Lindsay Schlegel, née Winget, has been with Simon & Schuster since March 2009.  She assists Namrata Tripathi on her Atheneum Books for Young Readers list, and Emma D. Dryden on her Margaret K. McElderry Books list.  Before landing her dream job in the world of children’s editorial, Lindsay was an English and German major at Boston College and a bookseller at Borders.  She interned in publicity and marketing at Candlewick Press and Abrams Books for Young Readers/Amulet Books before working as an assistant at the Charlotte Sheedy Literary Agency.  Having seen many sides of the industry, Lindsay feels most at home in editorial, where she seeks strong picture books, middle-grade, and YA with genuine voices and characters that resonate.  She will accept one submission from each conference attendee up to six months after the conference.

Rebecca L. Johnson is an award-winning author of more than 75 books for children, young adults, and adults on diverse scientific subjects ranging from climate change and polar exploration to carnivorous plants and new organisms discovered during the Census of Marine Life, a ten-year global survey of ocean life. To gather firsthand information for many of her books, she has worked with scientists in far-flung parts of the world, including those studying volcanic dust trapped in Antarctic glaciers, mangrove ecosystems in northern Queensland, and one of the world’s rarest birds, the kakapo, in New Zealand. Several of her books have received national awards from Scientific American, the National Science Teachers Association, the Society of School Librarians International, and the Children’s Book Council. She lives in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

Chris Browne is the cartoonist of the syndicated comic strip Hagar The Horrible.  He is the son of cartoonist Dik Browne, who created Hagar.  Hagar appears in 1,800 newspapers world wide and is syndicated by King Features Syndicate. Chris grew up in Connecticut and lived for 28 years in Sarasota, Florida, where he met his wife, Carroll.  Three years ago they moved to Sioux Falls with Carroll's mother, Luvy and three small dogs. In addition to Hagar, Chris created a second comic strip, Raising Duncan, inspired by his Scottish Terrier. Chris co-authored Hagar The Horrible’s Very Nearly Complete Viking Handbook and wrote the introduction to Hagar: The Epic Chronicles. He has contributed cartoons to The National Lampoon, Playboy,  Esquire, Heavy Metal and The New Yorker magazines.  His small home studio has two desks, one for artwork and one for writing and a window that looks out upon Bunny Hill, his backyard, where Eastern Cottontail rabbits share an uneasy peace with his Chihuahuas.