Jeannette Mancilla-Martinez is an associate professor in the Special Education Department and Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Graduate Education at Peabody College, Vanderbilt University. She holds an MEd and EdD from Harvard University. Her program of research is focused on advancing students’ language and reading comprehension outcomes, including those of students from linguistically diverse and low-income homes. Her most recent work examines the intersection of language and special education status. Jeannette was appointed to the National Assessment of Education Progress Standing Committee on Reading, is a Research Affiliate for Tennessee Education Research Alliance, and serves on the Early Literacy Advisory Council for the Tennessee Department of Education.

Wendy M. Reinke, Ph.D. is a Professor in the School Psychology program at the University of Missouri, co-director of the Missouri Prevention Science Institute, and director of the National Center for Rural School Mental Health with special interest in advancing scholarship in the areas of the prevention of disruptive behavior problems in youth and dissemination of school and community-based evidence-based interventions. She has over 17 years of leadership, training, and scholarship in prevention activities. She has authored over 150 peer-reviewed journal publications, 14 book chapters, and 7 books including several innovative and influential studies concerning the prevention of child disruptive behavior problems, teacher consultation, and school mental health. Further, she has been the Principal Investigator or Co-Principal Investigator on successful grants totaling over $50 million dollars.