Nisi Shawl is a writer of speculative fiction. Their story collection Filter House co-won the James Tiptree, Jr. Award, given annually to works of speculative fiction which explore and expand our understanding of gender roles.

Laila Lalami is a Moroccan-American writer and a professor of creative writing at the University of California, Riverside.

Daniel José Older writes young adult science fiction and fantasy, including the Bone Street Rumba and Shadowshaper Cypher series.

Oliver Wang is a music writer and cultural critic whose work has been published in almost every major hip-hop magazine: The Source, XXL, Vibe, Scratch and others.

Malik Washington is the director of Penn Violence Prevention at the University of Pennsylvania.

Felicia Pride writes for film and TV, and is a director and producer.

Leila Cobo is a vice president and the Latin industry lead at Billboard. She’s the organizer and host of Billboard’s annual Latin Music Conference, and was host of Estudio Billboard, a weekly interview show.