IRMA McCLAURIN, PhD/MFA, is a Black Feminist activist anthropologist, Zora Neale Hurston scholar, and founder of the Irma McClaurin Black Feminist Archive at UMass Amherst. An award-winning writer and poet, and Culture and Education Editor for Insight News, she authored Women of Belize: Gender and Change in Central America (Rutgers University Press) and is co-contributor to Black Studies: An Interdisciplinary, Integrative and Interactive Approach. She resides in Raleigh, North Carolina.

JOHNNETTA BETSCH COLE was the first African American woman to serve as president of Spelman College in 1987. After a decade of service at Spelman, she joined the faculty at Emory University as Presidential Distinguished Professor of anthropology, women's studies, and African American studies. She went on to serve as president of Bennett College, the only other historically Black College for Women, and then as the Director of the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art. She is the author or co-author of many books, including All-American Women: Lines that Divide, Ties that Bind; Gender Talk: The Struggle for Women's Equality in African American Communities; Conversations: Straight Talk with America's Sister President; and Speechify: The Words and Legacy of Johnnetta Betsch Cole. She is the recipient of a National Humanities Medal, and 70 honorary degrees. She resides in Fernandina Beach, Florida.