Dr. Donna Housman has spent her professional career in the world of early childhood development and education. As a clinical psychologist, she began her career working with children and adolescents on issues such as anxiety, depression, eating disorders, and suicide. Believing that it is far easier to prevent than repair, Dr. Housman founded Housman Institute, along with its lab school and early childhood development center, based on emotional foundations of learning and cognition and informed by research in neuroscience, child development and early education. Seizing the opportunity to inform the architecture of the brain in the earliest years, her Emotional, Cognitive, and Social Early Learning approach, begin to ECSEL, promotes healthy brain development and a positive sense of self by fostering the building blocks of emotional intelligence starting from birth. Dr. Housman has trained thousands of early childhood educators, children, and families in her ECSEL approach while being a consistent source of vital counsel and guidance for families and educators on young children's social and emotional development.

Renée Andriani graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design and worked as an artist and writer for Hallmark for many years before starting her own graphic recording business and illustrating full time. Renée has created art for more than 25 children's books for clients including Little, Brown, HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster, Holiday House, and Penguin Random House. She was especially drawn to working on the ECSELent Adventures series because of all the fun and expressiveness in the stories and characters! She grew up in Connecticut and now lives near Kansas City, Missouri.