Thomas J. Cashman received his education at California State University, Los Angeles. He established one of the first business data processing programs in the U.S. at Long Beach City College in California, where he taught and served as department head. In 1969, he began collaborating with now best-selling author, Gary Shelly.

Joy Starks has taught at Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis for 20 years. She has written chapters in several of the best-selling Shelly Cashman Series Office books and has authored the Photoshop, Java Programming, and Microsoft® Publisher series of books. She speaks and presents at various conferences, seminars and forums across the U.S.