Contributors

Mentor Alum & Tech Committee Member; Rose Else-Mitchell leads the education business at Scholastic comprising all the company’s products and services in support of reading development and children’s social-emotional wellbeing created for prek-12 districts, schools, and direct to teachers. With a focus on meeting the highly diverse needs of all students, Education Solutions offers unparalleled literacy content, book collections, instruction, extended/ home learning, curricula and professional learning across print and digital formats. Education Solutions’ innovative, equitable, and effective materials which support children to learn to read and love to read serve over 90% of prek-12 institutions in the U.S. First joining Scholastic in 2000 as an instructional designer, Rose became Senior Vice-President, of Product Development for the EdTech business in 2008, developing READ 180 Next Generation, MATH 180 and System 44, which were sold to Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH) in 2015. She was later appointed Chief Learning Officer and EVP, Professional Learning, at HMH. Rose also serves as a Teaching Fellow at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and chairs the Industry Council of the EdTech Evidence Exchange. Rose began her career in education as an ELA classroom teacher in Sydney, Australia.

Dominique Fishback is an actress and playwright from Brooklyn, NY. She will be starring in Warner Brother’s film JUDAS & THE BLACK MESSIAH opposite Daniel Kaluuya and Lakeith Stanfield, and recently garnered acclaim for her leading role opposite Jamie Foxx & Joseph Gordon-Levitt in the Netflix feature PROJECT POWER. Dominique’s sensational acting chops are highlighted in the HBO series THE DEUCE opposite James Franco and Maggie Gyllenhaal, and opposite Amandla Stenberg in Fox 2000’s THE HATE U GIVE. In January of 2018, Dominique was named one of The Hollywood Reporter’s Sundance Film Festival’s breakout stars for her critically praised performance in NIGHT COMES ON for director Jordana Spiro, which won the festival’s audience NEXT award. As a playwright and spoken word artist, Dominique was nominated for the New York Innovative Theatre Award’s ‘Outstanding Solo Performance’ for her one woman show SUBVERTED, where she plays 20 different characters and is the deconstruction of the Black Identity in America.

Angela Flournoy is the author of The Turner House, which was a finalist for the National Book Award. The novel won the VCU Cabell First Novel Prize and was also a finalist for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize and an NAACP Image Award. She is a contributing writer at The New York Times Magazine, and her nonfiction has appeared in many publications, including The Nation, The Los Angeles Times and The New Yorker.  A graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop, Flournoy has taught at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, The New School, Columbia University, Princeton University and the University of California at Los Angeles. She is a faculty member in the low-residency MFA program at Warren Wilson College.  Flournoy has received fellowships from the New York Public Library Cullman Center for Writers and Scholars, the National Endowment for the Arts and the American Academy in Berlin. She was raised in Southern California by a mother from Los Angeles and a father from Detroit. 

Ashley C. Ford is a writer, host, and educator who lives in Indianapolis, Indiana with her husband, poet and fiction writer Kelly Stacy, and their chocolate lab Astro Renegade Ford-Stacy. Her memoir, Somebody’s Daughter, will be published by Flatiron Books on June 1, 2021. Ford is the former host of The Chronicles of Now podcast, co-host of The HBO companion podcast Lovecraft Country Radio, seasons one & three of MasterCard’s Fortune Favors The Bold, as well as the video interview series PROFILE by BuzzFeed News, and Brooklyn-based news & culture TV show, 112BK. She was also the host of the first season of Audible’s literary interview series, Authorized. She has been named among Forbes Magazine’s 30 Under 30 in Media (2017), Brooklyn Magazine’s Brooklyn 100 (2016), Time Out New York’s New Yorkers of The Year (2017), and Variety’s New Power of New York (2019). Photo Credit: Sylvie Rosokoff

Award-winning author and journalist Gayle Forman has written several bestselling novels for young adults, including the Just One Series, I Was Here, Where She Went and the #1 New York Times bestseller If I Stay, which has been translated into more than 40 languages and in 2014 was adapted into a major motion picture. Gayle published Leave Me, her first novel starring adults, in 2016 and her latest novel I Have Lost My Way was released in March of 2018. Gayle’s essays and nonfiction work has appeared in publications like The New York Times, Elle, The Nation and Time. She lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her husband and daughters.

