Jill Bass is the Chief Education Officer at Mikva Challenge, leading a dynamic team responsible for Mikva's Action Civics curriculum, professional development, student events and partnerships across the country.  She is a contributing author for Teaching the College, Career, and Civic Life Framework, and for Teaching for Democracy in an Age of Economic Disparity.  Prior to joining Mikva Challenge, Jill worked as professional developer, curriculum writer, educational consultant, instructional coach and most importantly, teacher. She taught in Chicago and New York City public schools for 13 years, an experience that has shaped her understanding of education ever since.

Tim Bailey is currently the Director of Curriculum Development and Instructional Design at The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. He is the developer of the Hamilton Education Program that debuted at Hamilton on Broadway as well as the professional development programs, Teaching Literacy through History and Teaching Civics through History. Prior to the Institute, he was a U.S. History teacher at Northwest Middle School in Salt Lake City, Utah and in his 20+ years in the classroom, has taught at all levels from elementary to college. He earned both his bachelors and masters degrees at the University of Utah. His distinctions include Utah State Teacher of the Year 2001, National History Teacher of the Year 2009, and University of Utah Classroom Teacher of the Year 2010.

Jennifer Goss is a Program Manager for Echoes & Reflections, a joint partnership of the ADL, USC Shoah Foundation, and Yad Vashem that provides resources for educators nationwide. A 19-year veteran Social Studies teacher, she holds a Master’s degree in Holocaust and Genocide Studies from West Chester University of Pennsylvania and a Master’s degree in American History from Pace University. She serves on the board of the Virginia Holocaust Museum. In addition to her classroom teaching, Jennifer is a USHMM Teacher Fellow ‘10 and served as the inaugural Willesden Reads Project Fellow for the USC Shoah Foundation. She is the producer of the Emmy-nominated Holocaust documentary, Misa’s Fugue. Recently, Jennifer authored a chapter in the University of Wisconsin Press’ release, Teaching and Understanding the Holocaust, and served as a member of the Virginia Commission to Combat Antisemitism.

Chris Sperry has been co-directing Project Look Sharp with Cyndy Scheibe for the last 2 decades.  He oversees PLS’ lesson development (with his brother Sox and our collaborators), and PLS’ professional development work with educators across the state, nation, and world.  As a classroom teacher for over 40 years, Chris developed the methodology of Constructivist Media Decoding that is core to the PLS approach to media literacy integration.  Chris currently directs Project Look Sharp’s Librarians as Leaders for Media Literacy (ML3) initiatives. Chris taught middle and high school social studies, English, and media studies for over 40 years at the Lehman Alternative Community School in Ithaca, New York. He is the author of numerous curriculum kits related to global studies and U.S. history and he is co-author (with Cyndy) of Teaching Students to Decode the World: Media Literacy Across the Curriculum (2022, ASCD). He has also delivered hundreds of media literacy workshops, classes, and keynotes for educators in the U.S., Turkey, Iran, India, Kenya, Panama, and Bhutan. Chris is the recipient of the National Council for the Social Studies 2008 Award for Global Understanding, and the 2005 National PTA and Cable Leaders in Learning Award for Media Literacy. Chris has a B.A. in planned studies from Ithaca College (focused on media literacy) and an Ed.M. in human development from Harvard University School of Education.