MUSEWRITE PARTNERS
MICHELLE DUSTER
is a writer, speaker, professor, and champion of racial and gender equity. She wrote Ida B. the Queen: The Extraordinary Life and Legacy of Ida B. Wells; co-wrote the popular children’s history book, Tate and His Historic Dream; co-edited Michelle Obama’s Impact on African American Women and Girls; and edited two books that include the writings of her great-grandmother, Ida B. Wells. She has written articles for several publications including TIME, Essence, HuffPost, Teen Vogue, Washington Post, Glamour, and The North Star. Her advocacy has led to street names, monuments, historical markers, and other public history projects that highlight women and African Americans. For more details visit her website. Follow her on Twitter and IG @MichelleDuster and Facebook @MLDwrites
TRINA SOTIRA
is an Associate Professor of English/Creative Writing. She produced television news in Chicago and Rockford, and most recently wrote novels for teens. A single mother of two teens and active educator, Trina writes on a variety of social topics and has published poetry, flash fiction, and articles on writing. Her young adult novel In Her Skin: Growing Up Trans is a 2017 Rainbow Book List Nominee and Lambda Literary "Lammy" Nominee. She served as the advisor of the college literary journal The Prairie Light Review, where her students won the American Scholastic Press Association’s First Place Magazine award four consecutive years during her tenure. Sotira is completing a doctorate, with qualitative research on marginalized community college students' perspectives of their first time in honors courses and experiences with tracking.