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Richard Florida is author of the global best-seller *The Rise of the Creative Class*. His latest book, *Who's Your City?* also a national and international best seller. His previous books, especially *The Breakthrough Illusion and Beyond Mass Production*, paved the way for his provocative looks at how creativity is revolutionizing the global economy. Florida is a regular correspondent for the *Atlantic Monthly* and a regular columnist for *The Globe and Mail*. He has written for *The New York Times*, *The Wall Street Journa*l, *The Washington Post*, *The Boston Globe*, *The Economist*, and *The Harvard Business Review*. He has been featured as an expert on MSNBC, CNN, BBC, NPR and CBS, to name just a few. Florida is one of the world's leading public intellectuals on economic competitiveness, demographic trends, and cultural and technological innovation. International diplomats, government leaders, filmmakers, economic development organizations and leading Fortune 100 businesses have benefited from his global approach to problem-solving and strategy development.

Harvard graduate and author of five books (including two national bestsellers), Broughton Coburn is a premier authority on the culture and environment of the Himalaya, where he has lived and worked for two of the past three years

Kati Marton has combined a career as a reporter and writer with human rights advocacy. She is currently Chair of the International Women's Health Coalition, a non-governmental organization that promotes and protects the rights and health of girls and women worldwide. From 2001 to July 2002, Kati Marton was chief advocate for the Office of the Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict at the UN. Marton is currently a director and formerly chair of the Committee to Protect Journalists. She also serves on the board of directors of the International Rescue Committee, Human Rights Watch, the New America Foundation, and the Central European University. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, P.E.N. International and the Author's Guild. Since 1980, Marton has published five books and contributed as a reporter to *ABC News, Public Broadcasting Services, National Public Radio, The New Yorker, Atlantic Monthly, The Times of London, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, Vanity Fair* and *The New Republic*. Her first book, *WALLENBERG*, a biography of Raoul Wallenberg, was published by Random House in 1982. From 1983 until 1984, she was a columnist for the Sunday Times of London. Her second book, a novel entitled *AMERICAN WOMEN* was published in 1987. Her investigative history, *THE POLK CONSPIRACY Murder and Cover-up in the Case of CBS News Correspondent George Polk*, has been acquired by Mel Gibson for a feature film. Her fourth book, *A DEATH IN JERUSALEM the Assassination by Extremists of the First Middle East Peacemaker*, was published by Pantheon Books/Random House in the fall of 1994. Marton's most recent book, *HIDDEN POWER Presidential Marriages that Shaped History*, was published in September 2001 and was a *New York Times* best seller. From 1995 until 1997, Marton hosted NPR's America and the World, a weekly half-hour broadcast on international affairs. From December 1977 until December 1979, Marton was Bonn Bureau Chief and Foreign Correspondent for ABC News. While based in West Germany, Marton reported from Poland, Hungary, Italy, Holland, Northern Ireland, East Germany, and the Middle East. Marton was a news writer/reporter at WCAU-TV, the CBS-owned-and-operated affiliate in Philadelphia from January 1973 until November 1977. From 1971 until 1973, Marton was a reporter for National Public Radio in Washington. In addition to diplomatic and political assignments, Marton was involved in the development of NPR's program, All Things Considered Marton attended Wells College in Aurora, New York, the Sorbonne, and the Institute des Etudes de Science Politiques in Paris. She earned a BA in Romance Languages and a MA in international relations from the George Washington University.

William Bulger was first elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1960, and elected to the state senate in 1970 representing the First Suffolk District. He served as president of the Massachusetts Senate for 18 years until he was appointed to president of the University of Massachusetts which he led until 2003.William Bulger was first elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1960, and elected to the state senate in 1970 representing the First Suffolk District. He served as president of the Massachusetts Senate for 18 years until he was appointed to president of the University of Massachusetts which he led until 2003.

Annalee Newitz is a freelance writer and a contributing editor at *Wired* magazine. In 2004 and 2005, she was the policy analyst at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Based on her doctoral research at Berkeley, her forthcoming book, *Pretend We're Dead: Capitalist Monsters in American Pop Culture*, is about capitalism and monster movies. Formerly, Newitz was the culture editor at* The San Francisco Bay Guardian*. After being named a Knight Science Journalism Fellow, she spent the 2002-2003 academic year as a research fellow at MIT. Her work has appeared in magazines and papers such as *Wired*, *Popular Science*, *Salon*, *The San Francisco Bay Guardian*, and several academic journals and anthologies. Newitz's writing focuses on pop culture and technology, from the politics of open source software to hacker subcultures. Her weekly syndicated column, Techsploitation, is about the ways that media mutates and reiterates the problems of everyday life. Newitz's next book will deal with the cultural impact of technology.

Akela Reason joined the faculty of the School of Art and Design at Georgia State University in 2007, after teaching as a lecturer since 2005.

Amy Whorf McGuiggan is a freelance writer and the author of *My Provincetown* and *Christmas in New England*. She lives in Hingham, MA. She is also author of *Take Me Out to the Ball Game*.

Neal Gabler is the author of six books, including four biographies: Catching the Wind, An Empire of Their Own, Winchell, and Walt Disney. He has been the recipient of two Los Angeles Times Book Prizes, a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Shorenstein Fellowship, and a Woodrow Wilson Public Policy scholarship, and was the chief nonfiction judge of the National Book Awards. Image credit : Jason Longo

Dr. Sternberg has been the Commissioner of Education for the Connecticut State Department of Education (SDE) since 2003. She has dedicated much of her career in education to the SDE as Associate Commissioner in the Division of Teaching and Learning for over 12 years (1992- 2003); as Director in the Division of Curriculum and Professional Development from 1985-1992; and as Bureau Chief in Curriculum and Staff Development from 1980-1985. As Commissioner of Education and Chief Executive Officer of the State Board of Education, Dr. Sternberg is responsible for over 350 employees at the central office and approximately 2000 staff members in the States technical high schools. She oversees public education in the States 166 local public school districts, 17 regional technical high schools, 3 endowed and incorporated academies, 12 charter schools and 39 full and part-time magnet schools. She is also responsible for developing, recommending and implementing the components of a $2.0 billion state education budget. As the first woman to serve as Commissioner since the inception of the position in 1838, Dr. Sternberg has continued to promote programs and strategies for improving teaching and learning in the state. She is the key author of the standards piece of the Education Enhancement Act of 1986, nationally recognized legislation designed to attract and retain high-quality teachers to Connecticut. She directed the development of the Connecticut Mastery Test (CMT) and the Connecticut Academic Performance Test (CAPT), considered the most effective in the country. She was instrumental in developing the first school-by-school database in the nation in the form of the Strategic School Profiles and she is responsible for the development of The Connecticut Framework: K-12 Curricular Goals and Standards in 11 core curriculum areas.