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Carlton Pearson is the Presiding Bishop of more than 500 churches and ministries through the AZUSA Interdenominational Fellowship of Christian Churches and Ministries and pastored Higher Dimensions Family Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma, for more than 20 years.

Martha Burt is the director of the Social Services Research Program at the Urban Institute. She has been involved in research and evaluation pertaining to a wide variety of populations and issues. Her work has included the first national survey of homeless individuals, conducted in 1987. She is the author of a number of books and reports on homelessness and of the federal report based on the National Survey of Homeless Assistance Providers and Clients.

Cheryl J. Sanders, Th.D., is professor of Christian Ethics at the Howard University School of Divinity where she teaches courses in Christian ethics, pastoral ethics and African American spirituality. Her key areas of research and writing are African American religious studies, bioethics, pastoral leadership and womanist studies. Dr. Sanders has lectured at colleges, universities and seminaries all over the United States, including the 2005 C. Eric Lincoln Lectureship at Clark Atlanta University and the Staley Distinguished Christian Scholar Lectureship. She has held visiting professorships at Harvard Divinity School and High Point University, and taught as an exchange professor at Wesley Theological Seminary and the Lutheran Seminary at Gettysburg. Dr. Sanders has been Senior Pastor of the Third Street Church of God in Washington, D.C. since 1997. She has ministered nationally and internationally for more than 30 years as a preacher for church services, camp meetings, conventions, conferences and revivals. In 2005, she was honored as one of the elders in the fall issue of *The African American Pulpit: Those Preaching Women*. She is an author of more than 100 articles and several books, including *Ministry at the Margins* (1997); *Saints in Exile: The Holiness-Pentecostal Experience in African American Religion and Culture *(1996); and *Empowerment Ethics for a Liberated People* (1995). She holds a bachelors degree in mathematics from Swarthmore College and two graduate degrees from Harvard Divinity School: Master of Divinity, cum laude and Doctor of Theology in the field of applied theology. In 2002, she was awarded the honorary Doctor of Divinity degree by Asbury College in Wilmore, Kentucky.

Senator Brian A. Joyce is serving his sixth term in the Massachusetts State Senate, representing the Norfolk, Bristol and Plymouth districts. Senator Joyce is the Senate Chair of the Committee on Tourism, Arts and Cultural Development as well as the Senate Vice Chair of the Committee on Bonding, Capital Expenditure and State Assets, the Senate Vice Chair of the Revenue Committee, and the Senate Vice Chair of the Community Development and Small Business Committee. Prior to joining the Senate, Senator Joyce served in the Massachusetts House of Representatives as the 7th Norfolk District State Representative for the towns of Milton and Randolph. Joyce was elected President of his legislative class, representing 32 new Senators and Representatives. A 1984 graduate of the Boston College School of Management and a Magna Cum Laude graduate of Suffolk University Law School, where he was an editor of *the Law Review*, Senator Joyce is a practicing attorney who has taught at both the graduate and undergraduate levels.

John A. Wagner was appointed Director of the California Department of Social Services by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in April 2007. With nearly two decades of experience in human services, he has served as senior policymaker and advisor to six gubernatorial administrations in Wisconsin and Massachusetts. Previous to his appointment, Dir. Wagner served as assistant secretary for children, youth and families for the Massachusetts Executive Office of Health and Human Services, where he coordinated policies and programs for the Office of Children, Youth and Families with other state agencies. Director Wagner also served as commissioner for the Massachusetts Department of Transitional Assistance, where he led one the state's largest agencies and oversaw the administration of cash assistance, shelter and food programs serving poor and low-income residents. Director Wagner earned a master's degree in public administration from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, a master's degree in public policy from Georgetown University and a bachelor's degree from Marquette University.

