Douglas M. Fraleigh is a Professor and Chair of the Communication Department at California State University Fresno, where he also teaches in the Honors College and serves as Assessment Coordinator for the College of Arts & Humanities. His teaching and research interests include Freedom of Speech, Argumentation, and Public Discourse. He is co-author of Speak Up: An Illustrated Guide to Public Speaking and Freedom of Expression in the Marketplace of Ideas. Before becoming chair, he was active in speech and debate, coaching at Fresno State, Cornell, UC Berkeley, and California State University, Sacramento. He holds a Juris Doctor from UC Berkeley and BA from CSU Sacramento. When not busy teaching, writing, and administrating, he looks forward to running, reading, family time (especially plays and sporting events), and hanging out with his dogs. Joseph S. Tuman is a professor and former chair of the Department of Communication Studies at San Francisco State University, where he received the Jacobus tenBroek Society Award, a state-wide award for Excellence in Teaching. He has also taught at the University of California at Berkeley, the New School, and the University of Paris II, and has published widely in the field of communication studies (including Speak Up: An Illustrated Guide to Public Speaking). Joseph has appeared regularly on local and national network television and radio as a political analyst since 1984. He has served on the boards of several non-profits in Oakland, and in 2014 he was one of the leading candidates in the Mayoral race. Currently, he serves as an advisor and expert analyst regarding terrorism and social media for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). In his spare time, he is an avid triathlete and marathoner.

Katherine l. Adams has been a professor of communication for over 30 years at California State University, Fresno, where she formally served as Chair of Department of Communication and currently chairs the Department of Mass Communication & Journalism. Her primary teaching responsibilities include undergraduate and graduate courses in communication theory, interpersonal communication, and small group communication. She helped to create an honors public speaking course and taught in the Smittcamp Honors College. A former graduate of the University of Utah, she published her first interpersonal text book with her mentor and noted small group communication scholar B. Aubry Fisher. She continues to publish two text books in small group communication. She has held all the major offices in the Western States Communication Association, including its past presidency. She has also completed 4 AIDS/Lifecycle events to help raise money for the fight against AIDS.