After more than 20 years of teaching in public schools, Patricia Ruggiano Schmidt completed her doctoral studies in Reading and Language Arts at Syracuse University. Her dissertation, Cultural Conflict and Struggle: Literacy Learning in a Kindergarten Program received recognition by the International Reading Association and was published by Peter Lang.
Valerie von Frank has written extensively about education over several decades as a daily newspaper reporter in multiple states covering public schools and, over the last decade, for NSDC publications, including JSD, Tools for Schools, The Learning System, The Learning Principal, and T3.
Joy L. Navan directs the Center for Gifted Studies at Murray State University in Kentucky, where she serves as an associate professor and program director for the graduate endorsement program in gifted and talented education. Navan is a certified practitioner of the Annemarie Roeper Method of Qualitative Assessment® and performs assessments in English and Spanish.