Carol Jago has taught English in middle and high school for 32 years 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. Carol was an education columnist for the Los Angeles Times^®, and her essays have appeared in English Journal, Language Arts, NEA Today, as well as in other newspapers across the nation. She edits the journal of the California Association of Teachers of English, California English, and served on the planning committee for the 2009 NAEP Reading Framework and the 2011 NAEP Writing Framework. Ms. Jago was recently appointed to the National Assessment Governing Board.

She has published six books with Heinemann including With Rigor for All and Papers, Papers, Papers. She has also published four books on contemporary multicultural authors for NCTE’s High School Literature series.

Throughout her career she has received numerous awards including the NCTE affiliate journal award, California English, NCTE Teacher of Excellence award, Conference of the Living Tree Lifetime Achievement Award for contribution to the profession, California Association for Teachers of English Classroom Excellence award, and the Santa Monica Malibu Unified School District Teacher of the Year.

Carol is a consultant of Journeys, program consultant of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt™ Collections, co-author of Holt McDougal Literature, and author of Steck-Vaughn^® Transitions: Preparing for College Writing.

Carol received her B.A. English from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and M.A. Secondary Credential from the University of Southern California, Los Angeles.

Lydia Stack is an international English Language Teacher Educator who provides teacher training on Teaching English to Young Learners (K–12). She is a SIOP teacher trainer and coach, and she has worked with others on ESL/EFL standards for students, teachers, and teacher education programs.

Lydia Stack’s teaching experience includes twenty-five years as an elementary (K–8) English as a Second Language (ESL) teacher and high school (9–12) ESL department head. She also coordinated ESL professional development and secondary ESL programs for the San Francisco School District. From 1992–1997 she coordinated the Mentor Teacher Program and she wrote the first Beginning Teacher Support and Assistance Grant (BTSA). In 1991–92 Lydia was President of TESOL (Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages), an international association of teachers concerned with English language teaching worldwide.

Her awards include the an Exceptional Educator award from the California Lottery and Legislature (2005); Heinle Lifetime Achievement Award (2004); the TESOL James E. Alatis Award (2003) for outstanding service to the English as a Second Language Teaching profession; the CATESOL Sadie Iwataki Leadership Award (1991); and the San Francisco STAR Teacher Award (1989).

Ms. Stack is co-author of Rigby^® On Our Way to English^® and Holt McDougal Literature.

Lydia received her B.A. in Sociology from Dominican College, San Rafael, and her M.A. in Education from California State University.

Martha (Marty) Hougen is a national consultant, presenter, researcher, and author. She has taught at the middle school through graduate levels. Recently her focus has been on working with teacher educators to enhance teacher and leader preparation to better meet the needs of all students. Currently she is working with the University of Florida at the Collaboration for Effective Educator Development, Accountability, and Reform Center (CEEDAR Center) to improve the achievement of students with disabilities by reforming teacher and leader licensure, evaluation, and preparation. She has led similar efforts in Texas with the Higher Education Collaborative and the College & Career Readiness Initiative Faculty Collaboratives. In addition to peer-reviewed articles, curricular documents, and numerous presentations, Dr. Hougen has published two college textbooks: The Fundamentals of Literacy Assessment and Instruction Pre-K–6 (2012) and The Fundamentals of Literacy Assessment and Instruction 6–12 (2014).

Martha Hougen is a consultant of Collections.

Dr. Hougen received a B.S. in Education from University of Wisconsin at Madison, Master of Education from American University, and Ph.D. in Educational Administration from University of Texas at Austin.

Dr. Bill McBride is a former middle and high school teacher and Reading Specialist. He is most well-known for his heartwarming novel Entertaining an Elephant. He has also published Building Literacy in Social Studies and If They Can Argue Well, They Can Write Well, which shows teachers how to use simple classroom debate to teach Internet research, critical thinking, and persuasive writing. Bill presently trains teachers in content area reading methodologies, gender brain differences, using technology in the classroom, vocabulary development, and student engagement.

Dr. McBride is co-author of Holt McDougal What's Happening?, a Tier II Intervention resource for struggling secondary students. Bill has contributed to the development of a number of school textbook series for Houghton Mifflin Harcourt including Reading Toolkit for Social Studies, Vocabulary Development for Older Students, and Power Words: A Bridge to Literacy.

Dr. McBride holds a Masters in Reading and a Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Erik is an educational consultant from Denver, Colorado. He is a frequent presenter at national, regional, and state conferences. He has given keynotes and led in-service trainings for districts across the U.S. and Mexico. Erik focuses on two topics: improving student oral communication and effectively implementing technology in every classroom. He is the author of several articles and the author of three books: Well-Spoken: Teaching Speaking to All Students (Stenhouse Publishers, 2011); Digitally Speaking: How to Improve Student Presentations with Technology (Stenhouse Publishers, 2012); and Teaching the Core Skills of Listening & Speaking (ASCD, 2014).

Prior to becoming a consultant, he spent 21 years in the classroom, primarily as an English teacher but also as a teacher of math, science, and civics, and was a Teacher of the Year in the Cherry Creek School District. Before becoming a teacher, he was the national sales leader for a prominent commodity brokerage firm, a floor trader on a Chicago commodity exchange, and a founder of a publicly traded commodity investment firm.

Palmer brings a unique perspective into educational consulting and a passion that education needs to be relevant and fun.

Erik Palmer is a program consultant of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Collections.

His educational background includes Oberlin College (BA), University of Denver Law School, and the University of Colorado (MA).