Julia TorresJULIA E. TORRES is a nationally recognized veteran language arts teacher-librarian in Denver, Colorado. Julia facilitates teacher development workshops rooted in the areas of anti-racist education, equity and access in literacy and librarianship, and education as a practice of liberation. Julia’s work has been featured on NPR, AlJazeera’s The Stream, PBS Education, KQED’s MindShift, Rethinking Schools, Learning for Justice Magazine, and many more. She is a current Amelia Elizabeth Walden Book Award committee member, a member of both the Book Love Foundation and ALAN boards of directors, an Educolor Steering committee member, a The Educator Collaborative Book Ambassador, and a co-founder of #DisruptTexts.
Paula Chase
Kim Johnson
Kim Johnson held leadership positions in social justice organizations as a teen and in college, and is now an author and incoming interim vice provost at the University of Oregon. She maintains engagement in various organizations while also mentoring Black student leaders and serving as a graduate advisor and member of an historically Black sorority.
This Is My America is her bestselling novel that explores racial injustice against innocent Black men who are criminally sentenced and the families left behind to pick up the pieces. She is an award-winning novelist, with 2021 accolades that include the Pacific Northwest Book Award, YALSA Top Ten Best Fiction, and the ILA Notable Books for a Global Society. Her novel also received recognition as a NPR Concierge Best Books and Kirkus Best Fiction, Amazon Teacher’s pick, and a Junior Library Guild and Project Lit Community Book selection. Her novel has also been selected for the Spirit of Texas and Humanities of Tennessee 8-12th grade reading programs for their respective States.
She holds degrees from the University of Oregon and the University of Maryland, College Park.
Tiffany D. Jackson