Jennifer Bentley is an education administrator of the Instructional Resources Unit (IRU) in the Curriculum Frameworks and Instructional Resources Division (CFIRD) at the California Department of Education. She led the science and health content areas for CFIRD prior to becoming the administrator for the IRU. She started her career in education as a secondary science teacher in the Los Angeles Unified School District, where she taught high school science for eight years. She earned a MA in education as well as her teaching credential at the University of California, Los Angeles School of Education.

Niu Gao is a senior fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California, specializing in K–12 education. Her areas of interest include math and science education, digital learning in K–12 schools, and student transition from high school to college. Prior to joining PPIC, she worked as a quantitative policy analyst at Stanford. She holds a PhD in educational policy and an MS in economics from Florida State University.

Martín Macías is superintendent at Golden Plains Unified School District in Fresno County. He currently serves as the central valley director for the California Association of Latino Superintendents & Administrators. He has served as a board member with the Association of Two-Way & Dual Language Education to support dual language initiatives. He was involved with the planning committee with the Department of Education Accountability Leadership Institute and was a state-appointed committee member with the EL Roadmap Policy and the English Learner Progress Indicator. Prior to becoming an administrator, he was a secondary teacher in the K–12 system, while also teaching as an adjunct instructor for several institutions. He received his BA and MA from California State University, Chico and his administrative credential from Chapman University.

Heidi Schweingruber is the director of the Board on Science Education at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine. She oversees a portfolio of work that includes K–12 science education, informal science education, and higher education. She joined the board in 2004 as a senior program officer. In this role, she directed or co-directed several projects, including the study that resulted in the report A Framework for K–12 Science Education (2011), the blueprint for the Next Generation Science Standards. Most recently, she co-directed the study that produced the 2021 report Call to Action for Science Education: Building Opportunity for the Future. She is a nationally recognized leader in leveraging research findings to catalyze improvements in science and STEM education policy and practice. She holds a Ph.D. in psychology (developmental) and anthropology from the University of Michigan.