Forum Network

Karen L. Mapp is a lecturer on education at HGSE. Her research and practice expertise is in the areas of educational leadership and educational partnerships among schools, families, and community members. Mapp joined HGSE in January 2005 after serving for 18 months as the interim deputy superintendent of Family and Community Engagement for the Boston Public Schools (BPS). While working with the BPS, she continued to fulfill her duties as president of the Institute for Responsive Education (IRE); an organization that conducts research on and advocates for effective school, family, and community partnerships that support the educational development of children. Mapp joined IRE in 1997 as project director for the Boston Community Partners for Students' Success initiative. She was appointed vice president in May 1998 and president in September 1998. Mapp holds a doctorate and master's of education from HGSE in Administration, Planning, and Social Policy, a master's in Counselor Education from Southern Connecticut State University, and a bachelor's degree in psychology from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut. In 1997, she was awarded a Spencer Dissertation Fellowship for her research on how and why families are involved in their children's educational development. She is the author of "Making the Connection between Families and Schools," published by the *Harvard Education Letter* (1997) and "Having Their Say: Parents Describe How and Why They Are Engaged in Their Children's Learning" in the *School Community Journal* (2002). She also coauthored with Anne Henderson *A New Wave of Evidence: The Impact of School, Family and Community Connections on Student Achievement* (2002).

Byron Hurt is an award winning documentary filmmaker, a published writer, and an anti sexism activist. His most recent documentary, Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes premiered at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival. It was later broadcast nationally on the Emmy award winning PBS series Independent Lens, drawing an audience of more than 1.3 million viewers. As an activist, Byron has served as a long-time gender violence prevention educator. The former Northeastern University football quarterback was also a founding member of the Mentors in Violence Prevention program, the leading college based rape and domestic violence prevention initiative for college and professional athletics. Hurt is also the former Associate Director of the first gender violence prevention program in the US Marine Corps.

Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., Frances Shrand had lived on three continents, finally settling back in the United States in the Boston area. Her acting career started when she won a performance award as a 13-year-old in Cape Town, South Africa. Graduating from the University of Cape Town, she was heralded as a rising star, and her career included working with stage actors including Susan Sontag, Robert Brustein, Peter Sellars and Toby Armour. She was best known as Frances Shrand of The Spider's Web, the WGBH radio show for which she won two Armstrong Awards. Whether riding bareback on a bull in a WGBH television show about strong and remarkable American women or her performances of a Pinter character, she portrayed dozens of the greatest literary characters in theater. In addition, she became well known for her readings of Sufi tales and was a renowned teacher of elocution to lawyers in the Boston area. She also started an etiquette course at the Parker House Hotel to teach children manners needed for polite conversation at a fancy restaurant.

Bob Lyons oversees web and streaming services for WGBH's radio, television, and cable outlets, in addition to satellite radio initiatives and national radio projects. His recent projects include launching public broadcasting's first podcasts (October 2004), and the creation of the WGBH Forum Network. He is currently developing blogs and podcasts for WGBH, working on meta-data standards for public radio's digital broadcast service, and serving on a national consortium of public broadcasters to develope new platforms for downloadable distribution on public radio and television content. Lyons also teaches music production for radio and the web at Northeastern University. His background includes award-winning radio work as a producer and executive producer. He was co-creator and executive producer of NPR's word-quiz radio show *Says You* and developed national radio companions for several PBS series including *Martin Scorsese presents The Blues*, *Africans in America*, and *Rock and Roll*, along with numerous music specials for NPR, PRI, and Warner Reprise.