Robert J. Durán is an associate professor of sociology at Texas A&M University. He is the author of The Gang Paradox: Inequalities and Miracles on the U.S.-Mexico Border (2018) and Gang Life in Two Cities: An Insider's Journey (2013), both published by Columbia University Press.

Oralia Loza is a professor of public health and interdisciplinary health sciences in the College of Health Sciences at the University of Texas, El Paso. Their research focuses on drug use, sexual risk, barriers to care, and sexual and gender minorities on the US-Mexico border.