KK Apple is a writer, comedian, and filmmaker in Brooklyn. She’s a former UCB Theatre Harold Night improviser who cut her (big) teeth performing in the New York comedy scene and has been featured at festivals across the US and Canada. Her solo sketch show The Rhythm Is Going to Get You ran for six months at UCB Theatre Hell’s Kitchen and played to sold out crowds in NYC and LA. As a choreographer, she’s created dance work for the stage, music videos, and TV. Her last original short, I’m Peach, was a satirical PSA featured in Vulture and Funny or Die. As a freelance writer and video producer, she’s created video scripts and creative campaigns for digital companies like Vimeo, Vox, and HBO. She also worked on the Emmy-winning crowdsourced film project Star Wars Uncut, and produced an interactive experience at Tribeca Storyscapes.

Laura Geringer Bass is the author of over twenty books for young people. As publisher of the award-winning Laura Geringer Books, an imprint of HarperCollins,she collaborated with many celebrated authors and illustrators. Her novel, THE GIRL WITH MORE THAN ONE HEART, (Abrams, 2018) inspired her prompt-based writing workshop “Finding the Heart of Your Story” which she has presented in schools and libraries nationwide. She serves on the National Advisory Board of First Book, an award-winning organization that has delivered over 200 million books into the hands of children in need. This is her sixth year as a mentor for GWN.

Grace is a journalist and multimedia storyteller with a passion for amplifying underrepresented voices. She thrives on creating and developing authentic, relevant, multi-platform content—digital, podcasts, print, video—that deeply engages audiences and propels people to action. Most recently, she was appointed the editor in chief of Parents, a national media brand founded in 1926. Her innate understanding of women and families across different demographics is an invaluable asset that has also positioned her as a thought leader on a variety of stages. She has moderated and guested on panels, presented at conferences, and shared her opinion on live television. Most recently, she co-hosted and served as a producer on a podcast geared towards mothers that led to a guest-hosting opportunity at NPR. While she is passionate about creating immersive audio stories, she loves the written word and has contributed to The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and New York magazine, among other publications. She lives in Brooklyn with my husband and young daughters. In her free time, she serves as an ambassador for the Good+ Foundation, a nonprofit working to break the cycle of family poverty.

For 27 years Nan worked at the Borough of Manhattan Community College, CUNY, teaching developmental writing, composition, and women’s literature. She then became Academic Director of the CUNY Baccalaureate for Unique and Interdisciplinary Studies for nine years. After retiring, she was part-time Director of Special Projects at John Jay College and consultant for the City University of New York and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation documenting the development of The Stella and Charles Guttman Community College, CUNY. She volunteers at The Whitney Museum, and has edited or coedited seven books. Her family consists of four children and 12 grandchildren.

Toni Brannagan is a Queens-based writer, editor, & content strategist. She is a Hunter College graduate and currently Manager of Member Content at Brightline. Her career has been primarily built at start-ups, including Thinx Inc. and Parade. In her free time, Toni writes short stories and re-watches the same TV shows over and over again.

Shannon Carlin is a freelance pop culture writer and reporter living in Brooklyn who has written for TIME, Vulture, Refinery29, Bustle, and Thrillist. The highlight of her career so far? Being quoted in the Britney Spears Lifetime biopic trailer.

Julia Carpenter is a reporter at The Wall Street Journal. She has written for places like Glamour, Vogue and The Washington Post and she recently won awards for specialized personal service reporting and her coverage of the LGBTQ community. She is writing a recipe book with personal finance editor Bourree Lam, coming in 2023. Outside of journalism, she is at work on a novel, aiming to finish writing it by end of 2022.

Caitlin Chase is a brand and content strategy consultant with expertise in digital experience design and brand building for emerging health and technology organizations. She is a founding member of The Resilience Collective, an interdisciplinary network dedicated to promoting community resilience. She also serves as an advisor to the public arts project, Moral Injuries of War, and a mentor for Girls Write Now and BUILT BY GIRLS. Caitlin holds an MS in Narrative Medicine from Columbia University and a BA from New York University. She lives and works in Washington DC with her husband, young son, affable cat, and an ever-growing plant collection.

Jesse Chen is a poet and essayist living in New York City. She also works in marketing/PR, and volunteers as a mentor with the non-profit Girls Write Now. When she’s not writing, she can be found reading in parks, spending too much time in museums, or eating various forms of bread. She graduated from the Johns Hopkins University with general and departmental honors and a B.A. in Writing Seminars. Chen also received a minor in Museums & Society. While in college, she wrote/edited for various publications including the JHU News-Letter, Thoroughfare Magazine, HerCampus, and Black and Blue Jay, and won the Academy of American Poets University & College Poetry Prize for her university.

Rachel Cohen used to be a sports reporter, and now she’s a software engineer. She was pleasantly surprised to learn the two jobs were more alike that it would seem. After more than 16 years covering everything from Olympic figure skating to the NFL antitrust exemption, Rachel was ready for a new challenge and attended the Grace Hopper program, an all-women software engineering immersive. She then joined the Wall Street Journal, where she built software for the newsroom, before moving on to coding jobs at Spotify and now Datadog. In the summer, you can find Rachel swimming in the ocean off Brighton Beach.

Linda Corman is a freelance writer and editor, specializing in the area of financing social and financial sustainability. Her heart, however, at this point, is most interested in trying to finish a second novel. (The first one is in a drawer.)

Sarah A. Custen is a queer, disabled writer, educator, musician, and performance artist. Born and raised in Utah, she has lived and worked in Madrid, Tokyo, and Salt Lake City. Sarah earned a master’s degree in TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) from The New School in 2018 and has since taught for Pratt Institute, Columbia University, Baruch College, and The School of The New York Times.

Mary Darby is a writer and editor with Burness, a communications firm that works exclusively with nonprofits to advance social change.