Julia Figliotti is a poet, singer-songwriter, and published author with a Master of Science in Creativity (yes, really) who lives in Western New York with her husband, cats, and reptiles. When she's not hunched over a notebook or making up melodies, Julia keeps the pets fed by soil toiling in other people's gardens, reading trivia for high school quiz bowl competitions, and performing in a kick-ass Fleetwood Mac tribute band. Her dream is to capture the attention of a wealthy patron who will fund her passion for creating poetry and music that reaches into the human experience and pulls out the guts for everyone to see.

With close to fifty picture books published, Barney Saltzberg has been traveling the world talking about creativity and where ideas come from. He lectured in China and Russia through a cultural exchange program through the United States State Department.

Barney is passionate about working with children, parents, teachers, organizations on the art of making mistakes and finding play and creativity in our everyday lives.

His books have won numerous awards, including NAPPA Gold Awards, Publishers Weekly and Kirkus Starred Reviews. Most recently Melinda Gates chose Beautiful Oops as one of the top three books every child should read.

www.barneysaltzberg.com

Dr. Cyndi Burnett is a creativity and education specialist who is devoted to developing creative and engaging lessons in education. She spent twenty years as an academic, teaching deliberate creative thinking and creative problem-solving at the Center for Creativity and Change Leadership at SUNY Buffalo State. She is currently developing a CreativityandEducation.com platform to help educators navigate how to bring creativity into their classrooms.

Dr. Burnett has a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Theater, a Master of Science degree in Creativity, and a Doctorate of Education in Curriculum, Teaching, and Learning, all of which she uses to help “ignite creativity in education around the world.” Her academic interests include: the use of creative teaching and learning models and techniques, creative thinking in higher education, and current trends in creativity.

Her work includes projects such as: working with educators to bring creative thinking into the classroom, connecting communities of creative thinkers via social media, and designing and running a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) on Everyday Creativity. She is the recipient of the President's Medal for Excellence in Teaching 2018 by SUNY Buffalo State; was Buffalo Business First, Woman of Influence 2018 for her work in creativity; and was featured in an article in The New York Times titled, “Creativity Becomes an Academic Discipline.” She is the co-editor of the Big Questions in Creativity book series and co-author of the books Weaving Creativity into Every Strand of Your Curriculum, 20 Lessons for Weaving Creativity into Your Curriculum, and My Sandwich Is a Spaceship: Creative Thinking for Parents and Young Children.