Alienum phaedrum torquatos nec eu, vis detraxit periculis ex, nihil expetendis in mei. Mei an pericula euripidis, hinc partem.

Board of Trustees

Read Your World / About / Board of Trustees

Federico Erebia

Federico Erebia

Federico Erebia is a retired physician, woodworker, author, poet, and illustrator. He received a BA from the College of Wooster, and an MD from Brown University. Pedro & Daniel (Levine Querido, June 2023) is his debut novel. He is on the SCBWI Impact & Legacy Fund Steering Committee. He is a member of several writing groups. He identifies as intersectional: gay, Mexican American, and neurodivergent. He lives near Boston, Massachusetts with his husband and their fur babies, in the home he redesigned and renovated.

  • Recipient of the 2024 Lambda Literary Award for Exceptional New Writer.
  • Debut novel Pedro & Daniel (Levine Querido 2023) commendations:
  • 2024 Ohioana Book Award – Finalist
  • 2024 Massachusetts Book Award – Longlist
  • 2024 Américas Book Award – Commended Title
  • 2024 Bank Street BEST OF THE YEAR
  • 2023 Kirkus BEST OF THE YEAR
  • Starred reviews from Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, and Shelf Awareness.

 

Sonia Nash Gupta

Sonja Nash Gupta

Sonia Nash Gupta is a marketing executive with a track record in growing audiences and revenue. She currently leads content and product marketing at Consumer Reports. Prior to that, Sonia held multiple roles at Penguin Random House. She led digital marketing programs to promote award-winning authors and illustrators.

Sonia received her B.A. from Northwestern University and completed the Yale University Leadership Strategies Publishing Course. A former teacher, Sonia continues to dedicate time to emerging readers.

 

Amanda Hsiung-Blodgett

Amanda Hsiung-Blodgett

Amanda Hsiung-Blodgett is the founder of Miss Panda Chinese, an online Chinese language, and cultural resource that provides engaging and playful communicative teaching materials for parents and educators. She has been teaching Chinese and ESL for over 15 years and has extensive international teaching experience with children in Canada, Ecuador, Morocco, Taiwan, and the United States.

Amanda is registered and director-qualified with Hawai’i Careers With Young Children (PATCH), and received the highest possible score on the Chinese Proficiency Test administered by the Foreign Service Institute of the U.S. Department of State. She is a member of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL), and the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC). Amanda graduated from Shih Hsin University and The University of Texas at Austin.

Her website is Miss Panda Chinese. Connect with her on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and YouTube.

 

Katy Jao

Katy Jao

Katy Jao is an educator, author, and EdTech leader. With a BS in Bilingual Education and a minor in Spanish from the University of Texas at Austin, she has dedicated her career to supporting diverse learners. She taught in a Spanish dual-immersion classroom in California before transitioning into EdTech. Katy then worked at Epic, the leading reading app for kids, where she collaborated with educators around the world to foster a love for reading for all students. Currently, she works at Pocketalk, a global leader in translation technology, promoting equity and inclusion in education, healthcare, and government sectors. Inspired by her passion for representation in children’s literature, Katy has also authored a few children’s books.

Learn more about Katy’s journey here.
Connect with Katy on LinkedIn.

 

Maritza Martinez Mejia

Maritza Martinez Mejia

Maritza Martinez Mejia is a Colombian poet, translator, speaker, theologian, and publisher. She resides in Florida. 

She is the founder of Proyecto de Escritura LuzDelMes, which creates bridges of communication and collaboration between authors around the world. She is also the cultural Promoter of “Desayuno Literario Internacional LuzDelMes” and Tri-Anthology LuzDelMes. For her service to the community, she won the Crystal Apple Award in 2006. Maritza also received the Virtues Christian Poetry Award in 2015, and the Latino Book Award for Best Translation of English to Spanish in 2016. Maritza was nominated to the Carmen Luisa Pinto in 2016 and is the recipient of “Premio Verso Dorado” for her environmental work through poetry with LuzDelMes. 

