CAROLINA FUNG FENG, a translator and copy editor specializing in Spanish translations, has worked on a number of 2Leaf Press’ titles, and is the co-translator of Hey Yo! Yo Soy! 40 Years of Nuyorican Street Poetry (2012). She has worked in adult education programs as an ESOL teacher, coordinator and administrator, and as a census communications and digital campaigner for a nonprofit organization in New York. Fung Feng holds a BA in Spanish-English translation and interpretation, and English Language Arts from Hunter College (CUNY).

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LYAH BETH LEFLORE is a television and film executive producer, and music supervisor. She has worked at Nickelodeon, Uptown Records/ Entertainment, Wolf Films/Universal, Alan Haymon Development, and is currently a producing partner with Anthony Hemingway, where she has brokered lucrative deals on various high-profiled television and film projects. LeFlore is also the author of eight critically-acclaimed books, two of which are National Bestsellers.She is the co-founder and executive director of the literary arts-based nonprofit, The Shirley Bradley LeFlore Foundation/Creative Arts and Expression Laboratory, which honors her late mother, St. Louis Poet Laureate Emeritus, and 2Leaf Press author, Shirley Bradley Price LeFlore.

CHANDRA D. L. WARING is an Assistant Professor at the University of Massachusetts-Lowell. Her research focuses on the growing black/white biracial population. Her work has been published in Race, Gender & Class, Sociological Imagination, Feminist Teacher, Social Identities, Du Bois Review: Social Science Research on Race and Sociological Perspectives. She teaches principles of sociology, introduction to bi/multiracial studies, social problems, minority and multiracial families and race, ethnicity and film. Her goal as a professor is to facilitate respectful, meaningful and transformative conversations about racism. Waring earned her PhD in sociology from the University of Connecticut in 2013, where she was a Multicultural Fellow.

ALEXIS AUGUST served as the assistant to the publisher of 2Leaf Press, editor and researcher for TRAILBLAZERS Volume 1.  A woman who wears many hats, August recently graduated summa cum laude with two degrees from the University of Southern California with a BA in creative writing and a MA in literary editing and publishing. During her college career, August has tutored elementary, middle school and high school students through organizations such as the 826LA and the Lighter Bringer Project, was an editor for USC Dornsife Online Academic Journal, Scribe and True Culture University, and production manager for RIZE. August is the recipient of several awards, including the Jimmy Guantt Memorial Award and USC Downing Scholarship. She currently serves as an editorial assistant at Workman Publishing in New York City.

KATHRYN SIDDELL is an editor for 2Leaf Press. She graduated from Ramapo College of New Jersey, magna cum laude, with a B.A. in Media and Cinema Studies and a minor in Women’s Studies. In the past, Siddell has worked as an Editorial Intern at Welcome Books. She currently copy edits ethics and compliance courseware for Fortune 500 companies.

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NICOLE CATARINO served as an editor for TRAILBLAZERS Volume 1. At the time a rising senior at the University of Connecticut (UConn), she was pursuing a BA in English with a concentration in Creative Writing, as well as a minor in Literary Translation. Her writing has appeared in The Hartford Courant and she was both a contributor and editor for the recently published flash nonfiction anthology Fast Funny Women. Currently, she is the Interviews Editor for the Long River Review literary journal. Catarino intends to pursue a master’s degree in English after graduation.

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EILEEN SHOLOMICKY served as an editor of TRAILBLAZERS Volume 1. At the time, she was a senior undergraduate at the University of Connecticut (UConn), double-majoring in English with a concentration in Creative Writing and Classics & Ancient Mediterranean Studies with a concentration in Classics. She is currently a writer for UConn’s Nutmeg yearbook and magazine, and was a fiction panelist for the 2021 edition of the Long River Review, UConn’s annual literary journal. She intends to pursue a career in the publishing industry.