Donna C. Cupelo is region president of Massachusetts and Rhode Island for Verizon. She has overall responsibility for the company's service delivery, capital investment and public policy in both states. Prior to her current position, Cupelo was president for Rhode Island for Verizon, responsible for service earnings, government and regulatory affairs, public policy and economic development. Prior to that, Cupelo was vice president and general manager, with accountability for Operations, Construction, Engineering, Finance, Marketing and Public Affairs for Central and Western Massachusetts. Cupelo began her career with New England Telephone in 1978 as a market administrator supporting customer services throughout Massachusetts. She has held various leadership positions within the Sales and Marketing organizations, specializing in the Finance, Insurance, and Healthcare, Education and Government Market segments. Cupelo is active in many business, civic and charitable organizations in both MA and RI. She is on the Executive Boards of the MA Private Industry Council and Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce. In RI, she is a member of the boards of the Rhode Island Public Expenditure Council, Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce and Heritage Harbor Museum. Cupelo is the Chair of Providence College's Board of Trustees' Finance Committee. She is the past Chair of the Providence Foundation Executive Board, Vice Chair of the Business Education Roundtable and serves on Brown University's Civic Leadership Board. She is the Verizon Volunteers Pioneers Denver Chapter executive sponsor. Cupelo received a BS from Providence College and a MBA from Babson College.

Kim Todd's first book, *Tinkering with Eden, a Natural History of Exotics in America*, tells the stories of non-native species and how they arrived in the United States. *Tinkering with Eden* received the PEN/Jerard Award and the Sigurd Olson Nature Writing Award and was selected as one of *Booklist'*s Top Ten Science/Technical Books for 2001. Her second book, *Chrysalis*, *Maria Sibylla Merian and the Secrets of Metamorphosis* looks at the life of a pioneering explorer/naturalist who traveled to South America in 1699 to study insect metamorphosis. The story also traces ideas about metamorphosis through time. Chrysalis was published by Harcourt in 2007. It was selected as a Montana Book Award honor book, as one of the best science/technical books of 2007 by the Library Journal, and as a "Book to Remember" from 2007 by the New York Public Library. Her articles and essays have appeared in *Orion*, *Sierra Magazine*, *California Wild* and *Grist*, among other places. She has taught environmental and nature writing at the University of Montana, the University of California at Santa Cruz extension, and the Environmental Writers Institute. She currently teaches at Penn State, The Behrend College. Todd is a senior fellow with the Environmental Leadership Program. She has an M.F.A. in creative nonfiction and an M.S. in environmental studies, both from the University of Montana, and B.A. in English from Yale.

Diane Portnoy is co-founder and Director of the Immigrant Learning Center, a not for profit adult learning center that provides free English classes to immigrants and refugees so they can lead productive lives in the US and become successful workers, parents and community members. Portnoy is active in community, educational and civic organizations and is a speaker on adult education, immigrant issues and the positive impact immigrants have on the economy as entrepreneurs, workers and consumers.

Jay Rosen is the author of PressThink, a weblog about journalism and its ordeals, which he introduced in September 2003. In June 2005, PressThink won the Reporters Without Borders 2005 Freedom Blog award for outstanding defense of free expression. In April 2007 PressThink recorded its two millionth visit. He also blogs at the *Huffington Post*. In July 2006 he announced the debut NewAssignment.Net, his experimental site for pro-am, open source reporting projects. The first one was called Assignment Zero, a collaboration with Wired.com. A second project is OfftheBus.Net with the Huffington Post. In 1999, Yale University Press published his book, *What Are Journalists For?*, which is about the rise of the civic journalism movement. Rosen wrote and spoke frequently about civic journalism (also called public journalism) over a ten-year period, 1989-99. From 1993 to 1997 he was the director of the Project on Public Life and the Press, funded by the Knight Foundation. As a press critic and reviewer, he has published in *The Nation*, *Columbia Journalism Review*, *the Chronicle of Higher Education*, *The New York Times*, *the Washington Post*, *the Los Angeles Times*, *Newsday* and others. Online he has written for Salon.com, TomPaine.com and Poynter.org. A native of Buffalo, NY, Rosen had a very brief career in journalism at the Buffalo Courier-Express before beginning graduate study. He has a Ph.D. from NYU in media studies (1986).