Deanna Nikaido

KWAME ALEXANDER is a poet, educator, and New York Times bestselling author of 21 books, including The Crossover, which received the 2015 John Newbery Medal for the Most Distinguished Contribution to American Literature for Children. His other recent works include Booked, Surf's Up, and He Said, She Said. He is the founder of Book-in-a-Day, a student-run publishing program that has created more than 3,000 student authors in 75 schools; and LEAP for Ghana, an international literacy project that builds libraries, trains teachers, and empowers children through literature. In 2015, Kwame served as Bank Street College of Education's first writer-in-residence.

JOEL SARTORE is the founder of the Photo Ark, a photographer, speaker, author, teacher, conservationist, National Geographic Fellow, regular contributor to National Geographic magazine. In addition to the work he has done for National Geographic, Sartore has contributed to Audubon Magazine, Geo, Sports Illustrated, The New York Times, the Smithsonian magazine and numerous book projects.