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Ellen McGinnis-Smith earned her Ph.D. in Special Education at the University of Iowa and certification as a school administrator from Drake University. She has been a teacher of special education at both the elementary and secondary levels for eleven years primarily in the area of behavioral disorders. Dr. McGinnis-Smith served as an educational consultant at Child Psychiatry, University of Iowa as well as in the public schools.

Dr. Jim Knight, Founder and Senior Partner of Instructional Coaching Group (ICG), is also a research associate at the University of Kansas Center for Research on Learning. He has spent more than two decades studying professional learning and instructional coaching. Jim earned his PhD in Education from the University of Kansas and has won several university teaching, innovation, and service awards.

Sheila Eller has worked in a multitude of educational settings during her career. In addition to her current position as a principal in the Fairfax County Virginia Public Schools, she has served as a middle school principal in the Moundsview Minnesota School District, as a principal in other schools in Minnesota and Illinois, as a university professor, as a Special Education Teacher, a Title I Math Teacher, and a self-contained classroom teacher in grades 1-4.

Kim Bailey, with more than 29 years’ experience in education, has served as a special education classroom teacher, district administrator, educational consultant, and university professor. For the past eight years, she has placed her professional focus in the areas of professional development and educational leadership.

Cicely A. Rude teaches in the Benerd School of Education at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, California. She earned her Master’s degree in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) at the Monterey Institute of International Studies. In addition to working as a public school substitute teacher for two years, her diverse experiences include teaching English in Japan, teaching adult English as a Second Language (ESL), and teaching linguistics.

After graduating from Emory University, David Fulton taught high school and middle school for four years in Denver, Colorado. While in graduate school, he worked for the State Department of Education in Wisconsin, was a researcher for a National Science Foundation-funded school reform project, and supervised preservice social studies teachers.

Eric Jensen is a former teacher who grew up in San Diego, California. With a Ph.D. in Human Development, he synthesizes brain research and develops practical applications for educators. 

Alison L. Bailey is Professor of Human Development and Psychology at the University of California, Los Angeles, working on issues germane to children’s linguistic, social, and educational development.

Margaret Heritage is an independent consultant in education. For her entire career, her work has spanned both research and practice.

David Smokler currently teaches English in Needham, Massachusetts. Jobs for English teachers were nonexistent, so unable to get a traditional teaching gig, Smokler accepted a job teaching juvenile offenders on a horse-drawn, cross-country, covered wagon train. He planned lessons and taught literature and writing to more than fifty incarcerated students while traveling twenty to twenty-five miles a day on horse- and mule-drawn wagons from Pennsylvania to southwestern Texas.

Laurie Materna is a professor of nursing at Milwaukee Area Technical College. Materna’s interest in brain research includes the relationship between nutrition and learning, the use of graphic organizers to promote learning, and the development of learning styles and multiple intelligences in adult learners.