Kelly Sue DeConnick’s work spans stage, comics, film and television. She first came to prominence as a comics writer, where she is best known for reinventing the Carol Danvers as “Captain Marvel” at Marvel and for the Black Label standard-setting Wonder Woman Historia: The Amazons at DC. Her indie comics B**** Planet and Pretty Deadly (both from Image Comics) have ranked as NYTimes best-sellers and been honored with Eisners, British Fantasy Awards and Hugo nominations.

Ms. DeConnick’s screen work includes stints on Captain Marvel and 2023’s forthcoming The Marvels with Marvel Studios. In addition to having consulted on features for Skydance and ARRAY, she has developed television for NBCUniversal, Legendary Entertainment and HBOMax. Her most recent stage work, AWAKENING, opened at the Wynn Resort Las Vegas in November 2022.

Mission-driven, Ms. DeConnick is also a founding partner at Good Trouble Productions, where she has helped to produce non-fiction and educational comics including the “Hidden Voices” and “Recognized” series for NY Public Schools and Congressman John Lewis’ Run, in partnership with Abrams Comics.

In 2015, Ms. DeConnick founded the VisibleWomen Project, whose mission is to help women and other marginalized genders find paid work in comics and its related industries. The project continues to this day and recently expanded in partnership with Dani Hedlund of Brink Literacy.

Ms. DeConnick lives in Portland, OR with her husband, writer Matt Fraction, and their two children.

ANDREW AYDIN is creator and co-author of the #1 New York Times best-selling graphic memoir series, MARCH, which chronicles the life of Congressman and civil rights icon John Lewis, as well as the sequel, RUN. Co-authored with Rep. Lewis and illustrated by Nate Powell, MARCH is the first comics work to ever win the National Book Award, and is a recipient of the Coretta Scott King Book Award, the Printz Award, the Sibert Medal, the YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction, the Will Eisner Comics Industry Award, the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award Special Recognition, and the Walter Award, among others.

Aydin is Artist-in-Residence at the Creative Media Industries Institute (CMII) at Georgia State University in Atlanta. Aydin formerly served as Digital Director & Policy Advisor to Rep. Lewis in Washington, D.C. A graduate of Trinity College in Hartford and Georgetown University in Washington, Andrew wrote his master’s thesis on the history and impact of Martin Luther King & The Montgomery Story. Andrew often participates in reading programs with incarcerated youth, speaks at schools and universities, and has appeared as a guest on the Rachel Maddow Show, Morning Joe, CBS This Morning, NPR, CNN, the BBC and many other outlets.