TRICIA EBARVIA is currently an English teacher at Conestoga High School, PA, where she has taught world literature, American literature, AP Lang, AP Lit, and AP Capstone. As a Co-Director for the PA Writing & Literature Project, Tricia has taught courses on digital writing, teacher inquiry, and facilitates the project’s anti-bias study group. As a 2016-18 Heinemann Fellow, Tricia interrogated the ways in which readers’ varied and intersecting personal identities inform the ways in which students read themselves, texts, and the world. Tricia believes that through critical literacy in reading and writing, students can become responsible, engaged members of their communities. She is a 2019 NCTE High School Teacher of Excellence Award winner. As a literacy consultant, Tricia presents on topics that include independent reading, writing with mentor texts, multi-genre research writing, student inquiry, digital literacies, anti-bias pedagogy, teacher action research, and curriculum design. Tricia has contributesd to Moving Writers and Write Share Connect and has been published in Education Week, Literacy Today, and English Journal. Visit Tricia’s website.

LORENA GERMÁN is a Dominican-American educator working with young people in Austin, Texas at Headwaters School. She’s been an educator for over a decade and has been published by NCTE, ASCD, EdWeek, and others. Lorena’s undergraduate degree is from Emmanuel College, her graduate degree is from the Bread Loaf School of English at Middlebury Vermont. She was the recipient of NCTE’s Early Career Educator of Color Leadership Award and winner of NCTE’s Latinx Caucus Excelencia in Teaching Scholarship Award. Lorena is also the Chair of NCTE’s Committee Against Racism and Bias in the Teaching of English. She also co-founded The Multicultural Classroom, an organization seeking to support educators in developing a culturally sustaining approach to education. Lorena is a wife, mami, teacher, and writer. Visit Lorena’s website.

DR. KIMBERLY N. PARKER currently works with preservice teachers as Assistant Director of Teacher Training at the Shady Hill School. She holds a Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign, and her research looks at the literacy practices of Black boys. She has an unwavering belief in the power and promise of underserved young people and is currently writing up a program she created that detracked her English classes and increased the numbers of students of color in Honors English classes. Kim has taught in public schools for 17 years and has received honors which include: the Marion Gleason Most Promising New Teacher Award from the New England Association of Teachers of English (NEATE); Literacy Champion from the Massachusetts Literacy Council; recipient of a Book Love Foundation Grant; and was selected as a Heinemann Fellow. She has been a Trustee of the NCTE Research Foundation and is the former Secondary Representative At-Large for the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) and former president of NEATE. In 2016, she co-founded the Educators of Color Conference with Michelle Li, held in Cambridge, MA. Visit Dr. Parker’s website.

JULIA E. TORRES has taught Language Arts for sixteen years. Currently, she is a teacher librarian for the Montbello Campus serving five schools within the Far Northeast region of Denver Public schools.  Formerly, a teacher of AP English Language/Literature, Julia has served Colorado Language Arts teachers as the Vice-President and President of the regional NCTE affiliate–The Colorado Language Arts Society. As a teacher/activist committed to education as a practice of freedom, her practice is grounded in the work of empowering students to use Language Arts to fuel resistance and positive social transformation. Currently, Julia is serving teachers as a 2018-20 Heinemann Fellow, focusing on libraries, digital literacy, and the formation of reading identities among secondary students in urban school districts.  Julia is also the current NCTE Secondary-Representative At-Large. In co-operation with The Educator Collaborative, Julia facilitates workshops and professional conversations about anti-bias/anti-racist education, social justice, and culturally sustaining pedagogies in Language Arts, as well as digital literacy and librarianship.  Julia serves on several local and national boards and committees promoting educational equity and progressivism. Teaching, aside from her family, is Julia’s greatest love. Visit Julia’s website.