Tina L. Heafner, Ph.D. serves as a professor at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte (UNC Charlotte) Department of Middle, Secondary, and K-12 Education. She also directs the Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction and the M.Ed. in Secondary Education at UNC Charlotte. She has over 28 years of experience as a social studies educator in K-12 schools and a social studies methodologist in higher education. Her teaching and research is focused on effective practices in social studies education with particular emphasis in online learning and disciplinary literacy as well as curriculum and policy issues in social studies, which is coupled with two decades of work documenting the national trend of the marginalization of social studies in elementary schools. 

Stefanie Wager, M.Ed., MEDL,​  is the Social Studies Consultant for the Iowa Department of Education, providing leadership and guidance at the state level for social studies education. She received both a Bachelor's and Master's degree from Drake University in Des Moines, IA and taught high school social studies for Des Moines Public Schools, Dallas Center-Grimes Schools, as well as worked at Instituto Thomas Jefferson in Naucalpan, Mexico. She formerly served as the coordinator of a Teaching American History Grant and was named an Emerging Leader in Education by ASCD in 2011. Stefanie has been involved in the Iowa Council for the Social Studies since 2010, first serving as co-chair for the Annual Conference, then Vice-President, and now President. A member of NCSS and its' associated group, Council of State Social Studies Specialists (CS4), she has worked on the NCSS Strategic Plan Committee, Executive Director Search Committee, and the Associated Group Ad-Hoc Committee, among others. Stefanie currently serves on the NCSS Board of Directors as the incoming president 2020-2021.