Zack Arthur leads one of five high school cohorts comprising educators from different teaching settings across the country who are convening as a group to determine what specific resources to create.
Meet the Cohort
Zack Arthur teaches high school English in Marcellus, New York, where he also advises the school’s art and literary magazine (The Wild Horses Review) and coaches the boys’ modified soccer team. He was a member of both NCTE’s This Story Matters Teacher Corps and the Library of Congress Primary Sources Rationale Writing Cohort, and has been a member of NCTE since 2010.
A UK native, Dawn Burton is an experienced English educator with a background in Europe, Asia, and the United States. Her work is grounded in a belief that deep reading, writing processes, and sustained thought must remain central, even as schools and ELA teachers respond to rapidly changing tools and the new pressures they create. She has served as department chair and as an innovation and design facilitator, and she brings to her work both breadth of experience and a clear sense of what matters in the classroom. She holds a master’s degree in educational leadership.
Kristina Peterson has been a high school English teacher in New Hampshire since 2008. She brings nearly two decades of classroom experience to her work as an educator, author, and speaker. She holds a Master of Arts in Teaching and has served as Secretary for the NH Council of Teachers of English since 2017. She also co-teaches in the University of New Hampshire’s Writers Academy and Learning Through Teaching program. She is the coauthor, with Dennis Magliozzi, of AI in the Writing Workshop: Finding the Write Balance (2025), which explores AI as a thought partner, research companion, and writing tool while addressing the ethical complexities and instructional opportunities it presents in today’s classrooms. Her work has appeared in Education Week, eSchoolNews, English Journal, and Educational Leadership, and she presents regularly on the role of AI in writing instruction.
Derek Wetzel is English Faculty and Department Chair at Thaden School in Bentonville, AR. At Thaden he also serves as chair of the Evolving Technology Committee, which develops AI policy and helps to administer technology platforms schoolwide. He is also building the school’s first student-run Writing Center, and he designs and teaches the school’s Creative Writing seminar program. Derek has 12 years of experience as a secondary school educator and has taught grades 9–12, including both AP English courses. He is keenly interested in the future of writing and communication, and in how ELA instruction will evolve in the coming years. Derek looks forward to working with colleagues from around the country to share knowledge and build resources that will benefit educators everywhere.
Sheena Zadai has taught English 9, English 10, Honors English 10, AP Language & Composition, Digital News Production, and Yearbook over the past two decades. As an advocate for LGBTQIA+ teens, scholastic journalism, and the Oxford Comma, she currently serves on the boards of Glisten Northeast Ohio, the Kent State University LGBTQ+ Alumni Chapter, the Ohio Scholastic Media Association, and Kent’s Delta Gamma Alumnae Chapter. Currently serving as a school counselor, a Sphere Alumni Fellow, and a table leader for AP Lang, she teaches SEL during weekly Compass classes and serves as a liaison to the English faculty at Magnificat High School in Rocky River, OH. This is her second cohort experience with NCTE; she previously served as a member of the Primary Sources Rationale Cohort in 2024. She is looking forward to helping other teachers develop scalable frameworks for the appropriate use of AI in classrooms.