Keila V. Dawson is an award-winning author who writes fiction and nonfiction children’s books. She is coeditor and contributor to No Brain the Same and its award-winning companion titles, No World Too Big and No Voice Too Small. Dawson is the author of Yumbo Gumbo, a 2025 NSTA-CBC title, and Opening the Road, a 2025 Choose to Read Ohio booklist selection. Before becoming a children’s author, Dawson worked as a community organizer, educator, and advocate for children with learning difficulties and disabilities in different states and abroad in the Philippines, Japan, and Egypt.