Margaret Park is one of the founders of Seoul of a Leader and serves on the Advisory Council for the Association for International Educators and Leaders of Color (AIELOC). She is currently serving the Seoul Foreign School community as its Elementary School Assistant Principal. Margaret is committed to fostering leadership development with experience in counseling, mentoring, coaching, facilitating professional development, and organizing conferences. Margaret is a Fulbright Scholar and received an Education Masters and Certificate of Advanced Studies from Harvard Graduate School of Education.  Margaret is passionate about curating innovative learning spaces and particularly interested in thinking about leadership through an Equity and Justice lens. Find her on LinkedIn: mpark330 and Twitter:@MargaretLPark

Darnell Fine is an experienced facilitator of adult learning focusing on curriculum & assessment, diversity, equity, inclusion, and culturally responsive teaching. He has led sessions for national and international conferences, numerous US public, independent and international schools, as well as the Pew Center and the US Department of Education. In addition to facilitation, he serves as a curriculum consultant, reviewing manuscripts and curricula for publishing companies, national arts organizations, and universities. After earning his Bachelor’s in Africana Studies and Education at Brown University, Darnell obtained his Teacher Support Specialist Endorsement through Georgia State University and his Master’s in Creative Writing in London. He is currently an instructional coach and chairs the faculty Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) planning team at Singapore American School. He is also a doctoral candidate at the University of Southern California, studying educational leadership through a lens of equity and social justice. Darnell is a 2012 recipient of the Teaching Tolerance Award for Excellence in Culturally Responsive Teaching and a former advisory board member with Teaching Tolerance.

Dr. Nneka Johnson is the current Director of Innovation/DEI Coordinator at The International School of Dakar in Senegal, West Africa. She is also a member of the Association of International Schools in Africa (AISA) Professional Learning Design Team. In her role at ISD she wears many hats which include: Director of Innovation and Technology, DEI Coordinator, coordinating school accreditation, working with the board on the strategic plan, and organizing on-campus professional learning events. Nneka continues to lead DEI initiatives. Prior to ISD, Nneka worked at an Independent School in Atlanta, GA for 13 years and within that time frame she lived in Sydney Australia for six months and worked for a private school as the Deputy Director of Innovation. Nneka holds a BA in Sociology from Queens College in New York City, an MS in Instructional Technology from Georgia State University, and a PhD in Curriculum and Instruction from Mercer University in Atlanta. Her doctoral dissertation centers on the fact that curriculum can change social media usage in adolescents. https://twitter.com/NnekaJ_EDU

Dr. SooJin Pate is an educator, writer, and DEI consultant dedicated to centering the lives and experiences of historically marginalized peoples. She’s an alum of Howard University and the University of Minnesota and was named Educator of the Year and Ally of the Year by Macalester College. She’s the author of From Orphan to Adoptee: U.S. Empire and Genealogies of Korean Adoption, co-host of the Antiracist Parenting Podcast, and co-editor of the anthology-in-progress Ode to George: Reflections on George Floyd Square.

Over a decade in education, much of Alysa’s work is driven by the question, “what does it mean to be free"?”. She began her journey exploring this question as a classroom teacher, learning, laughing and growing alongside high school students in the literature classroom for eight years. Her work has expanded over the last five years to include curriculum design, adult learning, strategic planning and educational consulting, all through an anti bias, antiracist and justice centered lens. She has provided consulting services and in-depth professional learning on anti bias and antiracist practices with various international schools throughout Latin American and has presented on the work of equity and justice education at various conferences around the globe. She combines her own lived experiences and the intentional study of the practitioners of abolition and justice who have come before her to bring an intersectional lens into all the work she does. Alysa has an MS in Multidisciplinary Educational Studies from SUNY Buffalo and is currently pursuing her PhD in Education for Social Justice at University of San Diego.

Flint, Michigan native Kevin Simpson owns and operates KDSL Global, a leading learning organization. He and his team have served thousands of schools, educators, and leaders worldwide in over 25 countries. Since 2008, he has been focused on education in the MENA region, assisted numerous schools with accreditation, training, development, and served as a thought partner with investors on school start-up projects. Simpson is co-founder of the UAE Learning Network, leads the GCC ASCD Connected Community, and founded the Association of International Educators and Leaders of Color. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Education and a Master of Education degree in Curriculum and Teaching from Michigan State University. Twitter: @Globalkdsl

Dr. Sarah Park Dahlen is an Associate Professor in the School of Information Sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. A graduate of UCLA’s Asian American Studies Department, she earned her Ph.D. and M.S. in Library and Information Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She co-founded and co-edits Research on Diversity in Youth Literature with Sonia Alejandra Rodríguez and Gabrielle Atwood Halko, co-edited Diversity in Youth Literature with Jamie Campbell Naidoo, and co-edited the Children’s Literature Association Quarterly Special Issue on Orphanhood and Adoption in Children’s Literature with Lies Wesseling. Her next books address Asian American youth literature with Paul Lai and race in Harry Potter with Ebony Elizabeth Thomas. sarahpark.com @readingspark

Jillian Heise, NBCT & MLIS, has been a K-5 Library Media Teacher in southeastern Wisconsin for four years. She previously taught 7th & 8th grade ELA in the Milwaukee area for eleven years. As founder of #ClassroomBookADay, Jillian is a passionate advocate for the power of shared stories and is dedicated to supporting all student identities and lived experiences through access to inclusive literature to build classroom and school community and engagement. She presents at conferences and provides workshops at the local, state, regional, and national level and also brings her literacy expertise and knowledge of kidlit to her role as Chair of the WSRA Children’s Literature Committee. You can find Jillian online at Heise Reads & Recommends and @heisereads.

