Dr. Sharon Azaria

Dr. Sharon Azaria of Givat Washington College of Education in Israel is responsible for pioneering a unique program in partnership with Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland, to integrate Holocaust studies into the Polish education system.

The first-of-its-kind program, taught simultaneously to Polish and Israeli education students, aims to delve into the history of the Polish Jewish community during the Holocaust, while concurrently initiating collaborations with Israeli and Polish educators and a future generation of school children.

Dr. Cheryl Craig

Dr. Cheryl J. Craig is a Professor and the Houston Endowment Endowed Chair in Urban Education in the Department of Teaching, Learning and Culture in the College of Education and Human Development, Texas A&M University. Previously, she was a Professor, Coordinator of the Teaching and Teacher Education program area, and the Director of Elementary Education at the University of Houston.

Dr. Craig’s research centers on the influence of various school reform agendas on teachers’ knowledge developments and communities of knowing and the unintended consequences that school reform initiatives and educational policies may have on student learning.

Dr. Gideon Greif

Dr. Gideon Greif is an Israeli historian who specializes in the history of the Holocaust, especially the history of the Auschwitz concentration camp and particularly the Sonderkommando in Auschwitz.

Dr. Greif served as a visiting lecturer for Jewish and Israeli History at the Schusterman Center for Jewish Studies at the University of Texas at Austin during the academic year 2011-2012.

Dr. Susanna Kokkonen

Dr. Susanna Kokkonen is an author and speaker, traveling around the world speaking to Christian, Jewish and civic audiences about the Holocaust, Genocide, anti-Semitism and Israel today. She has lectured in the parliaments of Canada, Finland and Sweden as well as at the European Parliament.

Until recently, Dr. Kokkonen was the Director of the Christian Friends of Yad Vashem, World Holocaust Remembrance Center in Jerusalem, Israel. In that capacity, she escorted Christian dignitaries, addressed Christian groups, launched and organized over 10 Christian Leadership Seminars hosting participants from over 50 countries.

David Lawhon

David Lawhon is professor emeritus of American history and Holocaust studies for Texas A&M University at Galveston, where he was the university’s Honors program director. The Holocaust has always been a part of his family’s history, wherein, at the age of 18, his father was a liberator in World War II with the American 49th Rainbow Division who liberated Dachau concentration camp near Munich, Germany, and Mauthausen near Linz, Austria. He has been a member of Holocaust Museum Houston for five years and is Education Director for Holocaust Garden of Remembrance at King’s Harbor.

Avi Lipkin

Avi Lipkin studied for an MA at Israel’s Conservative Jewish Seminary, is a spokesman for the Israel Defense Force (reserves) and is a former Sr. Editor and translator for the Israeli Government press office under Prime Minister Shamir.

He grew up in the liberal, northeastern part of the US. His experiences there, along with the horrific events of the Holocaust, led him to believe that all gentiles hated the Jews. Wanting to escape this hatred and feeling that the future of the Jewish people lies in Israel, Avi decided to move to Israel (make “aliyah”).

Avi Lipkin has written several book including: Is Fanatic Islam a Global Threat?,Christian Revival for Israel’s Survival, Islamic Threat Updates Almanac #1, Israel’s Bible Bloc, and Islam Prophesied In Genesis.

Maryann Gremillion

Maryann Gremillion is a writer and educator working with elementary schools, teachers, and nonprofits to build transformative communities. She taught elementary school for fifteen years in Houston where she discovered a passion for creative writing and integrating fine arts in the content areas.

Maryann also worked for twelve years as a writer-in-residence and then program director for Writers in the Schools (WITS) in Houston. Her work has been published in The Ekphrastic Review, Glass Mountain, Teachers and Writers magazine, and several local anthologies. She recently completed a book chapter with a colleague called Innovation and Integrity: Working

Through Disruption to Support Teachers in Their Roles as Literacy Educators. The book is Developing Knowledge Communities Through Partnerships For Literacy by Emerald Publishing.

Maryann has a passion for educating children about the Holocaust and investing her talent in developing unique mini-lessons and curricular materials for the Holocaust Garden of Hope and HRA18.

Elizabeth Moreno

Elizabeth Moreno retired from teaching junior high in Bay City for 20 years. Her father was a soldier in WWII and a concentration camp liberator. She is also an author, having co-authored Helen Colin’s autobiography My Dream of Freedom: From Holocaust to my Beloved America and authored Sancho, the Silly Billy Goat and other children’s books.

Dr. Zsuzsanna Ozsváth

Dr. Zsuzsanna Ozsváth is a Hungarian-Jewish Holocaust survivor who founded the Holocaust Studies Program at The University of Texas at Dallas. A professor of literature and history and the Leah and Paul Lewis Chair of Holocaust Studies,

Dr. Ozsváth retired on September 1, 2020 after 37 years of teaching, research and writing. She has published a number of articles, dealing with aesthetic and ethical issues in French, German, and Hungarian literature as well as with the relationship between art and totalitarian ideology. Since the eighties, she has undertaken several translation projects and worked on various branches of Holocaust Studies.

Dr. Hily Rosenblum

Dr. Hily Rosenblum is the Head of Art and Movement Therapy Program, The Academic College at Wingate, Netanya, Israel. Dr. Rosenblum focuses on the impact of embedding emotion within professional development of educators, and how that contributes to teaching in the classroom.

Dr. Thilo M. Schimmel

Thilo M. Schimmel, Ph.D., history professor, joined LSC-Kingwood in 2011. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in History from Universität Regensburg in Germany and a Master of Arts degree in American Studies from Purdue University. He earned a Ph.D. in History from the University of Illinois.