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Bruce Schulman is the author of *From Cotton Belt to Sunbelt: Federal Policy, Economic Development, and the Transformation of the South, 1938-1980*; *Lyndon B. Johnson and American Liberalism*; and *The Seventies: The Great Shift in American Culture, Society, and Politics*. In 1989-90 he was director of the History Project in California, a joint effort of the University of California and the California State Department of Education to improve history education in the public schools. In 1993, as associate professor at UCLA, Schulman received the Luckman Distinguished Teaching Award and the Eby Award for the Art of Teaching. From 1997 to 2002 he was director of the American and New England Studies Program at Boston University.

Nicholson Baker was born in 1957 and attended the Eastman School of Music and Haverford College. He is the author of seven novels, including *Vox* and *The Mezzanine*, and three previous works of nonfiction, including *Double Fold*, which won a National Book Critics Circle Award in 2001. He currently lives in Maine with his family.

A nationally known speaker on higher education policy issues, Wilson served as the first president and chief executive officer of the Nellie Mae Education Foundation from 1999 to 2006. The foundation, established in 1998, is New Englands largest public charity dedicated to improving academic achievement for underserved communities. During Wilson's seven-year tenure, the foundation distributed more than $80 million in grants to educational institutions and non-profit organizations to improve access to college. She is also a former chair of the American Association of Higher Education and was the first woman to chair the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, where she served on the board of directors from 2003 to 2006. Wilson currently serves on the boards of trustees of Boston College and Union Theological Seminary, the board of directors of the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems, the board of directors of Higher Education Resource Services, and the boards of Boston After School and Beyond, Boston College and Federated Dorchester Neighborhood Houses. She is a director of Medco Health Solutions. Wilson earned a bachelor's degree in English and secondary education at Cedar Crest College, a master's in education at Seton Hall University, and a Ph.D. in higher education administration at Boston College.

Eve LaPlante's award-winning *Salem Witch Judge (HarperOne, 2007, 2008)* follows *the Boston Globe bestseller American Jezebel (HarperOne, 2004, 2005)* and *Seized (HarperCollins, 1993, 2000)*. She contributed to the essay collection *Why I'm Still Married (Penguin, 2006, 2007)* and has written for *The Atlantic and The New York Times*.

Mahesh Sharma is the director of The Center for Teaching/Learning Mathematics of Framingham and Wellesley, MA, which is affiliated with Berkshire Mathematics in the UK. Professor Sharma is known nationally and internationally for his groundbreaking work in mathematics education. He is an author and editor of an international mathematics journal, *Focus on Learning Problems in Mathematics*, a consultant to public and private schools, a public lecturer, and a teacher-trainer. He also writes *Math Notebook*, a practical source of information for parents and teachers. His special field of interest is mathematics learning problems. He evaluates children and adults for their learning disabilities and also finds time to tutor students. This one-to-one work with students provides him with insight into their learning problems and he has developed a unique way of helping students to learn. This is called Vertical Acceleration. Through Vertical Acceleration one is able to help students make up the gaps in their learning in a very short period of time.

Robert Peterkin has been the director of the Urban Superintendents Program for 18 years. Prior to HGSE, Peterkin held school superintendencies in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and had a long career in educational leadership, from special education teacher to deputy superintendent, mainly in the Boston Public School system. Current work focuses on the restructuring of urban public schools for educational equity and higher student achievement, most recently as a court-appointed monitor in a federal case settlement agreement involving an urban school district and plaintiffs of color.