Additional Guest Speakers

Vibiana Cvetkovic holds a PhD in Childhood Studies. She is a Librarian Emerita of the Rutgers University Libraries. Her books include: Fleeting Images: Portrayals of Children in Popular Culture (Lexington Books, forthcoming 2013), Stop Plagiarism: A Handbook for Librarians and Educators (Neil-Schuman Publisher, 2010), and four other works that include handbooks, tutorials, and research and […]

Ezra Devane is a Pre-Nursing Major at UNC Charlotte. He is very active on campus with student organizations such as Students Achieving First Year Excellence, Emerging Leaders, Collegiate 100, among others. Driven by his passion for music, particularly gospel, he has studied various music genres from a young age. He recently played Emmett Forrest in […]

Atticus Gannaway, senior writer in NYU School of Law’s Office of Communications, is a former editor-in-chief of The Baum Bugle and the author of six Oz books, including The Silver Sorceress of Oz (Books of Wonder, 2002). The recipient of the 2012 L. Frank Baum Memorial Award, he has written major research articles about Oz […]

Scott R. Gartlan, Ed.D. (he/him/his) is Executive Director of the Charlotte Teachers Institute.  He is a former high school teacher and counselor.  He has supported the growth and development of more than 900 PK-12th grade teachers through high-quality professional development seminars and programs.  His work focuses on effective teacher professional development, teacher efficacy, and program […]

Sierra Johnson is a Senior at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte studying Communications with a concentration in Rhetoric, Culture, and Social Change. She has been an intern in the CharlOz program for the past 3 semesters and has had a passion for The Wiz since childhood.

NYT bestselling author Virginia Kantra has written over thirty novels about strong women, messy families, and the search for a place to call home. She enjoys bringing fresh life to American classic heroines, including Meg & Jo and Beth & Amy, inspired by Little Women, and The Fairytale Life of Dorothy Gale, in which a […]

Michael Kobre, Professor of English at Queens University of Charlotte, has contributed essays and stories to numerous prestigious journals including Michigan Quarterly Review, Tin House, and TriQuarterly. He authored Walker Percy’s Voices and his work appears in collections such as Reading the Boss: Interdisciplinary Approaches to the Works of Bruce Springsteen and Superhero Bodies: Identity, Materiality, Transformation. His latest publication, Disallowed Truths: Race, Shadow Books, […]

Carlee Macaluso is a 2024 graduate of UNC Charlotte and current employee of CharlOz. She studied English with a concentration in Creative Writing and aspires to one day publish books (that may or may not be Oz-related). Carlee grew up immersed in the world of Oz, from the 1939 MGM movie playing on repeat to […]

Walter Squire is an associate professor of English and Director of the Film Studies program at Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia. He has published articles on The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and other Oz texts , Disney adaptations, American mad scientist films, cinematic depictions of teachers, and literature of the Loray Mill textile mill […]

Hiroe Suzuki is a Professor at Kanagawa University, Japan. She finished her doctoral course in 2000 and gained her Ph.D. in Literature in 2016 from Shirayuri University in Tokyo. Her interests are in the marginalized in children’s literature, especially ethnic minorities or the oppressed in societies. Her latest book, Reading African American Children’s Literature (2022), […]