Arleen R. Bessette is a psychologist and mycologist who has been collecting and studying wild mushrooms for more than fifty years. She has authored or coauthored several books on mushrooms and teaches classes on mycology and the culinary aspects of mycophagy.William C. Roody is a Wildlife Diversity Biologist with the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources. He has authored or coauthored several books on mushrooms and other macrofungi and has won several national awards for his photography.
Walt Sturgeon is a field mycologist with over forty years of experience studying and identifying mushrooms. His photos of mushroom and fungi, some award-winning, can be seen in numerous mushroom field guide publications, three of which he coauthored. One of these, Mushrooms of the Northeast, was awarded the best field guide of 2016 by the National Outdoor Writers Association