VYNETTA A. MORROW is a principal consultant and strategist with Sankofa Insights, which provides historical research services, K-12 curriculum design, and strategic planning and mentoring for emerging artists. Morrow is a fellow of the Regional Arts Commission, Community Arts Training Institute 2013, Urban Bush Women Summer Leadership Institute 2014, and the Intercultural Leadership Institute 2018-2019. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in History from the University of Missouri-St. Louis, completed her teacher education certification at Harris-Stowe State University, and graduate coursework in secondary education and library science at the University of Missouri and North Carolina Central University.

PHYLLIS HUANG is a 2Leaf Press editor.. After receiving her master’s from Yale University in 2015, she worked as a publisher’s assistant at Dalkey Archive Press. The experience triggered her interest in the book publishing industry and to focus on her writing. She writes for The Brooklyn Reader, a hyperlocal online daily news magazine, and is a freelance B2C copywriter., specializing in email marketing. She resides in Brooklyn.

BEN LAFFERTY is a copy-editor for 2Leaf Press. He graduated with a BA in Modern History from the University of Oxford, and with an MA and PhD from the University of London. He has been the recipient of multiple awards for writing and scholarship, including the Fulbright Early Career Award, the Guardian Student Critic of the Year, the Kenneth Tynan Prize, the Wylie Prize and the Howell Daniels award. He has taught history and American Studies at colleges in the United Kingdom, and is presently a freelance writer working on experiential learning simulations. Lafferty’s book, American Intelligence (2020), is an examination of news culture in the early years of the American republic. He currently resides in New York City.

ELKA SAMUELS SMITH established Divine Rhythm Productions, a company created under the inspiration of brother and Emmy Award-winning choreographer Jason Samuels Smith, in 2002. While Divine Rhythms Productions continues to offer business management and production services to professional tap dancers, choreographers and performers worldwide, it has expanded its services in recent years to provide publicity and bookings for a wide variety of artists and arts organizations. An accomplished and professionally trained dancer in her own right, Smith is also a dance teacher, producer, director, writer, and consultant. Divine Rhytthm Productions exclusively represents Gabrielle David, 2Leaf Press and some of its authors, and is responsible for producing and managing TRAILBLAZER events.

NAOMI R WILLIAMS reviewed the activist section of TRAILBLAZERS Volume 1. She is an Assistant Professor of Labor Studies and Employment Relations (LSER) at Rutgers University, New Brunswick. Her primary research interests include labor and working-class history, urban history and politics, gender and women, race and politics, and more broadly, social and economic movements of working people. Williams' primary focus is on late-capitalism at the end of the twentieth-century and workers’ role in shaping U.S. political economy. Williams received her PhD from the History Department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

VETA GOLER reviewed the Dance section of TRAILBLAZERS Volume 1. She was the Division Chair for Arts and Humanities and Associate Professor of Dance at Spelman College, Emeritus. She began her career as a modern dance artist, and have performed, choreographed and taught dance nationally and internationally. As a dance historian, her research is focused on contemporary African American modern dance artists, particularly women choreographers, and in recent years has expanded to include the intersection of dance and spirituality in popular culture and the explorations of spirituality and contemplative practices in education and the workplace. Goler has presented her research at national and international conferences and has published in a number of journals and anthologies. She holds the MFA in dance and a Ph.D. in African-American studies.

LESLIE HEAPHY reviewed the Sports section of TRAILBLAZERS Volume 1. She is an Associate Professor of History at Kent State University at Stark where she teaches all the history survey classes as well as courses in Asian history, twentieth-century US history, and sports history. She was elected to the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) Board of Directors in 2010, and has served as chair of the Women in Baseball Committee since 1995. In 2008, Heaphy became the founding editor of the journal Black Ball, and she has published in numerous publications, and is the author of several books, including Satchel Paige and Company: Essays on the Kansas City Monarchs, Their Greatest Star and the Negro Leagues (2007), Black Baseball and Chicago: Essays on the Players, Teams and Games of the Negro Leagues Most Important City (2006), The Negro Leagues, 1869-1960 (2002), and The Encyclopedia of Women and Baseball (2006). She is the recipient of the 2014 Bob Davids Award, SABR’s highest honor. Heaphy received her PhD at University of Toledo.