Ishta Mercurio is the Membership Services Manager at the Association of Canadian Publishers. She brings a wealth of experience from different sectors of the children's publishing industry, including 15 years as a children’s author, three years as Chair of the Festival of Literary Diversity’s Board of Directors, and two years as the founder, creator, and administrator of SCBWI Canada East’s Rising Kite Diversity Scholarship, which is designed to recognize and foster excellence in children’s literature by creators from marginalized and underrepresented backgrounds.