2025 BRAW Jury: Non-Fiction & Sustainability

Tobias Hickey is senior lecturer and course leader of Illustration at the University of Worcester, Uk. Along with colleague Piet Grobler, Tobias founded the International Centre for the Picture Book in Society (ICPBS) with a remit to engage with society in its broadest terms by promoting multiculturalism, inclusivity of minorities and socially disenfranchised people. Subsequent projects MIGRATIONS and SEA CHANGE have developed as co-produced, international artist collaborations featuring touring exhibitions and publications. SEA CHANGE is concerned with ocean literacy and relates to the United Nations SDG14 Life Below Water. 

Ayse Koca is an author, longtime teacher, and educational student tutor. She has an assistant professor degree from the University of Southeast Norway (USN). Koca has also entered the bachelor's program in Creative Writing and Dissemination at the Norwegian Institute for Children´s Books, graduating in 2013. Since then, she has published two children's books: Yoko Onur – Making over Mum (2015), The Double Life of Yoko Onur (2019). Her debut novel from 2015 was nominated for the Norwegian Brage Award, The First Book Award-category in the Norwegian Ministry of Culture’s literary prizes for children and young adults and for the children’s own Book Eaters Award (Bokslukerprisen). Koca has previously worked as a journalist and has been an editorial staff member at the National Center for Multicultural Education (NAFO). She has also contributed to the preparation of teaching materials for Gyldendal publishing. Ayse Koca is currently working at the Norwegian Institute for Children´s Books as teacher and project manager for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Library Norway.

Lisa’s experience spans three decades and the globe. From a multinational publisher to television content distribution in New York and Toronto to a distinguished career at the helm of globally recognized, award-winning Canadian publisher Kids Can Press. She is known for her expertise across the creative industries and the ability to identify and strike impactful partnerships within it and other sectors. Lisa is recognized as an international champion of the UN SDG Publishers Compact and for her development of the award-winning CitizenKid franchise —which uses the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals as the collection’s editorial lens.  She has represented Canadian publishing on official cultural trade missions to China and Latin America and is a sought-after speaker at major international book fairs and media industry conferences. Giving back includes having served on the Board of Trustees of the Ontario Science Centre and Ontario Creates, and Lisa currently sits on the global Advisory Board of PublisHer, the Ontario Water Centre, the Emmy Noether Council at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics and on the Executive Committee of the International Women’s Forum Canada Toronto Chapter in her capacity as the Chair of Programming.