Diane von Furstenberg is a Belgian-born designer and businesswoman whose lasting contribution to fashion design was the wrap dress.   Von Furstenberg started her career on the fashion scene as a model. She discovered an interest in the design sector of the fashion industry and initially produced basic pieces such as T-shirts, shirt dresses, and the two pieces from which the wrap dress later evolved—a wrap top with a matching skirt. Von Furstenberg’s wrap dress debuted in 1974. The original design was a long-sleeved silk jersey dress featuring a fitted top and a skirt that wrapped around the body to tie at the waist. Feminine yet functional, its design responded to the liberated mood of American society in the 1970s—the era during which more women joined the workforce and increasingly wore trousers, which had since the 1960s been incorporated and accepted as part of the female wardrobe. By 1976, millions of wrap dresses had been sold, and, as a result of this retail phenomenon, von Furstenberg appeared on the cover of Newsweek magazine (March 1976) and The Wall Street Journal.   She became a role model—a modern powerful female designer—to whom other women, both inside and outside the fashion business, would look for inspiration. With the success of the wrap dress, she opened a cosmetics shop on Madison Avenue (1975). In 1983, on Furstenberg sold her cosmetics company and moved to Paris, where in 1985 she established Salvy, a French-language publishing house. In the 1990s von Furstenberg published a series of coffee-table books: Beds (1991), The Bath (1993), and The Table (1996), which feature photographs of the beds, baths, and tables of celebrities. In 1992 she got involved with the home shopping cable network QVC, creating and selling on the air a collection called Silk Assets.   In 1997 she bought back her dress line and relaunched herself as a designer of sophisticated ready-to-wear clothes (dresses, separates, and accessories) by reintroducing the wrap dress, which became, again, a best seller. In 1998 she published a personal and business memoir, Diane: A Signature Life.   In 2001, von Furstenberg married media executive Barry Diller. The two founded the Diller–von Furstenberg Family Foundation, a family philanthropic enterprise that funds, among other things, the DVF Awards (established 2010)—grants that recognize women in leadership roles who have made an impact in various capacities around the world. In 2014 she published another memoir, The Woman I Wanted to Be. Von Furstenberg later wrote the self-help book Own It: The Secret to Life (2021).

Amy Fusselman is the author of five books. Her latest, The Means, is her first novel. Fusselman’s previous four books, all nonfiction, have been translated into several languages. Her articles and essays have appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, The Believer, McSweeney’s, and many other outlets. Her nonfiction has been nominated for The Believer Book Award and the University of Iowa’s Krause Essay Prize. She has taught creative writing at New York University and been a guest speaker at Carnegie Mellon University and Franklin & Marshall College, among many others. She volunteers for Girls Write Now and lives in New York City with her family.

Hannah Gadsby stopped stand-up comedy in its tracks with her multi award winning show, Nanette, which played to sold out houses in Australia, the UK and New York. Its launch on Netflix, and subsequent Emmy win, took Nanette (and Hannah) to the world. Hannah’s difficult second album (which was also her eleventh solo show) was named Douglas after her dog.

Roxane Gay’s writing appears in Best American Mystery Stories 2014, Best American Short Stories 2012, Best Sex Writing 2012, A Public Space, McSweeney’s, Tin House, Oxford American, American Short Fiction, Virginia Quarterly Review, and many others. She is a contributing opinion writer for the New York Times. She is the author of the books Ayiti, An Untamed State, the New York Times bestselling Bad Feminist, the nationally bestselling Difficult Women and the New York Times bestselling Hunger. She is also the author of World of Wakanda for Marvel. She has several books forthcoming and is also at work on television and film projects. She also has a newsletter, The Audacity and a podcast, The Roxane Gay Agenda. Roxane was a keynote speaker at the 2015 Girls Write Now Chapters Reading.

Magazine editor Marcia Ann Gillespie was born in Rockville Centre, New York. Her father, Charles M. Gillespie, was a church sexton and ran a floor waxing business; her mother, Ethel Young Gillespie, a domestic worker who operated a catering business on the side. Gillespie and her sister, Charlene Gillespie, grew up- in Long Island, New York. She graduated from a mostly white and Jewish high school and then enrolled in Lake Forest College where she graduated with honors with her B.A. degree in American studies in 1966. Upon graduation, Gillespie worked as a researcher at Time-Life Books, Inc. in New York City. She was hired as a managing editor at the newly-founded African American publication Essence Magazine in 1970 and was promoted to editor-in-chief in 1971. While there, she transformed Essence Magazine into one of the fastest growing women’s publications in the United States. Gillespie joined Ms. Magazine in 1980 and served in several capacities, including as a contributing writer, contributing editor, and executive editor. In 1992, she was named editor-in-chief of Ms. Magazine, making her the first African American woman to achieve that position at a mainstream publication in the United States. She went on to serve as president of Liberty Media for Women in 1996 after the company purchased Ms. Magazine from the McDonald Communications Corporation. Gillespie also served as a guest lecturer and advisor to the vice chancellor of the University of the West Indies. Gillespie served on the board of directors of the Rod Rodgers Dance Company, the Arthur Ashe Institute of Urban Health, the Black & Jewish Women of New York, the Violence Policy Center in Washington, D.C. She also was appointed to the advisory board of the Aspen Institute, the New Federal Theater in New York City, and the Studio Museum of Harlem. Gillespie is a member of the National Council of Negro Women and the American Association of Magazine Editors. In 1973 received the Lake Forest College Outstanding Alumni Award; and, in 1978, she received the New York Women in Communications Matrix Award in 1978. The New York Association of Black Journalists honored Gillespie with its Life Achievement Award for Print Journalism. In 1982, Gillespie was named as one of the “Top Ten Outstanding Women in Magazine Publishing” by the March of Dimes.

