Aiko (she/her) is a mother of a CPS student and a strong advocate for equitable public education. She serves as a board member of Raise Your Hand for Illinois Public Education, the nonprofit that engages, informs, and empowers parents to protect and strengthen public education for all children in Chicago and Illinois, eliminate inequities in public schools, and work at the grassroots for the public good that is public education. Aiko is a lecturer at School of the Art Institute of Chicago where she teaches cultural and political sociology courses. She teaches "Nuclear Problems and Society" course for first-year college students.

Yuki (she/her) is a Professor of ethics in the Department of Religious Studies at DePaul University where she teaches nuclear ethics and environmental ethics. She has published monographs, Beyond the Mushroom Cloud (2011), Naze genbaku ga aku dewa nainoka (The Narrative Divergence in the Nuclear Discourse) (2020), and A World Otherwise: Environmental Praxis in Minamata (2021), in addition to several articles, focusing on gender in nuclear discourse (ex. “In the Light of Hiroshima” and “Gendered Bodies in Tokusatsu”). Her current work is to examine the construction of postwar nuclear discourse in Japan and discrimination against the atomic bomb sufferers in Japan. She has taken DePaul students to Hiroshima and Nagasaki since 2005 on the biannual study abroad program.

Laura (they/them/she/her) was a Science teacher at National Teachers Academy in Chicago Public Schools. They are passionate about developing more liberatory, interdisciplinary, and culturally sustaining learning experiences with young scientists that work to dismantle white supremacist understandings of knowledge building. Laura believes in fluidity of expertise between teacher and student, centering interconnectedness and care in the classroom, fostering curiosity and critical consciousness with learners, and guiding students as they critique systems of injustice while building the world they want to live in. Laura regularly integrates engineering and the arts into the science curriculum, invites scientists and youth activist voices into the space to help students develop their STEM practitioner identities, and weaves participatory action research processes into units of study. Laura also enjoys gardening with young people and collecting fossil rocks at the lake.

Sarah Rosengard is an oceanographer and Assistant Professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC). At SAIC, Sarah teaches environmental chemistry to undergraduate art and design students, curates climate change curricula that combine science and studio art, and researches the local geochemistry of the Chicago River. Originally from Queens NY, she has had the privilege to learn and grow from researchers and community leaders spanning New England to Vancouver, and the Amazon River Basin to the Canadian Arctic. After completing her PhD at MIT-Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, where she studied the carbon cycle in the Southern Ocean and the Amazon River Basin, she accepted a postdoctoral position at the University of British Columbia to pursue deeper interests in community engagement through research. While exploring the links between satellite imagery and Pacific salmon resources, she connected with the Arctic Eider Society, an Inuit-charity based in Sanikiluaq, Nunavut. She continues to work with their northern partners who designed the Indigenous knowledge social network, SIKU (pronounced “see-koo”). Since 2021, Sarah has been a Professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where she is thrilled to delve into the joint roles of science and art in earth science education and research.oes here

Ambria Taylor (she/her) is a science teacher at Minnie Miñoso Academy in Chicago Public Schools. Ambria is a dynamic educator in her sixth year of teaching, currently specializing in science after previously instructing middle school social studies. With an undergraduate degree in the humanities and a master’s degree in teaching, Ambria brings a diverse background to the classroom. Her experiences range from running for political office and caring for seniors to interning for an educational program at a men’s penitentiary in Ohio. Passionate about making education relevant, Ambria engages students with serious, real-world ideas and issues, aiming to empower them as leaders who positively impact their communities and ask questions about the status quo. 

Jessica (she/her) was a 6th grade Social Science teacher at National Teachers Academy in Chicago Public Schools. She served on her school’s instructional leadership team and as the Social Science content lead and instructional coach. She also served on the Illinois State Board’s State Educator and Licensure Board. She was a 2021 Chicago Teacher’s Union Policy Fellow and sit on CTU’s legislative committee. A CPS graduate from Hyde Park, Chicago, Jessica majored in Africana Studies in college, focusing on prison reform and race and gender in America's mass incarceration system. She is committed to coupling racial justice with education policy change, and deeply believes in liberatory teaching and learning as part of lifelong activism.