Zachary T. Barnes, PhD, is Associate Professor of Literacy in the College of Education at Austin Peay State University in Clarksville, Tennessee, where he directs the Center for Literacy. His research focuses on how socioeconomic status and executive skills affect children's reading development. Dr. Barnes is a former special education teacher.

Kelly B. Cartwright, PhD, is the Spangler Distinguished Professor of Early Child Literacy at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, where she directs the Reading, Executive Function, and Development Lab (READ Lab) and serves as Co-Coordinator for the PhD concentration in Literacy Research, Policy, and Practice and on the Executive Board for the Mebane Early Literacy Center. Her research focuses on the development of skilled reading comprehension and the neurocognitive and affective factors that underlie comprehension processes and difficulties from preschool through adulthood. Dr. Cartwright regularly works with teachers in schools throughout the United States to better understand and improve comprehension instruction for striving readers, and these experiences inform her research.