Faculty

Nick Kleese is an Iowa farm kid turned literacy educator. Nick serves as the Associate Director of Community Engagement at the Center for Climate Literacy at the University of Minnesota, Managing Editor for Climate Literacy in Education, and Editor at Climate Lit. He is also Co-Founder of KidLitLab! and an inaugural member of the Whippoorwill YA Award: an award recognizing rural representation in young adult literature. He has taught middle school and high school English, undergraduate children’s literature courses, and outdoor immersion experiences for kindergarteners.

Jana Lo Bello Miller is a Senior Lecturer in the College of Education and Human Development in the Department of Curriculum & Instruction at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities. She currently serves in the roles of co-director of elementary teacher education and co-director of the initial and additional licensure programs. Dr. Lo Bello Miller's scholarly interests include elementary teacher education, issues of climate literacy, equity-based pedagogies as well as curriculum design. Jana currently serves as curriculum editor for Climate Literacy in Education and consults with K-12 schools and higher education institutions to further integrate these topics into curriculum. She has taught in both elementary and special education classrooms where feminist and culturally responsive pedagogies inform both her teaching and professional development. Dr. Lo Bello Miller's leadership and mentorship within the Teacher Scholars of Color program supports her passion to increase the number of teachers of color across Minnesota. 

Marek Oziewicz (pronounced: oz-YE-vige) is a Polish-born scholar of literature and story systems as sociocognitive technologies for personal empowerment and social transformation. Marek is Professor of Literacy Education and holds the Sidney and Marguerite Henry Professorship of Children’s and Young Adult Literature at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities. His research explores the deep grammar and design principles of story systems, especially in literature and media for young audiences, focusing on how stories boost young people’s justice literacies, cognitive capacity, and impact on the world. Marek believes that humanity’s greatest challenge today is a transition to an ecological civilization. He serves as Director of the Center for Climate Literacy because he considers education as ground zero for building universal climate literacy and ushering in a just, sustainable world in which human and nonhuman lives can reach their full potential.

Stephanie Rollag Yoon teaches preservice and practicing English Language Arts teachers at Minnesota State University, Mankato. She brings a background as a Language Arts teacher, focusing on students as multimodal composers. In addition, she consults for school districts and higher education institutes throughout Minnesota. She received her Ph.D. in Critical Literacy English Education  from the University of Minnesota; her research interests include critical writing pedagogy, equitable technology integration, climate literacy, and culturally relevant pedagogy. She was a 2020-2021 INSPIRE CS-AI fellow at MIT and a 2021-2022 fellow with the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation Open Educational Resources Research. Stephanie currently serves as a curriculum editor for Climate Literacy in Education.

#1 New York Times bestselling author Katherine Applegate has written many books for young readers, including The One and Only Ivan, winner of the 2013 Newbery Medal, Wishtree, Willodeen, and Odder and, with her husband, Michael Grant, the Animorpohs series. Her books have been translated into dozens of languages, and have won accolades including the Christopher Medal, the Golden Kite Award, the Bank Street Josette Frank Award, the California Book Award Gold Medal, the Crystal Kite Award, and the Green Earth Book Honor Award. Katherine lives in Nevada with her family.

TBD

Jason Chin is the author and illustrator of many acclaimed picture books, including Your Place in the Universe and The Universe in You: A Microscopic Journey. He received the 2022 Caldecott Medal for Watercress, by Andrea Wang and a Caldecott Honor, Sibert Honor, and the NCTE Orbis Pictus award for Grand Canyon. His latest book is Life After Whale, written by Lynn Brunelle. His next book, Hurricane, will be published in the summer of 2025. He lives in South Burlington, VT with his wife, Deirdre Gill, and their children.

Justyna Deszcz-Tryhubczak is Associate Professor of literature at the Institute of English Studies, University of Wrocław, Poland. Her research interests focus on children's literature and culture in/of/for the Anthropocene. She is the University of Wrocław coordinator and academic lead in Seen and Heard: Young People’s Voices and Freedom of Expression. 

Lee Fisher (he/him/his) serves as the Director of the Minnesota Writing Project. Grounded in the beliefs of the National Writing Project and the work of Agusto Boal, Lee's work centers the experience, leadership, and expertise of teachers through interactive pedagogies that affirms the agency of learners. 

Adam Gidwitz is a Newbery Award-winning author for young people and the mind behind The Unicorn Rescue Society, The Tales Grimm Series, and The Inquisitor’s Tale.These days, when Adam is not at home in Brooklyn, lying on his couch and staring up at the ceiling (which is a crucial part of the writing process), he can be found taking his daughter to school, recording new episodes of the Grimm, Grimmer, Grimmest podcast, and visiting schools all over the world. 

