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Vice Admiral H. Denby Starling II assumed command of Naval Network Warfare Command on June 15, 2007. He is responsible for operating, maintaining and defending Navy networks, and conducting information operations and space operations. Overseeing a global force of more than 14,000, he is also the functional Component Commander to U.S. Strategic Command for space, information operations and network operations. He was designated a Naval Flight Officer in March 1975, and a Naval Aviator in March 1983. At sea, Vice Adm. Starling flew the A-6 Intruder with the Black Falcons of VA-85, the Golden Intruders of VA-128 as an instructor, and the Milestones of VA-196 as a department head. Additionally, he served as the commissioning executive officer of USS John C. Stennis (CVN 74). Ashore, Vice Adm. Starling served on the staff of Medium Attack Tactical Electronic Warfare Wing, Pacific, and as a student at the Naval War College, where he graduated with Highest Distinction. His first flag assignment was to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in Northwood, U.K., as the Assistant Chief of Staff, Operations, Intelligence and Exercises, for the Commander-in-Chief East Atlantic/Commander Allied Naval Forces Northern Europe.

Laurie Donnelly serves as Executive Producer for "Go Put Your Strengths to Work". As the Emmy Award-winning Executive Producer in charge of the WGBH Lifestyle Unit, Donnelly also helps guide content and provides invaluable direction for some of public televisions most high-profile series, including *This Old House*, *Ask This Old House*, and *Real Simple*. Additionally, she is currently the Executive Producer of the Emmy Award-winning PBS series *The Victory Garden* and the public television series *Simply Ming* starring celebrity chef Ming Tsai. Donnelly's past production credits include the recent prime-time PBS reality series *Cooking Under Fire*, the popular and long-running special *Evening at Pops*, and several highly acclaimed how-to programs including fitness specials with wellness guru *Loretta LaRoche*, *The Motley Fools Money-Making*, life-changing special *Hot off the Grill*, and the on-air radio cooking special *From Julias Kitchen with Julia Child*.

Katherine Merseth's work concentrates on charter schools, teacher education, mathematics education, and the case-method of instruction. At Harvard, she founded the Harvard Children's Initiative, a university-wide program focusing on the needs of children as well as the School Leadership and the Teacher Education Programs at the School of Education. In mathematics education, she was the principal investigator of the Mathematics Case Development Project funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Massachusetts Math and Science Partnership working with middle school mathematics teachers using classroom based cases; she also served as co-principal investigator of the Teacher Education Addressing Mathematics and Science in Boston and Cambridge Project. Her book, Windows on Teaching Mathematics: Cases of Secondary Mathematics Classrooms (Teachers College Press), represents work in mathematics education and the case method while her involvement as a case method teacher of school administrators exists in her Cases in Educational Administration (Longman). In the charter field, she recently concluded a two year study examining best practices in high performing urban charter schools which culminated in the book, Inside Urban Charter Schools (Harvard Education Publishing Group). View an interview about the book. Merseth has served as a math curriculum developer, teacher, and administrator in K12 schools. In addition to her Harvard doctorate, Merseth holds a bachelor's in mathematics from Cornell University, a master's in mathematics from Boston College, and a master of arts in teaching secondary mathematics from Harvard. She spends any free time on her tractor at her Maine farmhouse, hiking, playing tennis, or rowing on the Charles.

Karen Herbaugh is the curator at the American Textile History Museum. She joined the ATHM staff in 1994, when she was hired as part of the project team to move the Museum's textile and wooden tool and machinery collections to Lowell. Since that time, she has assumed increasing responsibilities within the collections department and is now curator of those collections. She has coordinated and mounted several of ATHM's recent temporary exhibitions. She holds a BS from Arizona State University and an M.S. from Oregon State University in historic costume and textiles. She serves on the Costume Society of America, Region I board of directors and the Textile Society of America 2002 biennial symposium committee.

