Dr. Shane Templeton is Foundation Professor Emeritus of Literacy Studies at the University of Nevada, Reno. His research has focused on developmental word knowledge in elementary, middle, and high school students. He is co-author of Words Their Way; Vocabulary Their Way; Word Study for Middle and Secondary Students; Words Their Way with Struggling Readers. Grades 4–12; and Words Their Way with English Learners. Since 1987 Dr. Templeton has been a member of the Usage Panel of the American Heritage^® Dictionary. He is educational consultant on the American Heritage^® Children's Dictionary and wrote the foreward to the recently published Curious George's^® Dictionary.

Dr. Templeton's contributions to Journeys are in the areas of morphological knowledge in vocabulary and spelling development and integrated word study in the development of phonics, spelling, and vocabulary.

Dr. Irene Fountas is a Professor in the School of Education at Lesley University in Campbridge, MA. She works extensively in the literacy education field and directs the Literacy Collaborative in the School of Education at Lesley University. She provides training to literacy coaches and key administrators who play roles in teacher development and school improvement. Along with her co-author, Gay Su Pinnell, she has developed the country's most used standard for leveled text for small-group instruction.

Carol Jago has taught middle and high school English and directs the California Reading and Literature Project at UCLA. She is past president of the National Council of Teachers of English. Carol served as AP^® Literature content advisor for the College Board and now serves on their English Academic Advisory committee. She served on the planning committee for the 2009 NAEP Reading Framework, the 2011 NAEP Writing Framework, and the feedback committee for the Common Core Standards initiative. She has published six books with Heinemann including her latest book, With Rigor for All: Meeting Common Core Standards for Reading Literature.

Carol's contribution to Journeys is as a Common Core consultatnt.

Dr. Marjorie Lipson, Professor of Education at the University of Vermont, is known nationally and internationally for her research in the areas of reading and literacy. Her work focuses on topics related to reading comprehension and testing, analysis of reading and writing difficulties, and methods of literacy instruction, with particular attention toward the literacy learning of elementary and middle school-aged children. Her research projects focused on whole-school change have been involved in more than 20 (mostly) high-poverty schools to help improve literacy instruction. Her research has been continuously supported by the U.S. government and various foundations since 1993.

Dr. Lipson's contributions to Journeys are in the areas of struggling readers and reading disabilities, reading comprehension, school change, and literacy improvement.

Dr. Sheila Valencia is Professor of Language, Literacy, and Culture at the University of Washington, where she teaches and conducts research in the areas of literacy assessment, instruction, policy, and teacher development. Her experiences in public education inspired her interest in on-the-ground issues of reading instruction and assessment. Dr. Valencia has served on national, state, and local assessment committees to improve reading assessment systems and policies, and was the 2009–2010 chair of the IRA Assessment Committee. In 2008, she was inducted into the International Reading Association Reading Hall of Fame.

Dr. Valencia's contributions to Journeys are in the areas of literacy assessment, reading and writing instruction, and teacher development.

Dr. MaryEllen Vogt is Distinguished Professor Emerita of Education at California State University, Long Beach. Dr. Vogt has been a classroom teacher, reading specialist, special education specialist, curriculum coordinator, and university teacher/educator, and served as president of the International Reading Association. Her research interests include improving comprehension in the content areas, teacher change and development, and content literacy and language acquisition for English learners. Dr. Vogt was inducted into the California Reading Hall of Fame, and received her university's Distinguished Faculty Teaching Award.

Dr. Vogt's contributions to Journeys are in the areas of English language learners and the Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol Model for teachers of English-language arts to English language learners.

Dr. John J. “Jack“ Pikulski worked as a school psychologist, then turned his attention to the diagnosis, correction, and prevention of reading difficulties. He is Professor Emeritus of Education at the University of Delaware, where he has served both as Director of the Reading/Language Arts Center and as Chair of the Department of Educational Development. In 1997 Dr. Pikulski was inducted into the International Reading Association Reading Hall of Fame. He has been a member of the Reading Committee of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP, also known as the Nation's Report Card) for almost 15 years.

Dr. Pikulski's contributions to Journeys are in the areas of early intervention to prevent reading difficulties and teaching and developing vocabulary.

