Dr. Edith Fernandez is a native Las Vegan, a Chicana American. In the 1950s, her parents emigrated from Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico and joined family already residing in Las Vegas area since the 1920s. The Fernandez family of three children grew up in Charleston Heights as one of a very few Latinx families in the predominantly white community.

Walter Varah Long (1899-1986) was an educator in Southern Nevada for 48 years and was active in local, state, and national efforts to improve education. Long was born in Pioche, Lincoln County, Nevada on August 21, 1899. He was raised in the farming community of Panaca, Nevada and graduated from Lincoln County High School. After teaching in Panaca for two years, he furthered his education, ultimately earning his Bachelor of Science degree in School Administration from the University of Utah.

Isaac Eloy Barrón identifies as a Mexican American. However, as he explains, it took a move five hundred miles away, from North Las Vegas to Winnemucca, to learn what it meant to be Mexican—and that he spoke with a Chihuahuan accent. It was also in Winnemucca that Barrón lauched his stellar career as an educator.