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Mitchell J. Chang is Professor of Higher Education and Organizational Change at the University of California, Los Angeles and also holds a joint appointment in the Asian American Studies Department. He previously worked as an Associate Dean at Loyola Marymount University and school evaluator at Alum Rock Union Elementary School District in San Jose, California. Chang's research focuses on the educational efficacy of diversity-related initiatives on college campuses and how to apply those best practices toward advancing student learning and democratizing institutions. He has written over fifty articles and book chapters, and has served on several editorial boards, including The Review of Higher Education, Liberal Education, Equity & Excellence, and Amerasia. He also served as the lead editor of Compelling Interest: Examining the Evidence on Racial Dynamics in Higher Education (with D. Witt, J. Jones, & K. Hakuta, 2003: Stanford University Press).

Charles Payne is the Frank P. Hixon Professor in the School of Social Service Administration at the University of Chicago, where is he also an affiliate of the Center for Urban School Improvement. His interests include urban education and school reform, social inequality, social change and modern African American history. He is the author of Getting What We Ask For: The Ambiguity of Success and Failure In Urban Education (1984) and I've Got the Light of Freedom: The Organizing Tradition in the Mississippi Civil Rights Movement (1995). The latter has won awards from the Southern Regional Council, Choice Magazine, the Simon Wisenthal Center and the Gustavus Myers Center for the Study of Human Rights in North America. Payne has taught at Southern University, Williams College, Northwestern University and Duke University. He has won several teaching awards and at Northwestern, he held the Charles Deering McCormick Chair for Teaching Excellence and at Duke, the Sally Dalton Robinson Chair for excellence in teaching and research. Payne holds a bachelor's degree in Afro-American studies from Syracuse University and a doctorate in sociology from Northwestern.

Gore Vidal was born in 1925 to West Point aeronautics instructor Gene Vidal and his wife Nina. Young Gore spent much of his childhood with his blind grandfather, Senator T.P. Gore of Oklahoma. He is also a cousin of Tennessee ex-senator and ex-vice president Al Gore . Vidal would later became the stepbrother and confidant of Jacqueline Kennedy when his mother married Jackie's ex-stepfather, Hugh D. Auchincloss. After graduating from Phillips Exeter Academy in 1943, Gore joined the US Army Reserves. Some of his Army experiences inspired his first novel, *Williwaw*, which was published when he was just 19. Subsequent novels would prominently feature gay male characters, and Gore found soon found his books had staying power on bestseller lists. In 1960, he unsuccessfully ran for Congress, backed by celebrity supporters like Paul Newman & Vidal's ex-fiance Joanne Woodward . Another unsuccessful foray into politics would occur in 1982 when he ran for governor of California. In addition to being an accomplished writer, he is also a novice actor. His biggest roles to date have been in *Gattaca* (1997), *Bob Roberts* (1992), and *With Honors* (1994).

Charles Vert Willie is the Charles William Eliot Professor of Education, Emeritus. He is a sociologist whose areas of research include desegregation, higher education, public health, race relations, urban community problems, and family life. Before coming to HGSE, he was chairman of the Department of Sociology and vice president of student affairs at Syracuse University. He was appointed by President Jimmy Carter to the President's Commission on Mental Health and has been a member of the Board of Directors of the Social Science Research Council. He also has served as vice president of the American Sociological Association and president of the Eastern Sociological Society. Willie has served as a consultant, expert witness, and court-appointed master in major school desegregation cases in larger cities such as Boston, Hartford, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Kansas City, Little Rock, Milwaukee, San Jose, Seattle, and St. Louis; and in other municipalities such as St. Lucie County and Lee County, Florida, and Somerville, Cambridge, and Brockton, Massachusetts. Willie is the author or editor of over 100 articles and 30 books on issues of race, gender, socioeconomic status, religion, education, urban communities, and family relations. Willie identifies himself as an applied sociologist who is concerned with solving social problems.

