Joseph Sparling, Ph.D., an early childhood educator and former teacher and principal, is the first author of LearningGames^®, The Abecedarian Curriculum, Partners for Learning, and Conversation Books, educational resources that have been used widely in the United States and abroad. He is a Fellow of the Frank Porter Child Development Institute of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and is a Research Professor at Georgetown University. In addition to his work in the United States, Dr. Sparling has developed curriculum and provided training and intervention services for orphanages in Romania.

Kimberly Sparling is the President of MindNurture, Inc. She has co-authored several early childhood education products and has provided early childhood consulting and training services to numerous organizations and school systems. Kimberly holds a Master of Business Administration degree and has completed two additional years of graduate work in Applied Developmental Psychology. Her thesis work was on the early identification of gifted minorities.

Sally Edwards launched one of the first preschool special needs model literacy classrooms in the nation and taught people with disabilities and limited English proficiency for nearly 30 years. Subsequently, she analyzed educational outcomes for children with disabilities in all 50 states, provided technical assistance to childcare providers, and trained Even Start staff nationally. Recently, she co-authored a New Teacher Kit for inclusive classrooms for young children, and facilitated two statewide initiatives to build cultural competence for early childhood and early intervention personnel.  

Falesha Houston is the Administrative Coordinator at the MindNurture office in North Carolina.  She has spent six years working for a nongovernmental organization with a focus on maternal and child health (birth–5 years) in developing countries in Latin America. She has a background in Communications and Graphic Arts.