Donald D. Deshler is one of the best-known and well-respected researchers in the field of special education at the secondary level and is a leading scholar in the area of bringing research into practice. He is the director of the University of Kansas Center for Research on Learning, which has been providing specialized training to secondary special education teachers for over 20 years, and a member of the Advisory Board of the National Institute for Literacy. Deshler is the co-developer of the Learning Strategies Model, one of the most thoroughly researched and widely used special education teaching methods. Deshler has been the recipient of the CEC Research Award and numerous federal research and personnel preparation grants.

Dr. Schumaker is Associate Director of the University of Kansas Center for Research on Learning. She has spent the last 32 years studying the problems of adolescents and developing educational interventions for them. Together with Don Deshler and others at the Center, she co-developed the Strategies Intervention Model, a comprehensive program for students with learning disabilities. Dr. Schumaker is widely published and has been the recipient of numerous federal research grants. She is an author of Learning Strategies Curriculum and other curricular and methodological resources, for teaching both content and social skills.

Lawrence Steel is a special services teacher at Centennial High School in Ellicott City, Maryland. Prior to becoming a teacher in 1993, he worked as a computer system operator for a United States Senator in Washington D.C.

Shortly after becoming a teacher, he began to realize that there was a great need and demand for productivity software in the field of education. Several of Mr. Steel's computer programs are in the area of special education, and are designed to help streamline paperwork tasks. Mr. Steel is the author ofTeacherEvaluationWorks Pro, Student Discipline Data Tracker, and IEP Pro all of which are designed to increase school administrators' productivity and streamline necessary paperwork. Mr. Steel is also the author of the evaluation software that accompanies Writing Meaningful Evaluations for Non-Instructional Staff--Right Now!! and Writing Meaningful Teacher Evaluations - Right Now!!, Second Edition.

Mr. Steel, an avid traveler and bicyclist, currently resides in Silver Spring, Maryland, with his wife Kristin and twin daughters Sydney and Samantha.