Dr. David Chard is the Dean of the Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education and Human Development at Southern Methodist University. He has been the principal investigator on numerous federal research projects including topics such as Response to Intervention (RTI), reading, and reading comprehension instruction. His research and teaching interests are in the instruction of literacy and mathematics skills for all students, including students with disabilities. He has taught courses on behavior management, special education reading and writing, learning disabilities, and special education law.

Dr. Chard's contributions to Journeys are in the areas of reading interventions, Direct Instruction of comprehension, and Alphabetic Principle on the reading development of first graders.

Dr. James F. Baumann is the Excellence in Higher Education Endowed Chair in Literacy and a professor in the Department of Elementary and Early Childhood Education at the University of Wyoming. Dr. Baumann's research addresses classroom applications of research and theory in reading pedagogy. He has conducted studies and published research and applied works on topics that include teaching reading comprehension, reading difficulties, reading assessment, the integrated use of literature and reading strategies, teacher research, national trends in elementary reading instruction, and teaching reading vocabulary.

Dr. Baumann's contributions to Journeys are in the areas of reading teacher effectiveness and national trends in elementary reading instruction.

Dr. Jamal Cooks is an Associate Professor at San Francisco State University in the Department of Secondary Education. He is co-author of the Shades of Literacy column in Voices from the Middle and an active member of the National Council for Teachers of English (NCTE) and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

Dr. Cooks's contributions to Journeys are in the areas of urban education; language, literacy, and culture; and popular culture in the classroom.

Dr. J. David Cooper is a literacy consultant and former Professor and Director of Reading at Ball State University. He has served as a consultant for the Department of Education in Washington, D.C., for numerous state departments of education, and for school systems throughout the United States. Dr. Cooper is very active in the International Reading Association and has served as an editor of Indiana Reading Quarterly and as a guest reviewer for such leading journals as The Reading Teacher, The Journal of Reading, and the National Reading Conference Yearbook.

Dr. Cooper's contributions to Journeys are in the areas of classroom instruction, classroom management, and development of programs for Response to Intervention.

Dr. Russell Gersten is Executive Director of the Instructional Research Group—an educational research institute—as well as Professor Emeritus of Special Education in the College of Education at the University of Oregon. His main areas of expertise include instructional research on ELLs, reading comprehension research, and evaluation methodology. He served as the Principal Investigator for the English language learner (ELL) component of What Works Clearinghouse, which developed intervention reports and an evidence-based practice guide for teaching reading and language to ELLs in the elementary grades.

Dr. Gersten's contributions to Journeys are in the areas of English language learners, studies of implementation, measurement of classroom instruction, and reading comprehension.

Dr. Lesley Mandel Morrow is a Professor of Literacy at the Rutgers University Graduate School of Education, where she is Chair of the Department of Learning and Teaching. Dr. Morrow began her career as a classroom teacher and then became a reading specialist. Her area of research deals with strategies for enhancing early literacy development, and the organization and management of language arts programs. Her research is carried out with children and families from diverse backgrounds. Presently she is a Principal Investigator for the NYU BELLE Project.

Dr. Morrow's contributions to Journeys are in the areas of early literacy development and organization and management of language arts programs.

Dr. Cathy Valentino is currently Curriculum Advisor for SMILE at the University of Rhode Island, an award-winning after-school enrichment program for economically disadvantaged students in Grades 4–12. She has been involved with the development and implementation of nationally recognized science, language arts, reading, math, and early childhood programs for more than 25 years. Her special interests are critical thinking and problem-solving skills, integrating content across the curriculum, and creative strategies for motivating students of all ability levels.

Dr. Valentino's contributions to Journeys are in the areas of inquiry-based learning in reading and writing, motivating reluctant learners, and literacy through early childhood problem-solving projects.

Dr. J. Helen Perkins is an Assistant Professor of Reading and Urban Literacy and Coordinator of the Reading Program at the University of Memphis. She serves as the Principal Investigator and Project Director of the Memphis Literacy Academy (MLA). This is a collaboration between the University and Memphis City Schools; the academy's principal goal is to enhance the literacy of urban children. She also serves as the Co-PI of the Memphis Striving Readers' Project, an academy for Grades 6–8 (Memphis Content Literacy Academy). Her research focus in in Urban Literacy.

Dr. Perkins's contribution to Journeys is as a Common Core consultant.