Titi Shodiya is an engineer, content creator and scientific auditor. She co-hosts the podcast Dope Labs and is the deputy quality manager at the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

Jules Gill-Peterson is an associate professor at Johns Hopkins University, where she teaches transgender history, culture and politics. She is a historian who writes about the history of sexuality, focusing on racial histories of sex, gender, and trans existence in both institutional and conversational science and medicine.

Dr. Nora Volkow is an expert in drug abuse and addiction. She is the director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse at the National Institutes of Health.

Cecily Hardaway is a professor of African American studies at the University of Maryland, College Park. Hardaway’s research centers on understanding how socioeconomic status influences child development and family processes.

Ellen Oh is an author and the co-founder of the organization We Need Diverse Books. She writes fiction for middle-grade and young adult audiences, including the Prophecy fantasy series.

Karsonya (Kaye) Wise Whitehead is an associate professor of communication and African and African American studies at Loyola University Maryland.

Jason Johnson is an associate professor in the School of Global Journalism and Communication at Morgan State University. He is also politics editor at The Root and a contributor to MSNBC.

Claudia Galindo is an associate professor of education policy at the University of Maryland, College Park’s College of Education.