Shay Stewart-Bouley, creator of the blog Black Girl in Maine, is a Chicago-born writer, speaker, and longtime Maine resident who has been exploring race, class, gender, and social justice through storytelling for over two decades. She serves as Executive Director of Community Change Inc., a Boston-based civil rights organization focused on racial equity. Her work has appeared in the Portland Press Herald, Journal Tribune, and Portland Phoenix, where her column “Diverse-City” ran for over a decade and earned a New England Press Association Award. She founded Black Girl in Maine in 2008 as a platform for candid commentary and connection.

Siobhán Brett is the opinion editor for the Portland Press Herald. Her work has featured at or in: American Public Media’s “Marketplace,” The Currency, The Sunday Business Post, Eater, Yahoo Lifestyle, The Times of London, The Irish Independent, World Politics Review, Forbes, The Belfast Telegraph, Paste Magazine, Village Magazine, and on RTÉ Radio 1.