Leila Christenbury, EdD, is Commonwealth Professor of English Education at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU). The author or coauthor of 12books, she is a frequent speaker on issues of English teaching and learning and has been cited extensively in the national media. Dr. Christenbury has been honored with the David H. Russell Award and the CEE James N. Britton Award from the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE). Additionally, she is a recipient of the Edward B. Fry Book Award from the National Reading Conference for the Handbook of Adolescent Literacy Research. She is a former editor of English Journal, a past president of NCTE, and past interim dean of the VCU School of Education.

Randy Bomer, PhD, teaches in the Language and Literacy Studies Program in the College of Education at the University of Texas at Austin, where he also directs the Heart of Texas Writing Project. Formerly a middle and high school teacher, he has consulted with urban school districts across the United States. The author of two books and many journal articles, Dr. Bomer is a past president of NCTE.

Peter Smagorinsky, PhD, teaches in the Department of Language and Literacy Education at the University of Georgia. He currently chairs the NCTE Research Forum. Dr. Smagorinsky has received honors including the Raymond B. Cattell Early Career Award for Programmatic Research from the American Educational Research Association, the Janet Emig Award from NCTE’s Conference on English Education, and the Distinguished Research in Teacher Education Award from the Association of Teacher Educators. He has published 14 books and numerous journal articles.