She has published ten bilingual books published: Hazel Eyes (2010), Vanilla and Chocolate (2012), Grandma’s Treasure (2014), Poems, Thoughts and more (2015), Ojos Avellana (2016), Luz del mes (2018), Luz Del Mes Tri-Anthology (2019-2020), The Purple Shell (2021) and In Him, I Rest (2022).

She graduated from Colegio Mayor de Cundinamarca in Commerce and Foreign Language, A.S. in Travel Industry Management from Broward State College, and obtained a bachelor’s degree in Humanities and Certificate in Women’s Studies from Florida Atlantic University.  She also received her master’s degree in theology and educational Ministry at Catholic Distance University.     

Maritza is transitioning to Multicultural Children’s Book Day’s Board of Trustees, is a Member of the Florida Writers’ Association, an Ambassador for Read to Me! Day, and a member of Academia Norteaméricana de Literatura Moderna Internacional, Florida.

Connect with Maritza M. Mejia: Blog: LuzDelMes, FacebookLuzDelMes, TwitterLuzDelMes, InstagramLuzDelMes, PinterestLuzDelMes, LinkedInMaritza Martinez MejiaYouTubeLuzDelMes, Website, and Amazon Author Page.

Maritza writes to inspire others to be their best selves.

 

Madison Soble

Madison Soble

Maddie is a licensed CPA in the state of Massachusetts and works at a wearable technology start up. Prior to that, Maddie worked in public accounting. As a lifelong learner, Maddie strives to inspire a love for reading in children. She received a BS from the University of Southern California and currently resides in Boston, MA.

Susan Soja

Susan Soja

Susan Soja is a leader and expert in the Kid & Family consumer product space.  Her 30+ year career began at Mattel Toys, which includes two educational online platforms, and the founding and successful exit of Kid Basix; a first-to-market, innovative line of stainless-steel drinkware and on-the-go products. She now acts as a Fractional CMO helping businesses with Marketing and Sales growth.

Susan believes that all children should have access to diverse and intellectually stimulating education, which allows them to build self-confidence and to learn and accept other’s perspectives and experiences.

Susan holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Business Economics with Honors from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and an MBA from The Anderson School at the University of California, Los Angeles.  She resides in Los Angeles with her two sons.

 

 

Jessica Tranchino

Jessica Tranchino

Jessica Tranchino is edtech leader with expertise across operations management, implementation and customer success, and product strategy. She spent 10+ years at Curriculum Associates, a leading publisher of K-12 blended learning programs, building the services organization to drive impact for 11 million students nationwide. As a biracial mother of two, Jessica seeks diversity in children’s books that reflect her core values of equity, inclusion, and belonging.

Jessica received her MBA and MA in Education from Stanford University and AB in Mathematics from Dartmouth College.

 

Mia Wenjen

Mia Wenjen is half Japanese & half Chinese American and married to a Korean American. This unusual ethnic combination made her seek out all kinds of Asian representation in children’s books for her three kids. She started a blog, PragmaticMom.com, to share her favorite books, and the nonprofit, Read Your World Celebrates Multicultural Children’s Book Day, to celebrate diverse KidLit. She is also the co-founder of Aquent, the global leader in talent and recruiting for marketing, creative, and design, which began as a dorm room start-up more than 35 years ago.

Her debut picture book, Sumo Joe (Lee and Low, 2019) was selected as a Bank Street College Best Children’s Book of the Year. She wrote Asian Pacific American Heroes for Scholastic (2020) and Changing the Game: Asian Pacific American Female Athletes as a Kickstarter pandemic project. It will also be reprinted by Scholastic beginning in June of 2023.

Food for the Future: Sustainable Farms Around the World came out May 23, 2023 through Barefoot Books. We Sing from the Heart: How the Slants®  Took Their Fight for Free Speech to the Supreme Court (Red Comet Press) and Boxer Baby (Eifrig Publishing) released in 2024. Postcards from Malcolm X: How Yuri Kochiyama Became a Civil Rights Activist (Red Comet Press) releases in 2026. Follow her @pragmaticmom on social media.

She has an AB in History and Science, cum laude, from Harvard University, an M.B.A. from UCLA’s Anderson Graduate School of Management, and an Executive Education NMSDC Advanced Management Education Program from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management.