Minh Lê is the award-winning author of the picture books Drawn Together (winner of the 2019 Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature), Lift (an Eisner Award-nominee), Let Me Finish!, and The Perfect Seat. He also wrote Green Lantern: Legacy, a middle grade graphic novel for DC Comics and has several forthcoming projects, including A Lotus for You, the authorized picture book biography of the world-renowned Zen Buddhist monk and Nobel Peace Prize nominee, Thích Nhất Hạnh.  In addition to writing books he has written about children's literature for a variety of publications, including National Public Radio (NPR), the Huffington Post, and the New York Times. He currently serves on the Board of We Need Diverse Books.

During the day, he is a federal early childhood policy expert who has worked in education at the national, state, and local level -- both in and out of the classroom. He got his bachelor's degree in Psychology from Dartmouth College and received a master's degree in Education Policy from the Harvard University. In 2018, he was named one of the 100 Coolest Dads in America by Fatherly.com (landing somewhere between LeBron James and President Barack Obama). Outside of spending time with his wonderful wife and children at their home in San Diego, his favorite place to be is in the middle of a good book. You can follow him on Twitter: @bottomshelfbks

Noreen Naseem Rodríguez is an assistant professor in the School of Education at the University of Colorado Boulder. Her research focuses on Asian American teachers, racial representation in children's literature, and the teaching of so-called difficult histories to young learners. She has received multiple recognitions for her scholarship, including Early Career Awards from the Children's Literature Assembly of the National Council of Teachers of English in 2018 and from the Research on the Education of Asian Pacific Americans Special Interest Group of the American Educational Research Association. Her first book, Social Studies for a Better World: An Anti-Oppressive Approach for Elementary Educators co-authored with Katy Swalwell, will be published in November 2021 by WW Norton.  You can preorder her forthcoming book at https://wwnorton.com/books/9781324016779.

I began making comics and graphic novels in the fifth grade. In 2006, my book American Born Chinese was published by First Second Books.  It became the first graphic novel to be nominated for a National Book Award and the first to win the American Library Association’s Printz Award. It also won an Eisner Award for Best Graphic Album – New.

In 2013, First Second Books released Boxers & Saints, my two-volume graphic novel about the Boxer Rebellion.  Boxers & Saints was nominated for a National Book Award and won the L.A. Times Book Prize. I’ve done a number of other comics, including Dark Horse Comics’ continuation of the popular Nickelodeon cartoon Avatar: The Last Airbender and DC Comics’ Superman!

In addition cartooning, I teach creative writing through Hamline University’s MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults. I teach alongside amazing authors like Anne Ursu, Gary Schmidt, Laura Ruby, Matt De La Pena, and more.

In January 2016, the Library of Congress, Every Child A Reader, and the Children’s Book Council appointed me the National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature.

I was a three-time honoree in this year’s Eisner Awards: His Dragon Hoops won the Best Publication for Kids award, while Superman Smashes the Klan, co-created with the Japanese team Gurihiru, won for Best Publication for Teens and Best Adaptation. 

Daniel (he/him/his) is the founder of Identity-Centered Learning (www.identitycentered.com), a framework for supporting students' identity development in schools. This work draws from his own multiracial, multicultural, and multilingual background, along with his twelve years in international education, currently teaching 3rd grade at Hong Kong International School. Daniel holds a Bachelor's of Science and Engineering from Princeton University, a Master's of Science and Engineering from Keio University, and is currently completing a Master's of Education in Independent School Leadership through Columbia University Teacher's college.

Darnell Fine is an experienced facilitator of adult learning focusing on curriculum & assessment, diversity, equity, inclusion, and culturally responsive teaching. He has led sessions for national and international conferences, numerous US public, independent and international schools, as well as the Pew Center and the US Department of Education. In addition to facilitation, he serves as a curriculum consultant, reviewing manuscripts and curricula for publishing companies, national arts organizations, and universities. After earning his Bachelor’s in Africana Studies and Education at Brown University, Darnell obtained his Teacher Support Specialist Endorsement through Georgia State University and his Master’s in Creative Writing in London. He is currently an instructional coach and chairs the faculty Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) planning team at Singapore American School. He is also a doctoral candidate at the University of Southern California, studying educational leadership through a lens of equity and social justice. Darnell is a 2012 recipient of the Teaching Tolerance Award for Excellence in Culturally Responsive Teaching and a former advisory board member with Teaching Tolerance