Molly Shanahan is the founder and artistic director of Molly Shanahan/Mad Shak, a Chicago-based dance ensemble renowned for its innovative and thought-provoking performances. Her contributions as a choreographer have earned her recognition as a "singular voice in Chicago dance," according to Zac Whittenburg of TimeOut Chicago, who has been "distilling the essence of performance—the relationship between audience and artist—for years, exposing the honest beauty of the body in its natural state: fluid, organic motion" (New City Chicago). Molly also developed Spiral Body Techniques®, a methodology for exploring dance and teaching movement, which offers teacher certification to professional dancers and educators.

Born in Windsor, Canada, and raised in Detroit, Molly holds a bachelors degree in dance and English from Denison University, a masters degree in dance from The Ohio State University, a PhD in dance from Temple University.

She has taught in academia in roles ranging from guest artist to tenure track faculty across more than two decades, including at Northwestern University, and at her alma mater Denison University.

A survivor of sexual violence, Molly is committed to building awareness that leads to better support for all survivors in academia. Her experiences sparked concern about the misuses of non-disclosure agreements in higher education and their impact on survivors, the perpetuation of hush culture, and silencing of critique. Molly is inspired by scholars and advocates like Julie Macfarlane, Jennifer Freyd, and others whose advocacy, vision, and courage demonstrate that institutional change is possible.

Robert Leland has taught engineering for over 30 years. He holds a bachelors degree in Computer Science from MIT and a PhD degree in Electrical Engineering from UCLA. He has conducted research in atmospheric optics, random processes, control systems and engineering education. His research has been supported by NASA, National Science Foundation and the Federal Aviation Administration. He also collaborates with private industry, and has signed NDAs to protect trade secrets.

He became aware that organizations were using NDAs for a very different purpose, "reputation management", by hiding abuse, misconduct and bullying. Such NDAs are used to silence survivors and whistleblowers, including university employees, students, and administrators. They damage both the individual that is silenced and the institution. He is working to end this misuse of NDAs, and looks forward to a time when university campuses are free of abusive NDAs so they can be the safe and open places for teaching and learning they are meant to be.

Kate Mattingly has taught and written about issues involving equity in education for two decades. Her monograph, Shaping Dance Canons: Criticism, Aesthetics, and Equity, examines how dance criticism is bound up in systems of exclusion and disavowal that must be acknowledged. In 2023 she also published an anthology, Antiracism in Ballet Teaching, which gathers essays by educators, choreographers, and scholars to offer leaders and practitioners accessible steps to creating more equitable teaching environments, curricula, classes, and artistic settings.

Kate’s writing about dance and education has been published in the New York Times and Village Voice, as well as Dance, Dance Teacher, and Pointe Magazines. Her academic articles have been published in Dance Chronicle, Convergence, International Journal of Screendance, Dance Research Journal, and the Journal of University Teaching and Learning Practice. In 2022, Kate joined the faculty of the Department of Communication and Theatre Arts at Old Dominion University. Her undergraduate degree from Princeton University is in Architecture: History and Theory and her Master of Fine Arts degree is in Dance and from New York University. She received her doctorate in Performance Studies with a designated emphasis in New Media Studies from the University of California, Berkeley in 2017.