Valerie Hill-Jackson began her teaching career with the Camden Board of Education in Camden, New Jersey—one of the nation's poorest urban school districts. She is currently the director of educator preparation programs and partnerships in the College of Education and Human Development and a clinical professor of teacher education in the Department of Teaching, Learning, and Culture at Texas A&M University.

Nicholas Hartlep is the Robert Charles Billings endowed chair in education at Berea College in Berea, Kentucky, where he chairs the Department of Education Studies. He is a former chair of the Department of Early Childhood and Elementary Education at Metropolitan State University, where he was also the graduate program coordinator.

Hartlep has published 22 books, the most recent being What Makes a Star Teacher? Seven Dispositions that Encourage Student Learning. In 2018, the Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU) granted Hartlep the John Saltmarsh Award for Emerging Leaders in Civic Engagement Award. In 2017, Metropolitan State University presented him with both the 2017 Community Engaged Scholarship Award and the President’s Circle of Engagement Award.

Delia Stafford is president and CEO of the Haberman Educational Foundation (HEF). In 1994, Stafford chartered the HEF to promote the research of Martin Haberman. Thanks largely to the foundation, Haberman's education models are being used in more than 370 school districts across the United States, especially in schools with large populations of students who are classified as at risk. Stafford trains school leaders to use research-based protocols for selecting teachers and principals who will work well in schools serving large numbers of children in poverty. She travels nationally to conducts professional development training events.