Honorary Chairs
2026 Honorary Chairs
Bess Kalb, Honorary Chair
Bess Kalb is an Emmy-nominated comedy writer and the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Buffalo Fluffalo children’s book series, and the bestselling memoir Nobody Will Tell You This But Me, a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice. She wrote for eight years for Jimmy Kimmel Live!, for which she won a WGA Award, and has written for the Emmy Awards, the Academy Awards, the Democratic National Convention, and has contributed to The New Yorker and This American Life. She was head writer and executive producer of the Writers Guild Award–nominated comedy special Yearly Departed and is adapting Nobody Will Tell You This but Me into a feature film with Sight Unseen Pictures. As an advocate for free speech, she testified in front of the House Judiciary Committee against government censorship and book bans. You can read her writing on her comedy and politics newsletter, The Grudge Report.
Tony Weaver, Jr., Honorary Chair
Tony Weaver, Jr., is an award-winning writer and educator creating diverse stories that make young people feel seen and valued. After seeing the impact that media stereotypes had on students in his community, Tony embarked on a journey to create new media narratives that would challenge the status quo.
Marshall Romero, Youth Honorary Chair
Marshall Romero is a youth advocate based in Houston, Texas. Their advocacy journey has taken them from local neighborhoods to the Texas Legislature, where they spoke out against harmful policies targeting LGBTQ+ and marginalized students. They have worked at the local, city, state, and national levels to amplify youth voices and fight for equity. Now more than ever, they believe that it is critical that queer and gender-expansive people not only advocate for themselves but are given platforms to be heard. They are passionate about book banning because it is a symptom of a failing democracy amidst the erosion of student rights. As someone who sees themself within banned literature, Marshall believes it is critical we are all engaged to abolish book banning in our country.
Azeemah Sadiq, Youth Honorary Chair
Azeemah Sadiq is a policy advocate and community organizer advancing equity and social justice for marginalized communities. She currently serves as Senior Policy Associate for Students Engaged in Advancing Texas (SEAT), where she works on youth-centered policy initiatives and advocates for equitable education policies across the state. She has conducted juvenile justice research supporting incarcerated youth, collaborated with the U.S. Department of Education, and helped introduce student-focused legislation in the Texas Legislature. Azeemah is also a fierce advocate for mental health awareness and intellectual freedom. She has led initiatives challenging book bans and censorship, working to ensure students have access to literature that reflects their identities and lived experiences. Now a freshman at Stanford University, she continues to pursue her commitment to expanding opportunity and building a more just and inclusive future.
Past Honorary Chairs
George Takei, Honorary Chair 2025
George Takei is a civil rights activist, social media superstar, Grammy-nominated recording artist, New York Times bestselling author, and pioneering actor whose career has spanned six decades. He has appeared in more than 40 feature films and hundreds of television roles, most famously as Hikaru Sulu in Star Trek. He has used his success as a platform to fight for justice on a wide range of issues, particularly those facing the Japanese American and LGBTQIA+ communities. His advocacy is personal: during World War II, Takei spent his childhood unjustly imprisoned in United States incarceration camps along with 125,000 other Japanese Americans. He also spent the first 68 years of his life closeted, finally coming out as gay in 2005 to become a tireless advocate for marriage equality. His books include the autobiography To the Stars, the award-winning graphic memoir They Called Us Enemy, and the children’s picture book My Lost Freedom: A Japanese American World War II Story. In 2025, he reunited with the team behind They Called Us Enemy for a new graphic memoir reflecting on his life on both sides of the closet door, titled It Rhymes With Takei.
Iris Mogul, Youth Honorary Chair 2025
Originally from Miami, Florida, Iris Mogul is determined to resist censorship from her state’s legislators and around the country. As a high schooler, Iris started a banned books club in her community after the state passed laws to remove hundreds of books about race, history, and sexuality from schools. She continued her advocacy work as a student leader in the National Coalition Against Censorship’s Student Advocates for Speech, where she spoke and wrote about topics like book banning, political censorship in AP U.S. history curriculum, and the failing humanities education in Florida. Last Banned Books Week, she joined the Miami bookstore Books & Books for their musical Sing for Freadom event!
Now a freshman at the University of California Santa Cruz, Iris finds joy in music, reading, writing, and learning. She envisions a life of working towards collective liberation for all people through the vehicle of fighting mass incarceration and criminalization.
