George M. Diggs, Jr. was born 4 February 1952 in Charlottesville, Virginia. He attended the College of William and Mary (B.S. 1974, M.A. 1976) and the University of Wisconsin-Madison (Ph.D. 1981). He has been a faculty member in the Biology Department of Austin College, Sherman, Texas, since 1981. In 1994, he was made a Research Associate at the Botanical Research Institute of Texas. His research interests include the flora of Texas, neotropical floristics, and the systematics of the Ericaceae, particularly the Arbuteae. He has done field work in Africa, Australia, Mexico, Central and South America, Canada, and the U.S. In 1999, Diggs, together with co-authors Lipscomb and O'Kennon, published Shinners & Mahler's Illustrated Flora of North Central Texas, the first fully illustrated flora for any part of Texas. Diggs frequently takes groups of undergraduates on tropical natural history field courses to Latin America and Africa in an effort to increase
knowledge of tropical ecosystems and to raise awareness of current ecological problems including the accelerating destruction of tropical forests. He is active in Austin College's Center for Environmental Studies.

Barney L. Lipscomb was born 24 October 1950 in Temple, Oklahoma. He attended Cameron University, Lawton, Oklahoma (B.S. 1973) and the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville (M.S. 1975). He began his career as herbarium botanist at Southern Methodist University in 1975. Two years later he became the assistant editor of Sida, Contributions to Botany. In 1983 he became editor of Sida, and in 1987, with Dr. William F. Mahler, founded Sida, Botanical Miscellany. Also in 1987, Lipscomb, Mahler, and Andrea McFadden, were instrumental in the establishment of a free-standing research institution, the
Botanical Research Institute of Texas (BRIT), located in Fort Worth. Lipscomb has served at BRIT since its inception, was named Assistant Director in 1993 and was appointed the Leonhardt Chair of Texas Botany in 2001. He is currently director of the Texas Floras Program and editor with the BRIT Press. His research specialties include the flora of Texas and the genus Cyperus (Cyperaceae). He has done field work in various parts of the United States as well as Mexico and Central America. In an effort to increase public awareness, Lipscomb frequently gives talks on plants and conservation to preschoolers, garden clubs, plant-oriented societies, high school and college groups, and civic organizations.

Robert J. George was born on 5 August 1952 in Brownsville, Texas. He attended the University of Texas, Austin Texas (B.A. 1975) and Stephen F. Austin State University, Nacogdoches, Texas (M.S. 1987). He served as an adjunct faculty at Austin Community College from 1988 to 1997. He was employed at the Botanical Research Institute of Texas from 1999 to 2012, were he served as the project manager for the Illustrated Flora of East Texas, Vol. 1 and for the Ferns and Lycophytes of Texas. He also delivered various presentations, and participated in informal botany classes for the organization. Again, at the Botanical Research Institute from 2019 to present he serves as Project Manager and coauthor of the Illustrated Flora of East Texas, Vol. Two. He maintains an interest in local and Texas flora.