learning with kids, or hugging trees. Sometimes she does all at the same time. She is co-author of The Values Book (Gryphon House).

Born in Kingston, Jamaica, Giovanni Blair McKenzie is a nationally acclaimed and award-winning advocate, speaker and writer. Giovanni is the founder of the Queer Intersections Force, a youth ambassador for the Human Rights Campaign and an advocate for the #intersectionality movement, while being a proud gender-fluid immigrant from the West Indies.

Milner is the Helen Faison professor of urban education and profesor of education at the University of Pittsburgh where he directs the Center for Urban Education. His research, teaching and policy interests are urban education, teacher education and the sociology of education. He can be reached at Rmilner@pitt.edu