Anthony Oliver-Smith is a professor emeritus in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Florida, USA. He has done anthropological research and consultation on issues relating to disasters and involuntary resettlement in Peru, Honduras, India, Brazil, Jamaica, Mexico, Japan, Panama, and the United States since the 1970s. His current work is concerned with climate change, disasters, displacement, and migration. He is a recipient of the Bronislaw Malinowski Lifetime Achievement Award given by the Society for Applied Anthropology.

Susanna M. Hoffman is an internationally recognized expert on disaster. She is the author, co-author, and editor of twelve books, two ethnographic films, and more than forty articles and chapters. She initiated the Risk and Disaster Thematic Interest Group for the Society for Applied Anthropology, and is the founder and chair of the Risk and Disaster Commission for the International Union of Anthropology and Ethnographic Sciences. She was the first recipient of the Fulbright Foundation's Aegean Initiative dealing with the Greek and Turkish earthquakes, and helped write the United Nations Statement on Women and Disasters. She is a frequent national and international speaker, and also serves on the Task Force on World Food Problems.