Tracy L Blom

Tracy Blom

Tracy Blom is an award-winning children’s author of over forty published books. Her work can be found in zoos, airports, bookstores, libraries, and major retailers around the world.

She has ghostwritten for various organizations, creating everything from daily blogs to comic books. Her work has received STEM accreditation, Teacher’s Pick Awards, Reader’s Favorite Awards, and appeared in magazines and blogs internationally and domestically.
Tracy is part of The Authors on the Air Global Radio Network, an international digital media company featuring talk radio, podcasts, vodcasts, live streaming interviews, book reviews, and promotions available on social media and multiple websites, audio, and video platforms in 153 countries. Her show, Books, Kids & Creations, features people worldwide who inspire future generations with their work.

Jesse Byrd

Jesse Byrd is a 33-year-old African-American children’s book creator and dual-native of California and Louisiana. Jesse’s debut novel, King Penguin, was highly praised and won awards at both the Los Angeles and Paris Annual Book Festivals, placing top 10 for the year in its category. His two picture books: “Sunny Days” and “Real Jungle Tales” have received awards in four major competitions worldwide.

Steenz

Steenz is a St. Louis based cartoonist, editor, and professor. They’re the cartoonist on the Ringo Award-Nominated syndicated comic strip ‘Heart Of The City’, the co-creator of Dwayne McDuffie Award-Winning GN Archival Quality, and is featured in short story anthologies such as Eisner and Ignatz Award-Winning Elements: Fire, Mine!, and Dead Beats. Steenz also launched and edited the popular RPG periodical Rolled & Told. They participate in and create community building comics related programming, and are frequent panelist at comic cons. Steenz currently teaches cartooning at Webster University while editing comics for independent publishers.

MATT HALEY

Matt Haley has been illustrating hit graphic novels for Marvel and DC Comics for years on characters ranging from The Defenders (Marvel) to Superman (DC Comics) and has worked with commercial clients ranging from T-Mobile to IMG Models to Sarah Silverman. He's worked with comics icon Stan Lee on the feature documentary "Comic-Con Episode IV: A Fans Hope" with director Morgan Spurlock and TV series like "Who Wants to be a Superhero?" for NBC/Universal as well as numerous other projects with Mr. Lee.

Eddie Gamarra, PHD.

Eddie Gamarra was most recently the VP, Literary Affairs for Paramount Global Kids & Family, which includes the Nick Jr, Nickelodeon, and Awesomeness brands.  He worked across live action and animated film and television coordinating with teams in Creative, Digital, Consumer Products/Licensing, and Business & Legal Affairs to acquire books and other IP for development and production, and for such adaptations to be distributed across multiple platforms for a global audience.  

Prior to this, Gamarra was a Literary Manager at The Gotham Group, a management and production company representing some of the most creative and successful screenwriters, directors, animators, authors, illustrators, publishers, and animation studios around the world. With a primary focus on children’s & family entertainment, he worked with numerous New York Times best-selling authors and illustrators as well as Oscar, Emmy, Caldecott, and Newbery award winners and nominees. He was an Executive Producer of THE MAZE RUNNER trilogy from 20th Century Fox based on the NY Times best-selling book series, Disney+’s production of Jerry Spinelli’s iconic love story STARGIRL, and Henry Selick’s stop motion feature with Jordan Peele entitled WENDELL AND WILD for Netflix. 

Audrey Knox

Audrey Knox has been a Literary manager at Cartel Entertainment since 2018. Her clients have written on TV shows including Monsters at Work, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Zombies!, Hailey’s On It!, The Upshaws, grown-ish, Robot Chicken, Owl House, and Dora. Her clients have also written specials for LEGO Disney Princess and movies for Hallmark, Lifetime, Lionsgate, and Tubi. She represents writers currently working on projects for Mattel and Marvel. Before working in Hollywood, Audrey got her degree in Screenwriting from Chapman University.

Jay Allen

As Co-Head of Development at Swirl Films, Jay Allen is a passionate professional dedicated to bringing compelling content to audiences worldwide. He oversees the entire content production process, from conception to post-production, serving as the main liaison and point of contact for the projects he leads. Jay's most significant accomplishment to date was taking the popular TV One television series, UNCENSORED, from ideation to a fully-formed show that has consistently dominated Ad-Supported Cable among African-American viewers in its time slot. Additionally, Jay played a pivotal role in co-creating and producing the highly acclaimed "Freaknik: The Wildest Party Never Told" documentary for Hulu, which chronicles the history and cultural significance of the annual spring break event in Atlanta.

tAMARA ROBERTSON

The Maker. The Myth(Buster). The STEAM Advocate. Taller on TV. 

Tamara Robertson, is a Television Host and Emmy Nominated Producer best known for her role as a co-host and fabricator on the reboots of Mythbusters including Mythbusters JR with Adam Savage as well as co-hosting Scijinks with Johnny Galecki for the Discovery Channel.   

Tamara is a Patent holding, OSHA Certified Chemical & Biomolecular Engineer with over a decade of experience as a Design Engineer working on Greenfield Startups, developing patentable technologies and helping companies reduce the waste they put into landfills.  

Tamara was recognized as a Marvel Agent of G.I.R.L. in the Marvel Comic “Unstoppable Wasp” by writer Jeremy Whitley for being a real-life superhero for her contributions within Engineering as well as her work empowering and normalizing young girls in STEM through her Superhero Science outreach.  She also is the co-founder/co-producer for bilingual STEM Outreach comic "Seekers of Science" which has had over 1MM copies donated globally.

Tamara is also a leading voice in the Maker Community working to normalize women in Shop Environments and empower them by teaching them to utilize tools to build the future they want for themselves and others.  She hosts a Maker Podcast called "Tinkering Belles", a series called "Shop Science" where she helps to connect the dots between Artisanal Trades Skills and STEM Careers and co-produces a Makers Kids series called “Tinkering Trex”.