H. L. (Bud) Goodall, Jr. was Professor of Communication and Director of the Hugh Downs School of Human Communication at Arizona State University until his death in 2012. He was the author or co-author of 20 books, including A Need to Know: The Clandestine History of a CIA Family (Left Coast Press, 2006), which won the "Best Book of 2007" award from the Ethnography Division of the National Communication Association, as well as over 150 articles, chapters, and papers.

Christopher N. Poulos is Professor and Head of the Department of Communication Studies at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.