Carl Anderson is an internationally recognized expert on the teaching of writing for grades K-8. A former elementary and middle school teacher, he has worked as a literacy consultant in schools and districts around the world for 30 years. Carl is the author of numerous books on the teaching of writing, including How to Become a Better Writing Teacher (with Matt Glover), Teaching Fantasy Writing: Lessons that Inspire Student Engagement and Creativity K-6, A Teacher’s Guide to Mentor Texts K-5, A Teacher’s Guide to Writing Conferences K-8, and the bestselling classic, How’s It Going? A Practical Guide to Conferring with Student Writers.

Aimee Buckner Haisten is an experienced educator with a deep understanding of language arts instruction. Aimee not only inspires teachers and students to love reading but also to find joy in writing.  Aimee is the author of several Stenhouse books, including the best selling, Notebook Knowhow: Strategies for the Writer’s Notebook. She lives with her husband just outside of Atlanta, Georgia.

Katie Kelly is a Professor of Education at Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina. As a former teacher and literacy coach, Katie’s teaching and research interests include engaging children in meaningful literacy experiences and practices to foster critically curious and compassionate lifelong readers and writers. She has co-authored several books including her newest book From Empathy to Action: Empowering K-6 Students to Create Change through Reading, Writing, and Research (Routledge). Her other books include Critical Comprehension: Lessons for Guiding Students to Deeper Meaning (Corwin); Reading To Make a Difference: Using Literature to Help Students Think Deeply Speak Freely and Take Action (Heinemann); From Pencils to Podcasts: Digital Tools to Transform K-12 Literacy Practices (Solution Tree); and Smuggling Writing: Strategies that Get Students to Write Every Day, in Every Content Area (3-12) (Corwin). Katie is available for professional development and speaking engagements and can be contacted at ktkelly24@gmail.com.

Penny Kittle has surrounded herself with young people, great books, and piles of their writing notebooks for 41 years across five states. She currently teaches writing part-time at Plymouth State University in New Hampshire. She knows the power of two essential things: all students will build independent reading lives of joy, curiosity, and hunger when given agency; and teachers who write with their students generate community and creative power. She is the author of nine books including Micro Mentor Texts, 180 Days, Book Love, and Write Beside Them. She is the Chairman of the board of the Book Love Foundation where we believe in empowering teachers through grants for books and a vibrant, worldwide community of free professional learning with authors and educators.

Cara’s debut memoir, Voice Lessons: A Sisters Story, was a Good Reads Choice Award nominee in 2017. She has since co-authored two picture books with her sister, Idina Menzel,titled Loud Mouse and Proud Mouse. Her humorous personal essays are featured in The Empty Next, on Substack.

Cara has her master's degree in elementary education with an emphasis on children's literacy. She has spent over 15 years in elementary schools as a literacy specialist and a classroom teacher in Boulder, Colorado. While currently an empty nester, Cara raised a Brady Bunch of boys with the love of her life and now looks for every opportunity to surround herself with children. In this very moment she is probably sitting criss-cross applesauce in her kindergarten classroom, and poorly playing Down By the Bay on the ukulele.

Dr. Ashlee Saddler is the District Support Chief for the University of Virginia’s Partnership for Leaders in Education (UVA-PLE). In this role, Ashlee travels the country partnering with school and district leaders to transform instructional practices, generate tangible solutions to systemic challenges, and drive sustainable change that improves student achievement outcomes. She also serves as the Senior Director of Leadership at the Public Education and Business Coalition (PEBC), where she facilitates engaging, timely, and interactive professional learning experiences designed specifically for adult learners. Over the past 18 years, Ashlee has distinguished herself as a successful leader, serving as a Director of Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Education, principal, and assistant principal in the Aurora Public Schools district. Ashlee embodies hard work, dedication, and integrity, creating an infectious energy that inspires others to be their best. She consistently holds herself and those around her to high expectations—an unwavering value throughout her career.

Ashlee began her career as a mental health professional and provided mental health and therapeutic services to students, children, and families. Ashlee has earned her Master’s of Social Work from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and has worked in the mental health field in Illinois, Indiana, and Colorado. Ashlee earned her second Master’s Degree from Colorado State University in education and completed her doctoral studies at Baylor University. Ashlee’s passion for supporting and developing others has extended to her doctoral research, which centers around professional learning for principals.  

Through her consulting business, Ashlee facilitates leadership development to leaders in business, educational, private, and non-profit sectors. She also offers executive coaching and health coaching. Ashlee enjoys presenting keynotes, facilitating learning to educators, growing and developing as a leader, and mentoring upcoming leaders. In her spare time, Ashlee is pushing herself physically in the gym and traveling the world with her family.

John Schu has made a career out of advocating for the people and things he cares about most: kids, books, and the people that connect them. He was named a Library Journal Mover and Shaker for his dynamic interactions with students and his passionate adoption of new technologies as a means of connecting authors, illustrators, books, and readers. He is the children’s librarian for Bookelicious, a part-time lecturer at Rutgers University, and shares his love of reading with countless educators and students around the world. He is the author of the New York Times best-selling Louder Than Hunger; This Is a School, illustrated by Veronica Miller Jamison; This Is a Story, illustrated by Caldecott Honor artist Lauren Castillo; Ruthie Rose’s Big Idea, illustrated by Holly Hatam; Lily-May’s Joyful Day, illustrated by Holly Hatam; and The Gift of Story: Exploring the Affective Side of the Reading Life. John Schu lives in Naperville, Illinois.

Cris Tovani is an internationally known consultant who focuses on issues of disciplinary reading, assessment strategies, and writing instruction. She was awarded the 2017 Thought Leader award from the International Literacy Association. Cris has been an adjunct professor at several Colorado universities. She is the author of five books. Her most recent from Stenhouse is, Why do I Have to Read This? Literacy Strategies to Engage Our Most Reluctant Students. Other books by Cris are: No More Telling as Teaching- Less Lecture-More Engaged Learning, I Read it but I Don’t Get It, Do I Really Have to Teach Reading? and So, What do They Really Know? For 38 years, Cris taught students from grades one to twelve. She continues to study the “knowing-doing gap” by investigating how best practice research can be practically applied to meet a variety learners’ needs. Cris’s Literacy Lab Project enables her to provide demonstration teaching lessons in districts around the US. Embracing a growth mindset, she loves sharing her successes and failures with colleagues as they work to serve students.

My career started with student teaching at Abraham Lincoln High School in Denver, Colorado in January of 1996. Since then, I have taught in Washington State, Illinois, and Colorado (mostly in Colorado), both high school and university methods classes (but mostly high school). I am proud to be public school educated, K through PhD, with all but three of those years in Colorado schools. I teach language arts at Fairview High School in Boulder, Colorado, where I live with my husband and dog, across town from our college student daughter who is studying art at CU. See more at SarahMZerwin.com.