Ava DuVernay, Honorary Chair 2024
Academy Award nominee and winner of Emmy, BAFTA, Image, Humanitas, and Peabody Awards, Ava DuVernay’s directorial work includes the historical drama “Selma,” the criminal justice documentary “13th,” the four-part limited series “When They See Us” and Disney’s “A Wrinkle in Time,” which made her the highest-grossing Black woman director in American box office history.
Most recently, DuVernay wrote, produced, and directed “Origin,” the first feature by an African-American woman filmmaker to compete in the Venice Film Festival in its 90-year history. She is the founder of the Peabody Award winning narrative change collective, ARRAY, and sits on the Board of Governors for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in her second term.
Julia Garnett, Youth Honorary Chair 2024
Julia Garnett is a dedicated advocate for the freedom to read. She is passionate about ensuring that young people can grow up free from censorship and with access to books that embody the diversity of the world around them. In her school district, Julia helped to defend challenged books by speaking out at local school board meetings. She also successfully advocated for the opportunity to participate on her high school’s book review committee. Julia has worked with the National Coalition Against Censorship as a Student Advocates for Speech leader to educate her peers on the importance of speaking out against censorship. In October of 2023, Julia was honored for her work at the White House by the First Lady, Dr. Jill Biden. Julia has also worked with The Trevor Project to share her story as a queer advocate for diverse material as part of the organization’s Pride in Action campaign. Julia will attend Smith College in the fall and plans to major in government.
LeVar Burton, Honorary Chair 2023
LeVar Burton is an actor, director, producer, and podcaster whose decades-long work includes Roots, Star Trek: The Next Generation, and Reading Rainbow. He is the honored recipient of seven NAACP Awards, a Peabody, a Grammy, and 15 Emmys, including a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Inaugural Children’s & Family Emmys. As a lifelong literacy advocate, Burton has dedicated decades to encouraging children to read. Now in its 12th season, the enormously popular LeVar Burton Reads podcast has over 175 episodes in its catalog, boasting 25 million downloads. As a pop culture icon, Burton has the unique ability to reach all ages, ethnicities, and socioeconomic groups, communicating to a large fan base that is highly engaged and motivated to embrace his message.
Da’Taeveyon Daniels, Youth Honorary Chair 2023
Da’Taeveyon Daniels is a high school senior hailing from the vibrant state of Texas. At the forefront of student advocacy, Da’Taeveyon is a passionate champion of student rights and intellectual freedom. With two Student Advocates for Speech chapters in Texas under his leadership, he embodies unwavering dedication to his cause. Adding to his impressive repertoire, Daniels serves as the Partnership Director at Students Engaged in Advancing Texas (SEAT), where his visionary involvement has sparked movements against censorship and redefined the landscape of youth activism in Texas. Venturing beyond state borders, Daniels’s influence expanded nationally as he took on the role of Southwest Regional Director at the Youth Legislative Action Center (YLAC). He spearheads initiatives that amplify student engagement in legislative processes and pave the way for an empowered generation of informed change-makers throughout the southwestern United States.
George M. Johnson, Honorary Chair 2022
George M. Johnson (they/them/theirs) is a writer and activist based in New York. They have written on race, gender, sex, and culture for Essence, the Advocate, BuzzFeed News, Teen Vogue, and more than forty other national publications. George has appeared on BuzzFeed’s AM2DM as well as on MSNBC. All Boys Aren’t Blue is their debut, and was an Amazon Best Book of the Year, an Indie Bestseller, a People Magazine Best Book of the Year, and optioned for television by Gabrielle Union. The New York Times called it “an exuberant, unapologetic memoir infused with a deep but cleareyed love for its subjects.
Cameron Samuels, Youth Honorary Chair 2022
Cameron Samuels (they/them/theirs) recently graduated from the Katy Independent School District in Texas, where they organized the FReadom Week initiative to eventually distribute a total of 700+ challenged or banned books. Once the only student to speak at school board meetings, receiving no applause while other speakers called for book banning, Samuels built a student-led movement within months by packing school board meetings and continuously outnumbering the opposition. Decisions were made to keep certain books on shelves, and while currently a student at Brandeis University, Samuels’ efforts to combat censorship across the state of Texas and the nation are ongoing.
Jason Reynolds, Honorary Chair 2021
Jason Reynolds is the author of more than a dozen books for young people, including All American Boys (with Brendan Kiely), Ghost, Long Way Down, Look Both Ways: A Tale Told in Ten Blocks, and Stamped (with Ibram X. Kendi). A multiple National Book Award finalist, Reynolds has also received a Newbery Honor, a Printz Honor, an NAACP Image Award, and several Coretta Scott King Award honors. He is currently serving an extended term as the National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature for the Library of Congress.