CARLOTTA WALLS LANIER attended Michigan State University and graduated from Colorado State College, now the University of Northern Colorado, on whose board of trustees she sits. After working for the YWCA, she founded her own real estate brokerage firm, LaNier and Company. A sought-after lecturer, LaNier speaks at venues across the country, and she has received the Congressional Medal of Honor and two honorary doctorate degrees. She lives in Englewood, Colorado.

LISA FRAZIER PAGE, a professional-in-residence at Louisiana State University, is a former editor and award-winning reporter at the Washington Post. She is coauthor of the New York Times bestseller The Pact: Three Young Men Make a Promise and Fulfill a Dream, and she has collaborated on several other books. A graduate of Dillard University in New Orleans, Page holds a master's degree from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism. She lives in the New Orleans metropolitan area with her husband, and they have four adult children.