Lisa J. Lefler is director of the Culturally-Based Native Health Program at Western Carolina University and also founder and former executive director of the Center for Native Health. She is editor of Anthropology: Weaving Our Discipline with Community, Under the Rattlesnake: Cherokee Health and Resiliency, and Southern Foodways and Culture: Local Considerations and Beyond and coeditor of Southern Indians and Anthropologists: Culture, Politics, and Identity.

Thomas N. Belt is a retired coordinator of Western Carolina University's program in Cherokee language and recipient of an honorary doctorate degree from Western Carolina University and a national honor for service from the Cherokee Nation. He is cofounder of the annual Rooted in the Mountains Symposium.