TBD

Samantha Lindgren is an Assistant Professor in the department of Education Policy, Organization & Leadership in the College of Education at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Dr. Lindgren’s work focuses on youth-oriented Sustainability Education, including Environmental Education and Education for Sustainable Development, and its impact on decision-making in the home, both in the United States and abroad for improved climate literacy. Her work is primarily situated in topics of household energy and sustainable agriculture where she examines youth and their ability to affect change in their homes and communities. In all contexts, Lindgren focuses on equitable access to high-quality, futures-oriented education across the lifespan. Dr. Lindgren is affiliated faculty in the Women and Gender in Global Perspectives program in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, and in the departments of Agriculture and Biological Engineering and the Technology Entrepreneurship Center in the Grainger College of Engineering at the University of Illinois. She also serves as the Associate Director of Events for the Center for Climate Literacy at the University of Minnesota.
 

Emily Midkiff (she/her) is an Assistant Professor at the University of North Dakota, where she teaches courses on children’s literature and literacy. 

Darcia Narvaez, Professor Emerita of Psychology at the University of Notre Dame, is Fellow of American Psychological Association, American Educational Research Association, Association for Psychological Science, American Association for the Advancement of Science. She studies evolved morality, child development & human flourishing in a transdisciplinary manner. Her book, Neurobiology and the Development of Human Morality: Evolution, Culture and Wisdom won multiple awards. Recent books include Restoring the Kinship Worldview, and The Evolved Nest. Her short films are Breaking the Cycle, The Evolved Nest, and Reimagining Humanity. She is president of KindredWorld.org and host of EvolvedNest.org.

Emma Reynolds is an illustrator and author making comics and picture books art about nature, climate justice and what we can all do about it. Her books include Amara and the Bats and Drawn to Change the World. Drawn has won multiple awards including the Broken Frontier Award for ‘Best One-Shot Anthology’, The Green Earth Book Award and Blueberry Honor, and is shortlisted for the Week Junior Book Award. Her author-illustrator debut picture book Amara and the Bats about bat conservation, peaceful protest and community action is a Nautilus winner, Junior Library Guild Gold Standard, NSTA ‘Best in STEM’, and an Empathy Lab selection. In early 2019 she started #KidLit4Climate the first global illustrated climate campaign, bringing together thousands of children’s illustrators and authors from over fifty countries in solidarity with the youth climate strikes.

Lara Saguisag is Georgiou Chair of Children's Literature and Literacy at New York University. She currently serves as Vice-President/President-Elect of the Children's Literature Association. 

TBD

Dr. Asli Sezen-Barrie is the Stacey Nicholas Endowed Chair of Environmental and Climate Change Education and an Associate Professor at the School of Education, University of California, Irvine. She also serves as the faculty advisor for the Environmental and Climate Change Literacy Projects (ECCLPs), which aim to design and implement innovative, justice-oriented partnerships across the UC-CSU systems. Recently, Dr. Sezen-Barrie was a program director at the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Division of Research on Learning, where she co-led the Discovery Research preK-12 program. In this capacity, she contributed to initiatives in science teacher education and justice-oriented climate change education, and represented her division in interagency and cross-directorate programs, including the Wildland Fire Initiative and Critical Aspects of Sustainability. Dr. Sezen-Barrie is the Chief Editor of the forthcoming Handbook of Climate Change Research for Transdisciplinary Science Education (SpringerNature) and the lead author of Data Stories of Climate Change Impacts: Towards Justice-Oriented Education and Action (Harvard Education Press). She holds a Ph.D. in Science Education from Pennsylvania State University and a master's degree in Educational Sciences from Bogazici University in Istanbul, Turkey.

Jasmine Kar Tang (she/her/hers) works as Co-Director of the Center for Writing and the Minnesota Writing Project. Her commitments are grounded in Women of Color and Asian American feminisms, and she is currently working on an edited collection about writing center supervisory practice.

Wahinkpe Topa (Four Arrows), aka Don Jacobs, is a professor at Antioch University’s Ed.D. program. He has authored numerous publications on Indigenous worldview and its importance for rebalancing life on Earth.

Krystal Two Bulls, Co-Executive Director of Honor the Earth, is an Oglala Lakota and Northern Cheyenne organizer and the former Director of the NDN Collective’s Landback Campaign. She is a grassroots organizer with experience on the frontlines with campaign development and management around social, racial and environmental justice. Krystal’s identity as a Native American veteran is central to her organizing and storytelling. At the heart of Krystal’s work is Sovereignty, LANDBACK, cross movement relationship building and a deep commitment to her People. In healing from her experience as a veteran, Krystal has dedicated herself to embodying what she views as the essential quality of a warrior: a commitment to the well-being of not only her People and their relationship to the land, but that of all Peoples.

Steven Weinberg writes, illustrates and makes art all about color! He’s written and/or illustrated fifteen books for kids about everything from backpacking to Timbuktu, to all your favorite home appliances, to the horrors (and joys) of being a middle kid. These books have been translated into other languages; won awards and distinctions; and been called “brilliant” by Dave Pilkey, “thrillingly shameless” by the New York Times, and “guaranteed to fuel read aloud energy” by Publishers Weekly. From his home in the Catskills, NY, he paints mountains and fish that have been featured in museums, galleries, book covers, magazines, hotels, and West Kill Brewing’s beer cans too. He and his wife Casey Scieszka, also own and operate the Spruceton Inn: a Catskills Bed and Bar. Their annual Artist Residency has hosted more than one hundred artists and counting.