Dr. Shamika Ann Mitchell is English faculty at Rockland Community College, State University of New York (SUNY). Her interests are Hip Hop, American literature, comics, popular culture, ethnicity, identity, and subjectivity. She is the creator of #SalaamFandom, an initiative to celebrate and uplift Muslims in all aspects of fandom. Her writing has been published in various texts, including Unstable Masks: Whiteness and American Superhero Comics, Black Muslim Reads, Icons of Hip Hop, Women on Women: Indian Women Writers’ Perspectives on Women, and Encyclopedia of Black Comics. She has served as Editor and Creative Guide for Unstoppable Comics, and she is the Lead Editor for RAE Comics. She is an Advisory Board member of Women in Comics (WinC) NYC Collective International, and is Editor-in-Chief of WinC Magazine. She is an Alumni Member of the East-West Center, established by the US Congress in 1960 to promote better relations and understanding among the people and nations of the United States, Asia, and the Pacific through cooperative study, research, and dialogue. Her academic cross-cultural exchanges span Mexico, Egypt, Iraq, Brazil, and China. She represented the United States and SUNY as an invited speaker at the International Festival of Comics in Algeria (FIBDA), as a guest of the US Embassy Algiers.
Regine L. Sawyer is the Coordinator & Founder of the Women in Comics Collective International, (WinC.) It's an organization that highlights the merit and craftwork of Women and Gender Non-conforming people of color working in the comic book and multimedia industry. They host educational and professional events around the world, such as workshops, panel discussions, art shows, and a series of Comic Book Festivals in New York City. Regine is also the comic book writer and publisher at Lockett Down Productions, publishing Sci-Fi, Horror, and Action comics. In addition to that, she is a freelance comic book writer, editor, and essayist. She has written for such companies as Marvel Comics, DC Comics, Z2 Comics, A Wave Blue World, Lymari Media, Time Magazine, Comic Book Resources, the Freelancers Union, Blerd Galaxy Magazine, Black Girl Nerds, and Graphic Policy. For one of her newest projects, WinC Magazine, Regine is an editor and publisher. It is a quarterly literary and art periodical that showcases the work of writers and artists from around the world.
