Ashley Barnett is a lower schoolteacher working in a private school in Baltimore. She graduated from St. John’s University with a master’s degree in childhood education 1-6, and has been teaching for over 10 years in Washington D.C, New York City, and Baltimore. Ashley has taught K-4th grade students, as well as art to middle school students as an elective. Her favorite age to teach is first grade and her favorite subject to teach is reading.

Within the last 7 years, she has been writing, creating, and implementing curriculum that is taught through a DEI lens. Her ultimate goal is to make sure that students are exposed to a variety of books that feature BIPOC characters, BIPOC authors/illustrators, and characters and authors that are a part of the Big 8 identifiers.

Ashley is currently working on creating a reading curriculum that focuses on helping students understand their own identity. The hope is for students to be comfortable with who they are and understand that there are different people out in the world.

I was born and raised in Denver, Colorado, where I currently reside. Growing up, my family put a high standard on education, but it’s something that I took for granted until I transferred to a private school in 8th grade. I immediately understood that education was not the same for everyone and as one of the only black students at my new school, the inequity felt personal. From then on, becoming a teacher was always in the back of my mind.

But by senior year, getting away from small-town Denver life was at the forefront of my mind. I left home to attend Northwestern University in Illinois where I earned my B.S in Communication Studies. Having fallen in love with Chicago, I lived blocks from Wrigley Field for a few years after graduation. I was working at a start-up online college in the customer service and marketing department, but began to feel unfulfilled and without purpose.

I returned to Denver and I met my wife, who is a teacher. Not long after, I earned my teaching license through an alternative licensure program. For the last decade, I have worked in predominantly Title I schools as a special education teacher, administrator, and coach. I found fulfillment and purpose in working to bring equity to public education, helping students overcome personal hurdles, and sharing in students’ success.

Dr. Francene Garrett holds a Bachelors of Arts degree with a specialization in Vocal Performance, and a Masters of Science degree in Curriculum, Instruction, and Technology, and an Educational Doctoral degree in Administrative Leadership for Teaching and Learning. She holds certifications in the areas of Middle Grades Language Arts and Social Science, and has held various leadership positions throughout her seventeen-year career.

Dr. Garrett currently serves as an Instruction and Personalized Learning Lead in the metropolitan area of Atlanta. She is a mother of one, an avid reader, and enjoys traveling and listening to music. Dr. Garrett prides herself on being a change agent in the field of education through the use of practical, relevant, and engaging professional development. She believes in the importance of the 4 C's in education and the integration of cutting-edge technology in teaching and learning.

Melanie Young's passion is to make high-quality education accessible to all children. Melanie is the founder of Infinite Mind Tutors, a Black-owned tutoring agency with the mission to use the collective power of Black minds to transform America's educational landscape. Before launching Infinite Mind Tutors, Melanie was a teacher and tutor working in Philadelphia's public schools for over nine years.

During this time, Melanie taught at Central High School and coached two NBA Math Hoops National Championship participants across two consecutive years. She was awarded the Sixers Youth Foundation Game Changer Award in 2018, the Philadelphia Superintendent’s Award in 2016, the Woodrow Wilson Rockefeller Brothers Fund Fellowship in 2015, and the University of Pennsylvania Woman of Color Award in 2014. Melanie is also a two-time graduate of the University of Pennsylvania.