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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

Dalina Castellanos is a reporter living in Los Angeles. She spent two years reporting on health and education on the Navajo Indian Reservation.

Tess Domb Sadof is a recent graduate of Amherst Regional High School in Massachusetts. She and three peers started the social climate-centered project.

Sandra Wozniak recently retired from teaching after 33 years at the Mt. Olive Middle School in New Jersey. There, she developed and implemented coursework integrating critical thinking and technology. Sandra currently works with schools throughout the United States helping students learn how to think, not what to think. In 2010, she was honored as NJ Middle Level Educator of the Year.

Drawing on her experience as the child of Jamaican immigrants, born and raised in Anchorage, Alaska, Patrice enjoys exploring issues of race, immigration and belonging. Her essays have appeared in a variety of publications, including Sweet: A Literary Confection and the online editions of The New York Times and The Washington Post. Her radio commentaries have appeared on Charlotte, North Carolina’s NPR station WFAE 90.7.

Olivia Gude is a community muralist and an assistant professor in the School of Art and Design at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Holly Holland, a writer and editor based in Louisville, Ky., is the author of Making Change: Three Educators Join the Battle for Better Schools (Heinemann).

Helene McGlauflin, MEd., LCPC, is a counselor, educator and writer. Her stories, poems and articles have appeared in books, small presses, literary journals and magazines.

John Perritano is an award-winning author and journalist who has penned many articles and books for children and teens. He lives in Southbury, Conn.

Marguerite Rucker is a mother, teacher and cheerleader. After 20 years of teaching, she currently teaches sixth grade. Her master’s degree is in educational leadership. She also opened a Performing Arts Academy with her best friend and trained several successful child actors and dancers who have appeared in TV shows and commercials. She is the proud mother of two high school children and the wife of a school psychologist.