April Dawkins, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Library and Information Science at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Prior to joining the faculty, she was a high school librarian in several different school districts in North Carolina. She teaches Legal & Ethical Issues in School Libraries, Materials for Adolescents, and Reading, Literacy, and the Library. Her research focuses on topics around intellectual freedom in school libraries including self-censorship, selection and reconsideration policies, and privacy of students. She is the editor of Intellectual Freedom Issues in School Libraries (Libraries Unlimited, 2021).

Valerie Byrd Fort has over 15 years of teaching in the K - 12 environment and was selected as Teacher of the Year a both schools in which she taught. As a school librarian, she was an advocate for both students and teachers. She teaches courses in children's literature and in school library management at UofSC. Byrd Fort is also the coordinator for Cocky's Reading Express, the University of South Carolina's literacy outreach program.

Joyce McIntosh is the Assistant Program Director for the Freedom to Read Foundation. She has worked at the intersection of intellectual freedom, communication, and the First Amendment for three decades. Her degrees in journalism (Michigan State University) and library and information science (Wayne State University) have led her to work for newspapers, non-profits, and for the last two decades in libraries. She worked in a public library before joining FTRF.