Dr. Gail L. Thompson, Founder & CEO of Inspirations by Gail LLC, is a critically acclaimed author of many articles and books; former secondary school teacher; and former Executive Director of Equity at Illuminate Education. During her years as the Wells Fargo Endowed Professor of Education at Fayetteville State University, she created and served as Director of the Black Men Teaching (BMT) Program, and supervised doctoral students.

 In addition to creating and implementing "The Literacy Club," an afterschool reading incentive program for struggling readers at several schools, Dr. Thompson has appeared on numerous television and radio programs, including PBS Television's "Tony Brown Journal."

Dr. Thompson books include the award-nominated The Power of One: How You Can Help or Harm African American Students; Through Ebony Eyes: What Teachers Need to Know but are Afraid to Ask About African American Students; and Up Where We Belong: Helping African American and Latino Students Rise in School and in Life.

Rufus Thompson is a retired educator. He wrote part of the Heath (now Houghton Mifflin) Middle Level Literature series and High School Anthology. Starting in 1988, he trained teachers throughout California on how to implement technol­ogy into the curriculum using best practices and sound classroom principles and taught middle school for 17 years before becoming the technology coordi­nator of the Mountain View School District in Ontario, California. He also served as a representative on the San Bernardino County BestNet Advisory Board to Superintendents, and his Middle School Journalism program was recognized by the National Middle School Association as one of 80 innovative programs in the United States.  Mr. Thompson, who has a mas­ter's degree, has taught courses at the University of Redlands, Chapman University (under contract with Webmedia Solutions), Claremont Graduate University, and California Polytechnic University, Pomona as an adjunct. He has also provided extensive professional development workshops for teachers and school administrators, organized conferences, and given presentations at several conferences, including the National School Board Association, the National Middle School Association, Computer Using Education (CUE), and California Educational Technology Professional Association (CETPA).  Mr. Thompson recently retired and is the owner of Tech Guy in a Box, a technology and best-practices consulting company.