Senior Vice President Marc Cutler is the manager of the Cambridge Systematics's Travel Demand Forecasting business line. Mr. Cutler specializes in managing large multimodal transportation planning and policy projects. He has managed numerous studies in transportation planning, traffic engineering, traffic management, and travel demand modeling and forecasting. Mr. Cutler recently has led several large studies for the New York City Economic Development Corporation, the New York Metropolitan Transportation Council, and the Minnesota Department of Transportation. For the Georgia Department of Transportation, he led both the Interstate Highway System Plan and the Statewide Transportation Plan. Additionally, he served as manager of transportation planning for the Central Artery/Tunnel project in Boston, and conducted numerous development-related traffic studies throughout Boston. Mr. Cutler received a Master's degree in Urban Planning from Tufts University, a Master's degree in Education from Harvard University, and a Bachelor's degree in Political Science from Tufts University.

Harry M. Jansen Kraemer, Jr. is an executive partner with Madison Dearborn, a private equity firm based in Chicago and also a clinical professor of management and strategy at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management. He is the former chairman and chief executive officer of Baxter International Inc., a $9 billion global healthcare company. He became Baxter's chief executive officer in January 1999, and assumed the additional responsibility of chairman of Baxter's board of directors in January 2000. Mr. Kraemer joined Baxter in 1982 as director of corporate development. His twenty two year career at Baxter included senior positions in both domestic and international operations. In 1993, he was named senior vice president and chief financial officer. Over the next several years, he assumed additional responsibility for Baxter's Renal and Medication Delivery businesses. In April 1997, Mr. Kraemer was named president of Baxter International Inc. Mr. Kraemer is active in business, education and civic affairs. He serves on the board of directors of Science Applications International Corporation and Sirona Dental Systems GmbH, and on the board of trustees of Lawrence University, Northwestern University, the Conference Board and Evanston Northwestern Healthcare. He is a member of the Dean's Advisory Board of Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management, the Dean's Advisory Board of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and the Advisory Board of LEK Consulting.

Orit Gadiesh is chairman of Bain & Company, Inc. and a world-renowned expert on management and corporate strategy. She holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and was a Baker Scholar. She is a member of the International Advisory Board at Haute Ecole Commerciale in France. She is also a member of the Foundation Board for the World Economic Forum, and on the Board of Directors of The Peres Institute for Peace as well as the Council on Foreign Relations, and a trustee for Eisenhower Fellowships and a member of the Business Committee of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Geshe Tsetan is a Tibetan Buddhist monk from Ladakh, India who has been living and teaching in the United States for nearly fifteen years. He began his monastic life at age seven in Stok, his family village. At age thirteen he joined the Stok Monastery to study and memorize Buddhist scriptures. His dream was to receive the Geshe degree in Buddhist philosophy, similar in level to that of the Western Ph.D. This dream was deferred for him when the Chinese government intensified their policy of cultural genocide on occupied Tibet in 1959. The daily public humiliation and torture of monks by Chinese officials and the mass destruction of the monasteries and colleges made it impossible to continue the pursuit of this degree there. He fled to his homeland in 1960 for safety. From 1974-1978 he taught high school in Ladakh. Then he met with a special invitation to come to the United States and teach at the first Tibetan Buddhist learning center of America, Labsum Shedrub Ling in Washington, New Jersey. He went in hopes of learning English and completing his Geshe degree studies. He accomplished both, and in 1984 returned to the Drepung Monastery for commencement. Since that time Geshe Tsetan has been living and teaching in the United States from October to June and returning to Ladakh during the summer months to oversee activities at the school. While in the states, he divides his time between Maine and New York City with additional teaching trips to Amhurst, MA and other areas of the United States. His association with the Manjushri Center in Amherst has provided him with extensive teaching positions and lecturing opportunities at a number of schools including Smith, Bowdoin, Amherst, Hampshire, Drew, Maine College of Art, Bangor Theological Seminary, Phillips Exeter Academy, Deerfield Academy, and others. Geshe Tsetan wants to further extend his teaching to the young people of Ladakh, making the Siddhartha School/Choskor Stok the fulfillment of his lifelong commitment to learning.