Julia E. Torres is a veteran language arts teacher and librarian in Denver Public schools. As a teacher/activist committed to education as a practice of freedom, her practice is grounded in the work of empowering students to use language arts to fuel resistance and positive social transformation. Julia was awarded the 2020 National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) Teacher of Excellence award and currently serves teachers as part of the Assembly on Literature for Adolescents of NCTE board of directors. Julia facilitates workshops and professional conversations about anti-bias/anti-racist education, social justice, and culturally sustaining pedagogies in language arts, as well as digital literacy and librarianship. Her work has been featured in several publications, including NCTE's Council Chronicle, NPR, Al Jazeera's The Stream, PBS Education, KQED's MindShift, New York Times Learning Network, the Chicago Tribune, Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development's Education Update, Rethinking Schools, School Library Journal, and many more.