Kim A. Snyder is an Academy Award nominee & Peabody Award-winning Director/Producer. Her latest feature documentary, THE LIBRARIANS, premiered at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival, and has been nominated for a 2026 Primetime Emmy®. THE LIBRARIANS has won 30 festival awards, was released theatrically in over 200 cities internationally, and broadcast on PBS/Independent Lens. 
Her most recent short documentary, DEATH BY NUMBERS, was nominated for a 2025 Academy Award®. Snyder’s other acclaimed films include Us Kids (Sundance 2020), LESSONS FROM A SCHOOL SHOOTING (Best Short Doc Tribeca 2018, Netflix Original), NEWTOWN (Sundance 2016, Peabody Award, PBS/Independent Lens). She associate produced the Academy Award®-winning short TREVOR, which inspired The Trevor Project, a leading national nonprofit focused on LGBTQ+ youth suicide prevention. 

John F. Szabo is the City Librarian of the Los Angeles Public Library, which serves more than four million people—the largest population of any public library in the United States. He oversees the Central Library and 72 branches. Under his leadership, the Library’s major initiatives include those related to immigrant integration and citizenship, civic engagement, digital equity, and lifelong learning. He has expanded the library’s reach into the city’s diverse communities through partnerships with several community-based organizations. He has more than 30 years of leadership experience in public libraries, previously serving as the director of four libraries including the Atlanta-Fulton Public Library System. Recognizing his “genuine love of community” and how he has aligned library services with the city’s priorities, John was named Library Journal’s 2025 Librarian of the Year. 

Taylor Dwyer is Curator of Feuchtwanger Memorial Library at the University of Southern California, where she manages the rare book and archival collection of Lion and Marta Feuchtwanger, German exile collections, and Holocaust and genocide materials. She provides a range of library services including reference, instruction, exhibitions, and academic programming. She completed her undergraduate degree in History at Chapman University, and her Master of Library and Information Science at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Nikki High is the founder and owner of Octavia’s Bookshelf in Pasadena, California. As an early reader, Nikki has always found safety in books, and her passion for books and storytelling continued to grow throughout her life. It is with this passion in mind and Nikki’s desire to create a literary and creative space she longed for as a child, Nikki opened the doors to Octavia’s Bookshelf on February 18, 2023. Octavia’s Bookshelf offers a highly curated selection of books across all genres written by BIPOC authors. When Nikki isn’t at the bookstore, you can find her somewhere reading (anywhere, really), working on a craft project, or hanging out with her husband and dogs, Freddie and Dayveon.