Jeffery Boston Weatherford is an award-winning children’s book illustrator and a performance poet. He has lectured, performed, and led art and writing workshops in the US, the Middle East, and West Africa. Jeffery was a Romare Bearden Scholar at Howard University, where he earned an MFA in painting and studied under members of the Black Arts Movement collective AfriCobra. A North Carolina native and resident, Jeffery has exhibited his art in North Carolina, Georgia, Maryland, and Washington, DC.

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Tony Weaver, Jr. is founder and CEO of Weird Enough Productions, a new media production company dedicated to creating positive media images of black men and other minority groups, and the creator of the educational webcomic The UnCommons, whose curriculum is used by over 40,000 students per month. Tony has been the recipient of the Leadership Prize and the Black Excellence Award, participated in the NBCUniversal Fellowship Program and the Peace First Fellowship, is a TEDx speaker, and was one of Forbes’ 2018 “30 Under 30” honorees—the first comic book writer to ever make the list.

Molly Webster, a graduate of NYU’s Science Writing Program and an award-winning journalist, is a Senior Correspondent at WNYC’s Radiolab. She is an accomplished writer having contributed to Scientific American, National Geographic Adventure, and Wired. Most recently she presented a TED Talk about her research on sex chromosomes.

Maya Wei-Haas is an award-winning reporter at National Geographic. She writes about all things science and has a particular affection for rocks and reactions. Maya pursued a bachelor's in geology at Smith College and then won an NSF fellowship to support her Ph.D. work in Earth Science at the Ohio State University. She's traveled the world in the name of science, scooping ice melt from the top of Antarctic glaciers and hauling up sediments from Svalbard lakes. She made the jump to journalism with the AAAS Mass Media Fellowship. Now she's working to bring these types of adventures—and the science that surrounds us—to all. In 2019, she was honored with AGU's David Perlman Award for Excellence in Science Journalism for her story about the discovery of a submarine volcano's birth. In addition to National Geographic, her work has appeared at Smithsonian.com and EOS. She's working on a forthcoming children's book about the amazing things that rocks can reveal with Phaidon Press.

Sean Fay Wolfe is a seventeen-year-old Eagle Scout and writing prodigy. He is the author of the Minecraft fan fiction series The Elementia Chronicles (HarperCollins).

Annie Won is a New York based Freelance Author-Illustrator who loves Mochi (she’s my kitty not a rice cake), picture books, and anything sweet with strong coffee! 

She is the illustrator of books for children, and she also teaches at FIT, Pratt and Queens College as an Art Professor.

Raised in a Korean American household by his grandmother, Brian honed his artistic skills at the Art Center College of Design, where he earned a BFA in illustration. His awards include the Silver Medal from the Society of Illustrators and the Crystal Kite from the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. Currently residing in Southern California, Brian continues to craft stories and illustrations for young readers.

Kelvin Wong was featured on Love on the Spectrum, Netflix’s hit docuseries that follows autistic people on their search for love, where he met Jodi Rodgers, the relationship specialist who consulted with the show’s participants about the potential romantic partners they were meeting. A talented illustrator,  Kelvin collaborated with Jodi Rodgers on the graphic novel, LET’S MEET.

Jenna Yoon is a debut author and has spent equal amounts of time living in Korea and the U.S. She holds a BA in Art History from Wellesley College, and a MA in Korean Art History from Ewha Woman’s University. Lia Park and the Missing Jewel is her middle grade debut.

Born and raised in California, Helen Yoon graduated from the University of California, Irvine with a BS in chemistry and from Art Center College of Design with a BFA in illustration. Helen is an author-illustrator and creative consultant and the creator of acclaimed picture books. She writes and draws for a living. 

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Katie Zhao is the author of the middle grade book The Dragon Warrior and the young adult novel How We Fall Apart (Bloomsbury).