Donna Alvermann is Distinguished Research Professor of Language and Literacy Education at The University of Georgia. Formerly a classroom teacher and assistant principal, Alvermann's research focuses on youth's multiple literacies in and out of school.

Reeda Betts is an Education Administrator with the Alabama Department of Education. She leads the Alabama Reading Initiative’s efforts for Grades 4-12, including the Alabama Reading Initiative Project for Adolescent Literacy (ARI-PAL).

Mary E. Curtis, Ph.D. is Professor of Education and founding director of the Center for Special Education at Lesley University in Cambridge, MA.

Donald Deshler is currently director of the Center for Research on Learning at the University of Kansas, where he provides leadership for the research, product development, and staff development activities. At the Center, Deshler and other colleagues have developed and validated the Strategic Instruction Model and the Learning Strategies Curriculum as mechanisms for improving the learning effectiveness of students with learning disabilities and the instructional effectiveness of teachers.

Susan Frost is the president of Education Priorities, a progressive education policy consulting firm that focuses on helping organizations set policy priorities that support their mission and goals, develop education policy agendas that are grounded in research and best practice, and make recommendations to policymakers to take action at the federal, state and local levels.

Andrés Henríquez is a program officer in the education division of Carnegie Corporation of New York, where he leads the Corporation's Advancing Literacy initiative. Prior to joining the Corporation, Henríquez served as the Assistant Director for Strategic Planning, Center for Children and Technology (CCT) at the New York offices of the Education Development Center, Inc.

Nancy Hoffman's career spans work in high schools and higher education. While leading Jobs for the Future's activities for the Early College High School initiative, she continues as Adjunct Lecturer at Brown University, where she served previously as Director of the President's Office and Secretary of the Brown Corporation.

Michael L. Kamil is Professor of Education at Stanford University. He is also a member of the Psychological Studies in Education Committee and is on the faculty of the Learning, Design, and Technology Program. Kamil's research explores the effects of computer technologies on literacy and learning and the acquisition of literacy in first and second languages.

Peggy McCardle is a linguist and a certified speech-language pathologist. She is currently the Acting Chief of the Child Development and Behavior Branch at the National Institutes of Health. McCardle is interested in ways to incorporate literacy practices supported by proven research into classroom instruction.

James McPartland is Professor of Sociology and Director of the Center for Social Organization of Schools (CSOS) at Johns Hopkins University, which is the parent organization that houses CRESPAR. For the past four years he has been head of the team that is developing the Talent Development High School with Career Academies.

Katherine Mitchell is the director of the Alabama Reading Initiative and the Alabama Reading First Initiative. As director, she led a statewide literacy initiative that grew from 16 to 449 literacy demonstration sites in five years. She is also the current Chief Reading Scientist for the State of Alabama where her primary responsibilities include leading a statewide effort to achieve scientifically-based reading instruction in all statewide activities.

Lynne Newsome is an education consultant with Shaw University and the public school districts of Washington, DC, and Prince Georges County, MD. As a veteran educator with more than 30 years experience in reading education, Newsome works on a variety of projects to accelerate minority student achievement.

Dorothy Strickland is the Samuel DeWitt Proctor Professor of Education at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey. A former classroom teacher, she was formerly the Arthur I. Gates Professor at Teachers College Columbia University.