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Former *Beavis and Butt-Head* writer David Giffels is a columnist for *the Akron Beacon Journal* and the author of *All the Way Home: Building a Family in a Falling-down House*, a memoir about coming of age as a father in a ramshackle mansion reclaimed from termites, belligerent squirrels, and decades of neglect. Giffels is also the coauthor of two other books: the rock biography *Are We Not Men? We Are Devo! *(2003); and *Wheels of Fortune: The Story of Rubber in Akron*. His essays appear in *The American Midwest: An Interpretive Encyclopedia* (2006), and *The Appalachians: Americas First and Last Frontier *(2004), and he received a Notable Essay citation in Da Capo Best Music Writing 2004. He has written the introduction to a *West Point Market cookbook*, to be published by the University of Akron Press this fall.

The screenwriter and co-producer of *American Beauty*, Alan Ball earned almost overnight acclaim and recognition for his screenplay for the film, which won a Best Original Screenplay Oscar and Golden Globe, as well as numerous other honors. Ball's success was a long time coming; much of the frustration and anger felt by *American Beauty*'s protagonist, Lester Burnham, was inspired by the screenwriter's own dissatisfaction with his years spent working as a television writer and producer.

Steven Rafael founded Required Viewing, an independent film consultation agency, in 2004. Recently profiled in MovieMaker's "Top 25 People in Independent Film", Mr. Rafael has represented films as diverse as Guillermo del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth, Josh Marston's Maria Full of Grace, Mike Leigh's Vera Drake, and David Cronenberg's A History of Violence.

Ever since she was first elected to the State Legislature in 1992, Debra Bowen has been a pioneer in government reform, consumer protection and privacy rights, environmental conservation, and open government.