LT  is a trailblazer in first-generation higher education. As a first-gen graduate herself, she has designed groundbreaking programs at UCLA and Loyola Marymount University to support first-gen students. A founder of the Black First Gen Collective and My Tribe Media, LT advocates for non-traditional learners and elevates first-gen narratives through scholarly work and digital communities. An avid fan of NBA basketball, college football, and pop culture, she holds a Ph.D. in American literature from UCLA and explores the intersections of first-gen identity and cultural representation in her writing.  Currently, she is the Executive Director of the ADEii Health Foundation and a faculty member in the Santa Clara University Department of Educational Leadership.

Favorite TV show: Friday Night Lights 
Favorite superhero: The Flash

Samantha Pinto is Professor of English and affiliated faculty of African & African Diaspora Studies and the Center for Women's & Gender Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. Her work has been published in journals including Meridians, Signs, Palimpsest, Small Axe, Public Culture, Early American Literature, and MELUS, and she has received fellowships from the NEH and the NHC. Her third single-authored book, Inside the Body of Black Feminism (Duke UP, 2026), centers on race, embodiment, and scientific discourse in the African Diaspora. She is currently working on several book-length projects on health & leisure culture, feminist ambivalence, and divorce, and she has launched an interdisciplinary research team on mobile reproductive health with undergraduate and graduate students across campus.