About the Author

Gretchen Brion-Meisels is a doctoral candidate at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and one of the manuscript editors at the Harvard Educational Review. Her research seeks to explore holistic student support processes that build on the local knowledge of students and communities. She is the author of "Playing in the Light: Experiential Learning and White Identity Development" in the Handbook of Social Justice in Education (edited by Ayers, Quinn, and Stovall for Routledge, 2008). Before coming to HGSE, she taught middle school humanities in Baltimore, Maryland, Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Berkeley, California.

Kristy S. Cooper is a doctoral student at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, where she is working towards an EdD in education policy, leadership, and instructional practice. Prior to attending Harvard, Kristy taught elementary school in Los Angeles for six years and earned her National Board Certification as a middle-childhood generalist. Her doctoral research explores the link between classroom engagement and identity development among high school students. Kristy currently serves as the book notes editor for the Harvard Educational Review and is a coauthor of Inside Urban Charter Schools: Promising Practices and Strategies in Five High-Performing Schools (Harvard Education Press, 2009).

Sherry L. Deckman is a doctoral candidate at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and one of the cochairs of the Harvard Educational Review. Her current research explores how undergraduate students negotiate race, class, and gender difference. She is also interested in professional development opportunities for educators related to addressing inequity and diversity. She is a coauthor of "But What Can I Do? Three Necessary Tensions in Teaching Teachers about Race" (with Pollock, Mira, and Shalaby, Journal of Teachers Education, 2009). She is an alumnus of Teach For America and has been a high school teacher in Washington, DC, and Fukuoka, Japan.

Christina L. Dobbs is a doctoral student in human development and education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. In an effort to understand the development of writing skills, her current research focuses on the discourse of school, academic language, and speakers of dialectal variations of English. Christina is an adjunct lecturer at Lesley University and reading specialist who works with preservice teachers and reading specialist trainees. Prior to coming to Harvard, Christina was a secondary English and journalism teacher in Houston, Texas. Christina serves as one of the manuscript editors for the Harvard Educational Review.

Chantal Francois is a doctoral candidate at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, where she studies the intersection of urban adolescent literacy, identity, and school culture. She serves as the solicitations editor of the Harvard Educational Review. Chantal teaches high school English in New York City and is coauthor, with Elisa Zonana, of Catching Up on Conventions: Grammar Lessons for Middle School Writers (Heinemann, 2009).

Thomas Nikundiwe is a doctoral candidate at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and one of the cochairs of the Harvard Educational Review. He is currently researching community and youth organizing for school reform and, in particular, the role that consciousness raising plays in shifting power relationships between youth and the various institutions they encounter. Previously Thomas worked as a math literacy youth organizer for the Baltimore Algebra Project. Prior to his organizing work, Thomas served as a teacher trainer in Uganda and as a secondary mathematics teacher for the Baltimore City Public School System.

Carla Shalaby is a former elementary school teacher and a doctoral student interested in ethnic and cultural justice for our youngest schoolchildren. Her work focuses on the everyday politics of identity and power in schools--elementary classrooms in particular. She is currently the visiting director of elementary education at Brown University, where she is committed to preparing teachers who are reflective in their stance, critical in their pedagogy, and ready to stand in solidarity with our children, families, and communities. She serves as vision editor for the Harvard Educational Review.