Originally from California, Karina came to New York City for college and has stuck around for over twenty years. She has had a varied career teaching and implementing literacy programs in family homeless shelters and recruiting healthcare professionals to volunteer in under resourced areas around the world. Now as a mother, one of her proudest achievements is raising two kids who can’t go anywhere without a book. She lives in Harlem with her husband, two teenagers, one dog, and three cats.  Karina is a contributing editor at Book Riot, the largest independent book media company in North America, where she writes the weekly The Kids Are All Right newsletter.

Ilana Glazer is a co-creator, writer, director, executive producer and star of the critically-acclaimed show Broad City. Broad City was previously nominated by the Writers Guild of America for ‘Best Comedy Series.’ Ilana voices little EB on the Netflix animated TV series Green Eggs & Ham- based on the popular Dr. Seuss story.   Recently, Ilana along with Abbi Jacobson have signed a first look deal with Comedy Central and Viacom Television networks and currently have two projects already in development at Comedy Central under the new pact including: Mall Town USA and Young Professionals.   On the big screen, Ilana starred opposite Scarlett Johansson in Sony Pictures’ comedy, Rough Night, directed by Lucia Aniello. In addition, Glazer was previously seen in the film “The Night Before” opposite Seth Rogan and Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Glazer is executive producing the upcoming Warner Bros. and BuzzFeed motion picture Brother Orange along with Ellen DeGeneres and Jeff Kleeman and staring Jim Parsons.   In 2017, Glazer and 2 Dope Queens star Phoebe Robinson toured across North America with an 11-city stop for their ‘YQY’ (Yaaas Queen Yaaas) tour.

Amanda Gorman is the youngest inaugural poet in U.S. history, as well as an award-winning writer and cum laude graduate of Harvard University, where she studied Sociology. She has written for the New York Times and has three books forthcoming with Penguin Random House. Born and raised in Los Angeles, she began writing at only a few years of age. Now her words have won her invitations to the Obama White House and to perform for Lin-Manuel Miranda, Al Gore, Secretary Hillary Clinton, Malala Yousafzai, and others. Amanda has performed multiple commissioned poems for CBS This Morning and she has spoken at events and venues across the country, including the Library of Congress and Lincoln Center. She has received a Genius Grant from OZY Media, as well as recognition from Scholastic Inc., YoungArts, the Glamour magazine College Women of the Year Awards, and the Webby Awards. She has written for the New York Times newsletter The Edit and penned the manifesto for Nike’s 2020 Black History Month campaign. In 2017, Amanda Gorman was appointed the first-ever National Youth Poet Laureate by Urban Word – a program that supports Youth Poets Laureate in more than 60 cities, regions and states nationally. She is the recipient of the Poets & Writers Barnes & Noble Writers for Writers Award, and is the youngest board member of 826 National, the largest youth writing network in the United States.

Kaitlyn Greenidge‘s debut novel, We Love You, Charlie Freeman, was one of the New York Times Critics’ Top 10 Books of 2016 and a finalist for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize. She is a contributing writer for the New York Times, and her writing has also appeared in Vogue, Glamour, the Wall Street Journal and elsewhere. She is the recipient of fellowships from the Whiting Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts and the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. Greenidge lives in Brooklyn, New York. She is also a Girls Write Now mentor alum. You can purchase her new book, Libertie, from our partner Books Are Magic.

Writer, performer and designer Deborah Gregory is the award-winning author of “The Cheetah Girls” novel series (Disney Publishing Worldwide). The 22-book series (16 books written by Deborah Gregory plus 6 movie tie-in books including “The Cheetah Girls Supa Star Scrapbook,” “Cheetah Girls 2 X0X0 Postcard Book” and “Cheetah Girls Cheetah Chatter: A Dictionary of Growl-licious Lingo”) is about five talented teens who form a singing group and make their dreams come true in the jiggy jungle. The Disney Channel original movie produced in conjunction with Whitney Houston, “The Cheetah Girls” –based on the book series–airs this summer and stars Raven Symone, Adrienne and Kiely from 3LW as well as Lynn Whitfield. Deborah Gregory serves as a co-producer on the film project. The soundtrack album will be available on Disney’s Hollywood Records. In 2001, the series was chosen at the Blackboard Children’s Book of the Year. Gregory is also an NABJ award-winning contributing writer for ESSENCE magazine since 1992. Her work has also appeared in VIBE, MORE, Heart & Soul, Entertainment Weekly, US magazines. Her pop culture column, THE DIVA DIARIES, appears in GRACE magazine, the national fashion and lifestyle “reality” publication targeted at multi-cultural women. She is currently writing an adult novel as well as developing a one-woman show “LEOPARD LIVES” –a coming of age story about a foster child growing up in the New York City foster care system of which Gregory is also a survivor. She has performed segments of her work-in-progress one-woman show at the Women of Color Festival, winning the festival’s Best Comedy Award for 2001; Dixon Place, Caroline’s Comedy Club and Solo Arts Festival.

Adele Griffin is a New Yorker who enjoys living in Los Angeles even if never snows here. She is the author of many books for new and young people. The Favor (June 2023) is her first book for older people. She loves pull-quotes, bakery cakes, and writing about herself in third person. Find her on Instagram at @adelegriffin or adelegriffin.com for big surprises (okay, no surprises, but that's where you can find more bio and the book list).