FACILITATOR FOR THIS PANEL: Nationally recognized author, publisher and speaker Maria Dismondy is dedicated to inspiring and empowering children. She has authored nine children’s books and made more than 800 speaking appearances. She lives in southeast Michigan with her husband, Dave, and their three children.

Hannah is a former drama teacher and co-founder of the youth theatre program Collective Art School of Tennessee. A proud Latinx (who doesn’t speak a word of Spanish), Bestselling Children’s Author, voiceover actor, Herbalist in training, and single mom of two fierce girls and a fur baby.

Sarah & Ian Hoffman are the award winning authors of "Jacob’s New Dress," "Jacob’s Room To Choose," and "Jacob’s School Play: Starring He, She, and They!"

Adria Karlsson lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts with her family. Currently she is writing and parenting, but has a history of teaching people, training cats and dogs, and tutoring kids with dyslexia. When she isn't writing, Adria can often be found reading with a cat on her lap, attempting to replicate pastries from a certain British baking show, or zipping around town with a pile of children in the family cargo bike.

Rob Sanders is known as a writer who teaches and a teacher who writes. He crafts funny and fierce fiction and nonfiction from his studio in Brandon, FL. Rob is a popular speaker, writing teacher, coach, and critiquer. And that accent of his? That comes from all those years Rob lived in Missouri, Texas, Alabama, and Tennessee.

Gareth Peter has had a career as a composer and lyricist for theater, with his songs performed on stage by West End and Broadway voices across the UK and internationally. He founded the Broadway School of Performing Arts, a part-time theater school, in 2004. He was also a top-ten Penguin Random House Write Now finalist. Gareth lives in Nottingham with his partner, two huskies, and two beautiful adopted children.