Dr. Gail L. Thompson, has written five books: A Brighter Day: How Parents Can Help African American Youth; Up Where We Belong: Helping African American and Latino Students Rise in School and in Life; African American Teens Discuss Their Schooling Experiences; What African American Parents Want Educators to Know; and Through Ebony Eyes: What Teachers Need to Know but are Afraid to Ask About African American Students, a book that has received a considerable amount of attention from educators, talk show hosts, and news reporters across the nation. One of her essays was published in USA Today, and her work has been published in numerous academic journals, and three edited books.

Dr. Thompson has appeared on PBS television’s Tony Brown’s Journal, National Public Radio, and Tavis Smiley’s radio show. She has been interviewed for Scholastic Instructor and Inside Higher Education, and has been quoted in numerous newspaper articles. She has served as a reviewer for the Educational Broadcasting Network, Millmark Education, Houghton Mifflin, and several academic journals, and has done presentations, keynote addresses, workshops, and consultant work throughout the United States and two presentations in Canada. Dr. Thompson , who taught junior high and high school for 14 years, is a member of the California Department of Education’s African American Advisory Committee. She has received several awards from student organizations and a civic award for teaching. In 2009, Claremont Graduate University gave her its “Distinguished Alumna Award.”

Dr. Thompson is married to Rufus Thompson, a veteran educator, with whom she has three children: Dr. Nafissa Thompson-Spires, Na Che’, a college undergraduate, and Stephen, a college undergraduate.

Rufus Thompson is a retired educator. He wrote part of the Heath (now Houghton Mifflin) Middle Level Literature series and High School Anthology. Starting in 1988, he trained teachers throughout California on how to implement technol­ogy into the curriculum using best practices and sound classroom principles and taught middle school for 17 years before becoming the technology coordi­nator of the Mountain View School District in Ontario, California. He also served as a representative on the San Bernardino County Best Net Advisory Board to Superintendents, and his Middle School Journalism program was recognized by the National Middle School Association as one of 80 innovative programs in the United States. Mr. Thompson, who has a mas­ter’s degree, has taught courses at the University of Redlands, Chapman University (under contract with Webmedia Solutions), Claremont Graduate University, and California Polytechnic University, Pomona as an adjunct. He has also provided extensive professional development workshops for teachers and school administrators, organized conferences, and given presentations at several conferences, including the National School Board Association, the National Middle School Association, Computer Using Education (CUE), and California Educational Technology Professional Association (CETPA). Mr. Thompson recently retired and is the owner of Tech Guy in a Box, a technology and best-practices consulting company.