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Kathleen Cushman is a writer who has specialized in education and school reform for almost two decades. Her work has appeared in the *Harvard Education Letter*, *Educational Leadership*, *Phi Delta Kappan*, the *Atlantic Monthly*, the *New Yorker*, and many other national magazines. Cushman has been writer and editor of two school reform journals, *Horace* and *Challenge Journal*. She is the author or co-author of ten books, including *First in the Family* (Next Generation Press, 2005, 2006), *Fires in the Bathroom: Advice for Teachers from High School Students* (New Press, 2003), *Schooling for the Real World with Adria Steinberg and Rob Riordan* (Jossey-Bass, 2000) and *The Real Boys Workbook*, with William S. Pollack (Random House, 2001).

**Dr. Gregory Skomal** is an accomplished marine biologist, underwater explorer, photographer, aquarist, and author. He has been a fisheries biologist with the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries since 1987 and currently heads up the Massachusetts Shark Research Program. Greg holds a master's degree in marine biology from the University of Rhode Island and a PhD from the Boston University Marine Program in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. His research has spanned multiple fish habitats around the globe, taking him from the frigid waters of the Arctic Circle to coral reefs in the tropical Central Pacific. He has written numerous scientific research papers and has appeared in a number of film and television documentaries, including programs for the National Geographic Channel, Discovery Channel, ESPN, and CBS. Although his research passion for the last 23 years has been sharks, he has been an avid aquarist for more than 30 years and has written nine books on aquarium keeping. His home and laboratory are on the island of Martha's Vineyard off the coast of Massachusetts.

David Dearinger is Susan Morse Hilles curator of paintings and sculpture at the Boston Athenaeum. An art historian and curator, he received his PhD from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, with a specialty in nineteenth-century American art. He taught art history in New York at Brooklyn College, Hunter College and, for many years, at the Fashion Institute of Technology. Before coming to Boston, he was chief curator at the National Academy of Design in New York. He has published and lectured widely on the history of American painting and sculpture.

Larry Madin is a Marine Biologist and WHOI Senior Science Advisor; and retired Deputy Director/VP for Research at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI). His main research interests are in the biology of oceanic and deep-sea zooplankton, particularly medusae, siphonophores, ctenophores and pelagic tunicates. He was among the first biologists to use SCUBA and submersibles to study oceanic plankton in the early 1970s. Some of his recent research has been on the population dynamics and biogeochemical effects of salp blooms in the Antarctic and elsewhere, distribution of macro-plankton and fishes in the Arabian Sea, biodiversity of oceanic plankton in the Sargasso Sea, and development of new instrumentation for sampling and exploration. Dr. Madin was previously the Chair of the WHOI Biology Department, and Director of the Ocean Life Institute.

Robert Carlyle Byrd is the senior United States Senator from West Virginia, and a member and former Senate Leader of the Democratic Party. Byrd has been a Senator since January 3, 1959 and is the longest-serving member in the Senate's history. He is also the oldest current member of the United States Congress, and is the first politician in US history to serve as a US senator uninterrupted for half a century. Byrd is President pro tempore of the United States Senate, a position that puts him third in the line of presidential succession, behind Vice President Joe Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. He also held this post previously from 1989 to 1995, briefly in January 2001, and from June 2001 to January 2003. In this role, Sen. Byrd signs bills passed by Congress before they are sent to the president to be signed into law or vetoed. Byrd holds a wide variation of both liberal and conservative political views. A lifelong Democrat, Byrd did not leave the party as its views shifted from social conservatism to social liberalism, as his views on race changed over time as well. He has also held many leadership positions: Senate Conference Secretary, Majority Whip and twice Majority Leader. He is the only former party leader currently in the Senate.

Congressman Steny Hoyer of Maryland's Fifth Congressional District was first elected to serve as House Majority Leader in November 2006 and again in 2008 by his colleagues in the Democratic Caucus, after serving as the Democratic Whip in the previous two Congresses. As the Majority Leader, Congressman Hoyer is charged with scheduling legislation for consideration on the House Floor, as well as building unity among House Democrats and delivering the Democratic Party's message. Congressman Hoyer's service as Majority Leader makes him the highest ranking Member of Congress from Maryland in history. Now serving his 15th term in Congress, he also became the longest serving Member of the US House of Representatives from Maryland in history on June 4, 2007.