Evangeline Newton is Professor of Literacy Education and Director of the Center for Literacy at the University of Akron. She teaches literacy methods courses and professional development workshops to elementary and middle school teachers in Ohio school districts. She also chairs the Reading Review Board of the Ohio Resource Center for Mathematics, Science and Reading. Evangeline has researched and written on several topics. With Tim Rasinski, Nancy Padak, and Rick M. Newton, she coauthored Building Vocabulary from Word Roots (Levels 3-8), a curriculum series for elementary and middle school students. She serves on the Editorial Review Board of The Reading Teacher and was a co-editor of The Ohio Reading Teacher. A former St. Louis public school teacher, Evangeline holds a B.A. degree from Washington University in St. Louis, and M.A.T. degree from Webster University, and a Ph.D. degree from KentState University.

Nancy Padak is a Distinguished Professor of Education at Kent State University where she directs the Reading and Writing Center and teaches graduate courses in literacy education and recently received the honor of Kent State University Distinguished Professor. She was a part of the team that wrote the initial grant to fund the state literacy resource center at Kent State University-Ohio Literacy Resource Center (OLRC) and has been a middle school and high school classroom teacher and administrator in a large urban school district. She frequently works with teachers, has written or edited a dozen books and more than 100 scholarly articles. Nancy is a past College Reading Association President and a former Editor of The Reading Teacher.  She currently edits the Journal of Literacy Research. Nancy . Nancy has three grown children, Katie, Mike and Matt. Her husband, Gary is Dean of Undergraduate Studies at Kent State. She enjoys reading, traveling, and spending time with family and friends.

Dr. Timothy Rasinski is a Professor of Education in the Department of Teaching, Leadership, and Curriculum Studies. He teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in literacy education. His major interests include working with children who find reading difficult, phonics and reading fluency instruction, and teacher development in literacy education. He has published over 100 articles and 10 books on various aspects of reading education. Dr. Rasinski is past editor of The Reading Teacher and is currently an editor for the Journal of Literacy Research. He has served as president of the College Reading Association and he currently serves on the Board of Directors of the International Reading Association. He earned bachelor degrees in economics and education at the University of Akron and the University of Nebraska at Omaha. His master's degree in special education also comes from the University of Nebraska at Omaha. Dr. Rasinski was awarded the Ph.D. from The Ohio State University.