While growing up in Michigan, Monica Groves had as many ideas about what she wanted to do with her life as there was snow. There was only one profession that was not an option, and that was teaching. She couldn't imagine being the one in the front of the classroom sometimes loved and sometimes not demanding the respect of a class. Although future careers changed throughout the years, one thing remained the same - she loved being a student. Monica's studies led her to attend the University of Virginia where she double majored in her two passions, English Language and Literature and Spanish. During her time at UVA, Monica thrived as a member of Resident Staff, and the unforgettable influence of two professors in particular inspired her to reconsider her outlook on teaching.

Allen Gontz is an Associate Professor of Coastal Geology and Geophysics at UMass Boston. His research interest is in coastal geological evolution and how landscapes change over time. Gontz’s lab focuses on the investigation of changes to the landscape within the Quaternary that are primarily the result of changing sea-level and anthropogenic impacts.

Joseph G. Garver grew up in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and received his undergraduate degree from Dickinson College. He has a Ph.D. in history and a master's in library science from the University of Pittsburgh. Garver is the reference librarian of the Harvard Map Collection of the Harvard College Library and the newsletter editor for the Boston Map Society. He lives in Acton, Massachusetts.

Donald Cann is a park ranger for the Boston Harbor Islands National Park. Together with John Galluzzo, he has coauthored four titles with Arcadia, including Postcard History Series titles *Rockland and Abington* and Images of America titles *Rockland and Squantum* and *South Weymouth Naval Air Stations*.

John J. Galluzzo, is the public program coordinator for Mass Audubon's South Shore Sanctuaries in Marshfield. He has coauthored, along with Donald Cann, eight books for Arcadia Publishing, including * Hull and Nantasket Beach*; *Scituate, Rockland, and Squantum*; and *South Weymouth Naval Air Stations*.

Daniel John Hinkley is an American plantsman, garden writer, horticulturist and nurseryman. He is best known for establishing Heronswood, in Kingston, Washington; and Windcliff, on the Kitsap Peninsula near Indianola, WA; and for collecting, propagating, and naming varieties of plants new to the North American nursery trade. Dan Hinkley earned his Bachelor of Science in Ornamental Horticulture, and Horticulture Education, from Michigan State University in 1976. He went on to graduate school at the University of Washington, where he accomplished a Master of Science degree in Urban Horticulture in 1985. Hinkley was an instructor of horticulture at Edmonds Community College, in Edmonds, Washington, from 1987 to 1996. In 1987 Hinkley began gardening on the land that would become Heronswood with his partner, the architect Robert L. Jones. By the mid 1990's Heronswood Nursery was doing a thriving mail-order business, and the display garden tours gained international acclaim. Hinkley became a regular speaker at seminars offered during the Northwest Flower and Garden Show. In 2000, Hinkley and Jones sold the business, and display gardens, to Burpee Seeds, but continued to run the nursery. Hinkley and Jones moved to a residence separate from the nursery in Indianola, Washington.

Dr. Bottoms's first book, *Shooting Rats at the Bibb County Dump*, was chosen by Robert Penn Warren as winner of the 1979 Walt Whitman Award of the Academy of American Poets. His poems have appeared widely in magazines such as *The Atlantic*, *The New Yorker*, *Harper's*, *The New Republic*, *Poetry*, and *The Paris Review*, as well as in over four dozen anthologies and textbooks. Among his other awards are the Levinson Prize of *Poetry* magazine, an Award in Literature from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, and fellowships from the Ingram Merrill Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Dr. Bottoms has given readings and conducted workshops at over 150 colleges as well as the Guggenheim Museum and the Library of Congress. Profiles appear in the *Dictionary of Literary Biography*, *Contemporary Literary Criticism*, *Contemporary Southern Writers* and *The Oxford Companion to Twentieth Century Poetry*. He has twice been interviewed on National Public Radio and is the subject of a half-hour segment of "The Southern Voice", a public television miniseries profiling southern writers. He is a founding coeditor of *Five Points*. In 2000, Govenor Roy Barnes appointed him Georgia Poet Laureate.