George M. Johnson
George M Johnson is an Award-Winning Black Non-Binary Writer, Author, and Executive Producer located in the LA area. They are the author of the New York Times Bestselling Author of the Young Adult memoir All Boys Aren’t Blue discussing their adolescence growing up as a young Black Queer boy in New Jersey through a series of powerful essays. The book was optioned for Television by Gabrielle Union.
As a former journalist, George has written for major outlets including Teen Vogue, Entertainment Tonight, NBC, and Buzzfeed. In 2019 was awarded the Salute to Excellence Award by the National Association of Black Journalists for their article “When Racism Anchors your Health” in Vice Magazine.
George was listed on The Root 100 Most Influential African Americans in 2020. The Out 100 Most Influential LGBTQ People in 2021. And in 2022 was honored as one of the TIME100 Next Most Influential People in the World.
Their second memoir WE ARE NOT BROKEN was released in September of 2021. It received the Carter G. Woodson Award which recognizes books that “accurately and sensitively depict the experience of one or more historically marginalized racial/ethnic groups in the United States”. The book also received the Nonfiction Honor Book in the YA category from the International Literacy Association.
In 2021 they wrote and Executive Produced the Dramatic Reading of All Boys Aren’t Blue starring Jenifer Lewis and Dyllon Burnside which received a 2022 Special Recognition Award from GLAAD.
George is also a proud HBCU alum twice over, and a member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Incorporated.
Jonathan Friedman
Jonathan Friedman, Ph.D., is the Sy Syms managing director of U.S. free expression and education programs at PEN America. He oversees research, advocacy, and education related to academic freedom, educational gag orders, book bans, and general free expression in schools, colleges, and universities.
An interdisciplinary scholar by training, Friedman has served as lead author on PEN America’s reports, Banned in the USA: The Growing Movement to Censor Books in Schools (2022), Banned in the USA: Rising School Book Bans Threaten Free Expression and Students’ First Amendment Rights (2022), Educational Gag Orders: Legislative Restrictions on the Freedom to Read, Learn, and Teach (2021), and Chasm in the Classroom: Campus Free Speech in a Divided America (2020). He also steered the production of PEN America’s Campus Free Speech Guide (2020). He regularly provides commentary for news media about educational censorship, and has published op-eds for CNN, The Washington Post, The Hill, The Daily Beast, New York Daily News, and Inside Higher Ed.
In this role, Friedman also drives forward PEN America’s efforts to catalyze a more informed, civic culture among the rising generation, on college campuses, and among the general public. He oversees PEN America’s Free Expression Advocacy Institutes for youth, as well as its centenary event series, Flashpoints: Free Speech in American History, Culture & Society. He has facilitated workshops and conducted advisory meetings with senior leaders, faculty, and administrators at dozens of colleges and universities across the country, and for numerous higher education organizations and professional academic associations.
Tina Marie Doody
Tina Marie Doody is the Director of the Glen Ridge Public Library. She joined the Library in March of 2022 and during her time as Director Ms. Doody has coordinated with the Library’s staff and Board of Trustees on a variety of projects and events, overseen the installation of 24/7 Pickup Lockers, worked with the Friends of the Library on a variety of successful fundraising events, managed a construction project funded by the Library Construction Bond Act, and defended a number of book challenges.
Ms. Doody has a Master of Library Science from Rutgers University and a Bachelor of Arts with a double major of political science and communications, also from Rutgers University. She has been working as a professional librarian for more than 20 years and was previously the Assistant Director of the Plainfield Public Library.
Zaneta Rago-Craft, Ed.D.
Dr Rago-Craft is the inaugural director of the Intercultural Center and began her tenure at Monmouth in the summer of 2019. Previously, Rago-Craft served as the director for the Center for Social Justice Education and LGBT Communities at Rutgers University–New Brunswick. Originally from Long Branch, New Jersey, RagoCraft graduated in 2010 from the Ramapo College of New Jersey with a bachelor’s degree in history and women and gender studies and a master’s degree from New York University in higher education and student affairs administration in 2012. She also holds an Ed.D. in education, culture, and society from Rutgers University.
Rago-Craft has worked in intercultural campus support for the last 10 years, including previous roles with the New York University LGBTQ Student Center, the Center for Multicultural Education and Programs at NYU, and Ramapo College’s Educational Opportunity Fund program and Women’s Center. She has a passion for infusing social justice education into her student affairs work with a particular interest in facilitating conversations around the intersectionality of multiple identities and oppression, art as activism, feminism, anti-racism, mentoring, LGBTQIA+ representations in the media, and multiracial experiences in a “check one box” world.
Damarcus Adisa
Damarcus Adisa is native of Tinton Falls, NJ. He is PEN America’s Video Editor/Producer and the Managing Partner at Specht Interactive, a digital content creation, graphic design and digital marketing firm. Damarcus has crafted compelling visual content for a number of brands, nonprofits and institutions. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in History from Fort Valley State University and Bachelor of Science in Digital Audiences from Arizona State University.
In addition to being a content producer, Damarcus is the Co-Founder of The House on Steven Avenue Fund Inc. (“The HOSA Fund”), a 501(c)(3) organization committed to the advancement of underserved communities through initiatives geared toward youth enrichment, young adult job readiness, and economic support of families in need in Monmouth County, NJ. The HOSA Fund has served over 2000 children in need since its inception in 2019. Damarcus is also a member of the Alpha Gamma Lambda Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Incorporated, dedicated to serving the Harlem community in New York City.
Jennifer Chauhan
Jennifer Chauhan is a writer, educator, and co-founder/executive director of Project Write Now, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit transforming individuals, organizations, and communities through writing. For more than 30 years, she has worked as a professional writer and educator—as an educational journalist, as a writing instructor for foster youth in New York City, and as a public high school English/Creative Writing teacher.
