Author Bios

Floyd Cooper is an acclaimed American author and illustrator of children’s books whose warm oil-erasure artwork and soulful storytelling have earned him three Coretta Scott King Honor Awards and widespread recognition for his contributions to African American literature for young readers.

Edward D. Hess is a professor of business administration at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business and an expert on organizational learning, growth, and human performance in the age of smart technology.

Adam Silvera is a New York Times bestselling American author of young adult fiction whose emotionally raw, LGBTQ-inclusive novels have made him one of the most beloved voices in contemporary YA, exploring grief, identity, and first love with unflinching honesty.

Robert J. Anderson is a leadership development researcher and executive coach who created the Leadership Circle Profile, a globally used 360-degree assessment tool, and co-authored Mastering Leadership with William A. Adams.

Jes Baker is an American body image activist, author, and public speaker whose work challenges diet culture and promotes radical self-acceptance, reaching millions through her blog The Militant Baker and her frank, humor-laced writing about fat acceptance.

Jeannette Ng is a British-Hong Kong author of speculative fiction whose debut novel Under the Pendulum Sun brought a unique blend of Victorian Gothic and Chinese mythology to the fantasy genre.

Paul Knoepfler is an American stem cell biologist and professor at UC Davis whose research on epigenetics and cancer biology is matched by his commitment to public engagement on the ethics of emerging biotechnologies, particularly human genetic modification.

Steven Nadler is an American philosopher and historian of philosophy at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, internationally recognized for his scholarship on early modern European thought, especially Spinoza, Descartes, and the Jewish intellectual tradition.

Sheila Fitzpatrick is an Australian-American historian and one of the world’s leading authorities on Soviet history, whose scholarship has fundamentally shaped the field’s understanding of Stalinism, everyday life under communism, and the Soviet political elite.

Nicola Yoon is a Jamaican-American author of young adult fiction whose novels explore love, identity, and the complexity of the human heart.