Sylvia Linan-Thompson is an associate professor in special education at the University of Texas in Austin, a fellow in the Mollie V. Davis Professorship in Learning Disabilities, and director of the Vaughn Gross Center for Reading and Language Arts. She has investigated reading interventions for struggling monolingual English readers in primary grades, literacy acquisition of English language learners, and Spanish literacy development. Currently she is co-principal investigator on three longitudinal, large-scale research projects, two of which are investigating effective reading instruction for English language learners. She has authored articles on these topics and has developed instructional guides.

Sharon Vaughn is the H. E. Hartfelder/Southland Corporation Regents Chair in Human Development at the University of Texas and is on the University's Board of Directors for the Vaughn Gross Center for Reading and Language Arts. Dr. Vaughn was the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Learning Disabilities and Learning Disabilities Research and Practice and is the author of numerous books and research articles on learning and reading difficulties; she is also a consultant on translating research into practice for school districts and state departments of education. She co-authored (with Sylvia Linan-Thompson) Research-Based Methods of Reading Instruction, Grades K–3 (2004), also published by ASCD.