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Charlotte Blake Alston is a Philadelphia-based storyteller, narrator, and singer with an interest in literature. After 21 years of teaching from the preschool through graduate levels, Charlotte chose to devote more time to touring and performing. She brings her stories and songs to national and regional festivals, schools, universities, museums, libraries and performing arts centers throughout the United States and Canada, as well as local and national radio and television. Charlotte is the first storyteller to perform with the Philadelphia Orchestra on both their Children's and Youth concert series. Since 1994, she has been the host of "Sound All Around"; the orchestra's pre-school concert series and continues to appear as a guest host and narrator on family concerts. Charlotte also hosts "Carnegie Kids", Carnegie Hall's Preschool concert series and has been a featured artist on the Carnegie Hall Family Concert Series in NY since 1996. She has been a featured artist at both the Presidential Inaugural Festivities in Washington, DC and the Pennsylvania Gubernatorial Children's Inaugural Celebrations in Harrisburg, PA. Charlotte's narrative voice can be heard on documentaries including *Plenty Of Good Women Dancers*, *The Peddie School*, and *Crosstown*. She herself was featured in the award-winning documentary *Family Name* that aired around the country on PBS. She is a regular guest reader on WNYC New York's *Prime time with PJ*. Charlotte has received numerous honors including the prestigious Pew Fellowship In The Arts in 1994. She was selected as Philadelphia Magazine's "Best Of Philly" 1995. She is the recipient of the 1997 Commonwealth Of Pennsylvania Artist Of The Year Award (The Hazlett Memorial Award). She holds two honorary PhD's from Seton Hill and LaRoche colleges respectively and was one of four Americans selected to perform and present at the first International Storytelling Field Conference in Ghana in August of 1999. She was the Director of "In the Tradition" 14th National Festival Of Black Storytelling in 1996.

Leonard Simon Nimoy (born March 26, 1931) is an American actor, film director, poet, musician and photographer. He played the character of Spock on *Star Trek*, an American television series that ran for three seasons from 1966 to 1969, and he reprised the role in the movie sequels (most recently 2009's *Star Trek*) and the follow-up series *Star Trek: The Next Generation.*

The Choir of Men and Boys was founded in 1909. The boys are students aged 8-14 who attend St. Albans School. Through the National Cathedral School, the Choir of Men and Girls was founded in 1997 as the first of its kind in the United States and is open to students from 7th to 12th grades. The men of the choirs are professional musicians from the greater Washington area who sing countertenor, tenor, and bass to complete the traditional choral sound. Together the choirs set a high standard for liturgical worship in this country.

Douglass Shand-Tuccis previous books include *The Art of Scandal*, the bestselling biography of Isabella Steward Gardner; Boston Bohemia, and, most recently, Harvard University, with photographs by Richard Cheek and a foreword by Neil Rudenstine. Shand-Tucci, a 1972 graduate of Harvard College, gave to the Gay and Lesbian Caucus in 1997. He lives in Bostons Back Bay.

Alan Lightman was born in Memphis, Tennessee in 1948 as son of Richard Lightman, a movie theater owner, and Jeanne Garretson, a dancing teacher and volunteer Braille typist. From an early age, he was entranced by both science and the arts and while in high school, he began independent science projects and writing poetry. He won state-wide science fairs and was the state winner of the National Council of Teachers of English literary award. In 1966, he graduated from White Station High School in Memphis. Lightman received his AB degree in physics from Princeton University in 1970, Phi Beta Kappa and Magna Cum Laude, and his PhD in theoretical physics from the California Institute of Technology in 1974. He has received three honorary degrees.

Middlesex Sheriff James V. DiPaola was elected on November 7, 1996 and sworn into office as the 29th Middlesex Sheriff on November 27, 1996 to fill out the remaining two years of the former Sheriff's term. He has since been re-elected to two full six year terms, the first on November 3, 1998 and most recently November 2, 2004. Prior to being elected Sheriff, DiPaola served two terms as the state representative from Malden's Thirty-Sixth Middlesex District. He was first elected in November of 1992 and re-elected in November of 1994. In January of 1993, DiPaola was elected President of his class by his peers in the House and Senate. Before serving as state representative, DiPaola was an eighteen-year veteran of the Malden Police Department, serving with distinction as a patrolman, a sergeant and as an undercover narcotics detective. In addition, DiPaola has also served over 25 years in the United States Military Reserves. In the past eight years, Sheriff DiPaola has completely overhauled the hiring, promotional, training, purchasing, classification, civil process and prisoner rehabilitation programs, as well as created or revitalized numerous community outreach programs for the Middlesex Sheriff's Office. He has also secured funding for and broken ground on the first renovation and modernization project in the history of the Billerica House of Correction, thus ensuring a safe and secure facility for the Middlesex Sheriff's Office to fulfill its mission well into the twenty-first century.

Rev. Jeffrey L. Brown, M.Div., is co-founder and past chairperson of the Boston Ten Point Coalition, an ecumenical group of Christian clergy and lay leaders who mobilize the community around issues affecting black youth, especially those at-risk for violence, drug abuse and other destructive behaviors. In April 1999, he founded Ten Point International, a resource for churches around the world interested in overcoming violence in their communities. Brown is the author of articles on religion, youth and violence; a columnist for the *Cambridge Chronicle*; and a contributor to *The Boston Globe*'s op-ed page.