Dillon Muhly-Alexander is a doctoral student in the Educational Policy and Planning department at the University of Texas at Austin. Dillon attended West Virginia University for his undergraduate and received an MPhil in Development Studies from the University of Cambridge. As a native West Virginian, he is particularly interested in the relationship between socioeconomic status and issues of equity, particularly within Appalachia and other developing economies.

Van Tran, originally from Vietnam, is a recent graduate from Rhodes College in Memphis, Tennessee, where she majored in International Studies with a concentration on the Asia-Pacific region and immigration. Her senior thesis, which studies the effect of political regimes on perceived discrimination among immigrants, received Rhodes College's John Franklin Copper Award for Excellence. Van's academic and professional careers combine her interests in law, international relations, and technology.