Dr. Kathryn Yount is an associate professor of Global Health and Sociology at Emory University and has conducted research on gender and the family in Egypt and the Middle East since 1995. She has received grants for this work from Emory, as well as the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, the World Bank, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation to Emory University, and the Andrew Mellon Foundation to Johns Hopkins University. She has received awards from Emory and the American Public Health Association for her research.

Dr. Hoda Rashad is Director and Research Professor of the Social Research Center of the American University in Cairo and conducted a large body of research on development issues. She is a member of WHO Commission on "Social Determinants of Health", and the Council of the International Union of Scientific Study of Population (IUSSP). In Egypt, She is member of the Senate (El Shoura Council), one of the two parliamentary bodies in Egypt. She also serves on the National Council for Women, which reports to the President of Egypt.