Forum Network

Haynes Johnson is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, a best selling author, and a television commentator. He has reported on virtually every major national and international news event in the past four decades, including the activities of every President from Dwight D. Eisenhower to Bill Clinton. Until recently Johnson was associated with *the Washington Post* -- which he joined in 1969 -- where he served as a national reporter, assistant managing editor, and as a national affairs columnist. He appears regularly on the PBS-TV program *Washington Week in Review* and *The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer*. In 1966 Johnson won the Pulitzer Price for distinguished national reporting of the civil rights struggle in Selma, Alabama. The award marked the first time in Pulitzer Prize history that a father and son both received awards for reporting; his father, Malcolm Johnson, won in 1949 for his *New York Sun* series *Crime on the Waterfront*, which formed the basis for the Academy Award-winning film, *On the Waterfront*. Haynes Johnson is also the author of eleven books, including three national bestsellers: *Sleepwalking Through History*, *The Bay of Pigs*, and *The Landing*, a spy thriller set in World War II-era Washington and Johnson's first novel. Johnson, who holds a master's degree in American History from the University of Wisconsin, has twice been appointed the Ferris Professor of Journalism and Public Affairs at Princeton University. He has also been a Regents Lecturer at the University of California at Berkeley and a Guest Scholar at the Brookings Institution.

Jules Witcover has written several books on American politics over the last 35 years. Among them are a moving account of Bobby Kennedy's doomed 1968 presidential bid and a critical look at Reagan's election to the Presidency in 1980. In *Marathon* Witcover attempts write the definitive account of the 1976 presidential campaign.

Neil Connolly has spent a lifetime in professional kitchens, restaurants, hotels, and private clubs. His honors and achievements are many and prestigious. A sample of these include The Culinary Olympics in Germany where he received four gold medals and a perfect score in the world competition. He has been honored as a distinguished visiting chef at Johnson and Wales University. Chef Connolly has received over 35 medals and awards in his distinguished career. He was a member of the American Academy of Chefs, Confrie La Chaine des Rotisseurs Society, Verband der Koche Osterreichs, Landessektion Tirol Innesbruck Austria, and the Honorable Order of the Golden Toque Society, to mention a few, and has recently written a cookbook of his years with the Kennedy Family, entitled, *In the Kennedy Kitchen*.

Michael Fung has been headmaster of Charlestown High School for the past 10 years. He began his career in the Boston Public Schools as a math and science teacher at English High School in 1971. Fung went on to teach at Brighton High School before being appointed principal of the Taft Middle School in 1978. He served for ten years and went on to hold a variety of leadership positions in the Boston Public Schools, including District E Superintendent, High School Zone Superintendent and Director of the Office of Technology and Information Services. After year spent teaching, he was appointed headmaster of Charlestown High in 1997.

Bill Littlefield, nationally known author and veteran sports commentator, hosts WBUR and National Public Radio's *Only A Game*, a weekly one-hour sports magazine. Littlefield has provided audiences with a weekly tour through the world of sports since 1993 from WBUR in Boston. The show has covered a wide range of sports topics, from the basics of who wins and loses to issues such as racism and career opportunities for the disabled. Littlefield has been a commentator for National Public Radio since 1984. Bill Littlefield's publications include: *Keepers: Radio Stories from Only A Game and Elsewhere; Baseball Days, a collection of essays with photographs by Henry Horenstein; Champions: The Stories of Ten Remarkable Athletes; a piece entitled "A Storied Career" in Ted Williams: A Portrait in Words and Pictures*; and *the novel Prospect*, for which he also wrote a screenplay. He is the editor of Houghton Mifflin's The Best American Sports Writing, 1998. In addition to writing books and essays, Littlefield has regularly contributed commentaries to *Monitor Television's Opinion Page*, as well as in *The Atlanta Constitution, The Los Angeles Times,* and *Newsday*. Bill Littlefield has won six Associated Press Awards, and has been celebrated as one of Boston's "Literary Lights" by the associates of the Boston Public Library. He is a graduate of Yale University (cum laude) and the Harvard University of Education.

Greg Graffin is sort of the Superman of UCLA. His cover identity is Dr. Graffin, mild-mannered biology professor. But when a distress signal comes from any of thousands of nightclubs or music festivals around the world, Graffin knows exactly what to do. A quick change of clothes and he's Greg Graffin rock star, ready to save the day! Graffin is, of course, the singer for the long-running punk rock group Bad Religion, but all through that band's career Graffin has found time for academics. Graffin got his PhD at Cornell, but he earned his master's at UCLA and decided to come back to campus to begin his professorial career.

Katherine is the assistant dean for Information Technology and Media Services at the Harvard Divinity School. She holds a graduate degree in anthropology from Florida State University. She is also a former president of the board of directors of the Museum Computer Network. As the former head of the Office of Information Services and Technology at the Harvard Peabody Museum, Katherine developed the on-line exhibit entitled: "Against the Winds: Traditions of American Indian Running". She is the editor of *The Wired Museum: Emerging Technology and Changing Paradigms*, a book available from the American Association of Museums. Katherine is on the faculty of the Harvard Extension School, Masters of Liberal Arts in Museum Studies and is the research advisor to the program. She has consulted in the museum and government communities since 1985, primarily in the areas of strategic technology planning, project management and database development.

Paul Holdengraber is the Director of Public Programs at the New York Public Library.

Gordon Brown succeeded Tony Blair in 2007 as prime minister of the United Kingdom. Born in Scotland, Brown attended the University of Edinburgh, where he earned both an undergraduate degree and a doctorate in the study of history. Brown became a member of Parliament for the Labour Party in 1983, from the Scottish constituency of Dunfermline East. He rose through the ranks of the Labour Party while earning a reputation as something of a policy wonk, serious and even gloomy but with a powerful mind and a passion for detail. Brown and Blair developed a knotty relationship in the 1990s, when both were rising stars of the Labour Party. Brown stepped aside during Blair's run for the prime minister's post in 1997, allegedly with the understanding that Blair would later step down in favor of Brown. Blair took office and Brown became Chancellor of the Exchequer, but as the years passed and Blair remained on the job, Brown was said to be increasingly impatient for his turn. On 27 June 2007, Blair stepped down after a decade in office, and Brown became the prime minister. Brown has also authored books, including the political biographies *Maxton* (1986), *John Smith: Life and Soul of the Party* (1994), and *Courage* (2003).