Carol Ann Tomlinson is William Clay Parrish Jr. Professor Emeritus at the University of Virginia's School of Education and Human Development, where she served as Chair of Educational Leadership, Foundations, and Policy and Co-Director of the University's Institutes on Academic Diversity. She spent 21 years in public education, teaching students in high school, preschool, and middle school and administering programs for struggling and advanced learners. She was Virginia's Teacher of the Year in 1974. In 2022, Tomlinson was ranked #12 in the Education Week Edu-Scholar Public Presence Rankings of the 200 "university-based academics who are contributing most substantially to public debates about schools and schooling," and as the #4 voice in Curriculum & Instruction.

Marcia B. Imbeau is a professor and childhood/elementary education program coordinator in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Arkansas, working in its teacher preparation program. She has 40 years of experience as a classroom teacher in public schools, a coordinator of university-based summer/Saturday enrichment programs, an adjunct professor, and a presenter to teachers, instructional leaders, and administrators throughout the United States and internationally. For the past 25 years, Imbeau has worked as a university liaison in local public schools to assist interns and their mentor teachers, a role that allows her to help prepare a new generation of K–6 educators and K–12 teachers of advanced learners.