Heather Brockman Lee believes that stories have the power to help us understand each other and the world. She has won Portfolio awards for her illustrations, and books she illustrated have received such honors as a Dolly Parton Imagination Library selection for When you Love a Book written by Kaz Windness, Norther Lights Book Awards 2023 winner - Best Picture Book All Ages and 2023 Lee Bennett Hopkins Hobor Book for A Poem Grows Inside you written by Katey Howes. Clients include Harper Collins, Penguin Random House and Simon & Schuster. She is an adjunct professor of Illustration at RMCAD. Her Illustrations can also be seen in the books She is Mama, Hattie Hates Hugs, and the upcoming City of Jasmine, and will debut her author/illustrated work with Poppy's Umbrella in 2026.

Find out more at HeatherBrockmanLee.com.

Check out Cuddlefish Academy classes by Heather.

Jessica Lanan has long been enchanted by the mysteries of the cosmos. Exoplanets are too far away for her to visit, but illustrating them is the next best thing. Jessica currently lives in her native state of Colorado with her husband, three-legged cat, and baby daughter, who was born during the making of Just Right: Searching for the Goldilocks Planet.

Jessica's illustrations can also be found in Finding Narnia: The Story of C. S. Lewis and His Brother, The Lost Package, and Jumper.

Learn more at jessicalanan.com.

Check out Cuddlefish Academy classes by Jessica.

Lily Williams is the critically acclaimed author and illustrator of the If Animals Disappeared picture book series and graphic novels Go With The Flow and Look On The Bright Side. She grew up in Northern California and worked in feature film animation before moving to Colorado. Lily seeks to inspire change through education and believes in the power of making information fun and accessible for all audiences.

Learn more at lilywilliams.art.

Check out Cuddlefish Academy classes by Lily.

Kaz Windness is the author-illustrator of picture books Swim, Jim! and Bitsy Bat, School Star, which received starred reviews from Kirkus Reviews, School Library Journal, and BookPage. She created the Theodor Seuss Geisel Honor Level 1 Ready-to-Read Graphics book Worm and Caterpillar Are Friends, which received a starred review and is a Junior Library Guild selection, and the Level 1 Ready-to-Reads Cat vs. Vac and Go! Go! Dino!. Kaz is also the illustrator of Ollie, the Acorn, and the Mighty Idea by Andrew Hacket and the author of When You Love a Book, illustrated by Heather Brockman Lee. When she’s not writing or illustrating books, Kaz teaches illustration at the Rocky Mountain College of Art + Design and enjoys making deep-dish pizza. Kaz lives in Denver, Colorado, with her husband, two children, and Boston terrier.

Visit her at WindnessBooks.com.

Check out Cuddlefish Academy classes by Kaz.

Stan is an award-winning, first generation American-born-Chinese, Denver-based writer, illustrator, caricature artist and instructor.
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He helped to co-found the Squid Works comic creator cooperative, was a board member of the Colorado Alliance of Illustrators and is currently the co-Regional Advisor for the Rocky Mountain Chapter of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (RMC-SCBWI), and a member of the Cuddlefish Gang art “cuddlective.”
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His late middle-grade graphic novel, THE MANY MISFORTUNES OF EUGENIA WANG is being published by Atheneum (S&S), scheduled for Fall '25.

Learn more at www.stanyan.me.

Check out Cuddlefish Academy classes by Stan.

From Title 1 Colorado public schools to higher education institutions, all of the Cuddlefish Professors have taught (and currently teach) elsewhere. Your hopes and dreams are in good hands with any one of us.

If you have any questions about who might be the best Cuddle Professor for you, check out this handy flow chart!