Molly F. Collins, EdD (Boston University), associate professor of the practice of literacy in the Department of Teaching and Learning at Vanderbilt University's Peabody College, has taught graduate and undergraduate courses in cognitive development, language acquisition, linguistics, and storybook reading. She has also provided multiyear professional learning experiences on language and literacy for preschool teachers in national and international settings. Previously, she taught toddlers and preschoolers. Collins directed early literacy and professional educator projects funded by the US Department of Education, foundations, and universities, and she served as principal investigator for foundation- and university-sponsored grants to explore monolingual and multilingual children's vocabulary learning and comprehension from story reading. She is a member of the American Educational Research Association, the Literacy Research Association, the National Association for the Education of Young Children, and the Society for Research in Child Development, and she serves as part of the National Early Education Council at Jumpstart. Judith A. Schickedanz, PhD (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign), professor emerita at Boston University, taught courses in child development, early literacy, and curriculum and instruction; served as director of the laboratory preschool; coordinated the early childhood program; and helped launch the Jumpstart volunteer program.

She taught preschool and has worked extensively with early childhood teachers on funded projects, including Early Reading First. Schickedanz has authored numerous articles, book chapters, and books, including Understanding Children and Adolescents (Allyn & Bacon, 2000); Increasing the Power of Instruction (NAEYC, 2008); Writing in Preschool (International Reading Association, 2009); Inside Preschool Classrooms (Harvard Education Press, 2018); and What Are Preschoolers Thinking? (Harvard Education Press, 2022). She lives with her husband, David, in Southern California near their son's family and enjoys their two grandchildren, a 10-year-old and a 3-year-old.