Ellin Oliver Keene has been a classroom teacher, staff developer and adjunct professor of reading and writing. For sixteen years she directed staff development initiatives at the Denver-based Public Education & Business Coalition. She served as Deputy Director and Director of Literacy and Staff Development for the Cornerstone Project at the University of Pennsylvania for 4 years. Ellin currently serves as Director of Research and Development for the PEBC, as senior advisor to Heinemann Professional Development and works with schools and districts throughout the country and abroad.  Ellin received her Bachelor's and Masters degrees from the University of Denver.

Ellin is co-author of Mosaic of Thought: Teaching Comprehension in a Readers' Workshop (Heinemann, 1997), the second edition of which was released on its 10^th anniversary in 2007. She is the author of Assessing Comprehension Thinking Strategies (Shell Educational Books, 2006) and the recently released,To Understand (Heinemann, January, 2008) as well as numerous chapters for reading textbooks and journals as well as education policy journals.

Nell K. Duke is an associate professor of teacher education and educational psychology and co-director of the Literacy Achievement Research Center (LARC) at Michigan State University. Her work focuses on early literacy development, particularly among children living in poverty. Her specific areas of expertise include development of informational literacies in young children, comprehension development and instruction in early schooling, and issues of equity in literacy education.

Nell teaches preservice, inservice and doctoral courses in literacy education at Michigan State, speaks and consults widely on literacy education, and is an active member of several literacy-related organizations. Duke also has a strong interest in improving the quality of educational research training in the U.S.

She received the International Reading Association Outstanding Dissertation Award, the National Council of Teachers of English Promising Researcher Award, the International Reading Association Dina Feitelson Research Award, and the National Reading Conference Early Career Achievement Award. She co-authored the books Reading and Writing informational Text in the Primary Grades; Literacy and the Youngest Learner: Best Practices for Educators of Children from Birth to Five; Beyond Bedtime Stories: A Parent's Guide to Promoting Reading, Writing, and Other Literacy Skills from Birth to 5; and is co-editor of the book Literacy Research Methodologies.

Nell received her Bachelor's degree from Swarthmore College and her Masters and Doctoral degrees from Harvard University.

Suzanne Plaut is the Vice President of Education at the Public Education and Business Coalition in Denver, Colorado. She holds a doctorate from Harvard Graduate School of Education where she received a Spencer Research Training Grant and served on the editorial board of the Harvard Educational Review.

She has taught high school English and has served as Director of Literacy and Literacy Specialist in two Boston Public Middle Schools. She has also served as an instructor, mentor teacher, and university supervisor for pre-service teachers.

Suzanne has written for Education Week, co-edited Education Policy and Practice: Bridging the Divide, and edited The Right to Literacy in Secondary Schools: Creating a Culture of Thinking (2009, TC Press).