Lynette Emmons graduated from Indiana University with a B.S. in Elementary Education. She went on to earn her Master's Degree in Curriculum and Instruction at National-Louis University. A former CPS teacher and currently Director of The Center for City Schools,  Lynette has for the past nine years been involved with classroom consulting, staff development workshops and leadership development for Elementary and High Schools around the country.

Pete Leki is the Chicago coordinator of the Parent Project, as well as a musician and environmentalist. In his official role, Pete works to facilitate deep and genuine parent involvement through workshops demonstrating Best Practice teaching and learning. He is instrumental in developing community gardens, "Friends of the River", and ecology studies in elementary schools. His latest publication is : History Comes Home: Family Stories Across the Curriculum (1999) written with Pat Bearden, Yolanda Simmons, and Steve Zemelman.

Barbara Morris taught children in the Chicago Public Schools for 29 years before joining the faculty of National-Louis University in 1994. In addition to her extensive staff development and classroom consulting work, Barbara helps lead the Parent Project in Chicago, which models workshop-style instruction for parents. Recently, she has served as a special classroom consultant to schools in Chicago, the suburbs, and Green Bay, Wisconsin.

Toni Murff has taught for thirty-five years, working both as a regular classroom teacher and a computer lab teacher. Toni has not only taught students—she has even taken a number of them to Africa! This year, she is serving the lead teacher-consultant on the Chicago Public School Element Network, which means she regularly visits other teachers in their classrooms to demonstrate and assist.  Toni also sets up network meetings and cross-site visits for teachers.

Jessica Swanson taught English at Warren Township High School and supervised student teachers. She currently works as a secondary teacher-consultant at the Center for City Schools, creating a network of urban and suburban high schools. Jessica also helps teachers implement best practices directly in their classrooms.

Yolanda Simmons taught English at Martin Luther King High School in Chicago, and coordinated the Perkins school-to-work project. Now Yolanda works at the Center for City Schools where she gives energizing and moving workshops on the family history project she co-developed with her sister, Pat Bearden. Under an Annenberg Challenge Grant, Yolanda also serves as a classroom consultant at Best Practice High School and coordinates the school's professional development and visitation programs.

Pat Bearden is a retired Chicago Public Schools teacher who has since organized the Family History Project.  Pat goes into schools and works with classrooms helping students to trace their family heritage.  This project is incorporated with writing, reading, history and art. 

Laura Forecki is an alumnus of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and Columbia College. She is a native Chicago artist working across the city integrating arts into the classroom curriculum.