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Charles Vert Willie is the Charles William Eliot Professor of Education, Emeritus. He is a sociologist whose areas of research include desegregation, higher education, public health, race relations, urban community problems, and family life. Before coming to HGSE, he was chairman of the Department of Sociology and vice president of student affairs at Syracuse University. He was appointed by President Jimmy Carter to the President's Commission on Mental Health and has been a member of the Board of Directors of the Social Science Research Council. He also has served as vice president of the American Sociological Association and president of the Eastern Sociological Society. Willie has served as a consultant, expert witness, and court-appointed master in major school desegregation cases in larger cities such as Boston, Hartford, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Kansas City, Little Rock, Milwaukee, San Jose, Seattle, and St. Louis; and in other municipalities such as St. Lucie County and Lee County, Florida, and Somerville, Cambridge, and Brockton, Massachusetts. Willie is the author or editor of over 100 articles and 30 books on issues of race, gender, socioeconomic status, religion, education, urban communities, and family relations. Willie identifies himself as an applied sociologist who is concerned with solving social problems.

Gore Vidal was born in 1925 to West Point aeronautics instructor Gene Vidal and his wife Nina. Young Gore spent much of his childhood with his blind grandfather, Senator T.P. Gore of Oklahoma. He is also a cousin of Tennessee ex-senator and ex-vice president Al Gore . Vidal would later became the stepbrother and confidant of Jacqueline Kennedy when his mother married Jackie's ex-stepfather, Hugh D. Auchincloss. After graduating from Phillips Exeter Academy in 1943, Gore joined the US Army Reserves. Some of his Army experiences inspired his first novel, *Williwaw*, which was published when he was just 19. Subsequent novels would prominently feature gay male characters, and Gore found soon found his books had staying power on bestseller lists. In 1960, he unsuccessfully ran for Congress, backed by celebrity supporters like Paul Newman & Vidal's ex-fiance Joanne Woodward . Another unsuccessful foray into politics would occur in 1982 when he ran for governor of California. In addition to being an accomplished writer, he is also a novice actor. His biggest roles to date have been in *Gattaca* (1997), *Bob Roberts* (1992), and *With Honors* (1994).

Early is a noted essayist and American culture critic. A professor of English, of African & African American studies and of American culture studies, Early is the author of several books, including *The Culture of Bruising: Essays on Prizefighting*, *Literature*, and *Modern American Culture*, which won the 1994 National Book Critics Circle Award for criticism. He is also editor of numerous volumes, including *This Is Where I Came In: Black America in the 1960s* (2003); *The Sammy Davis, Jr. Reader* (2001); *Miles Davis and American Culture* (2001); *The Muhammad Ali Reader *(1998); and *Body Language: Writers on Spor*t (1998). He served as a consultant on Ken Burns' documentary films on baseball and jazz, which both aired on PBS.

Molly Armstrong began her career as a caseworker with adolescent girls. In 1986, she built a transitional living program for homeless teenage girls and mothers. After graduating from law school and spending some years as a public defender in the District of Columbia, she joined the Vera Institute of Justice in New York. At Vera, she built a 24/7 response system, Project Confirm, to address the over-representation of foster youth in the juvenile justice system by coordinating among the City's Department of Juvenile Justice, Probation, and child welfare systems. Molly authored the Family Court Improvement Project court processing study for New York State. She helped the leadership at the Administration for Children's Services, New York City's then newly created child welfare agency, at the start of its reform, diagnose a series of challenges with adolescent practice, kinship care, and data systems. Over eight years, she researched, designed and implemented a series of other interventions to address overlap among the child welfare, juvenile justice, substance abuse, and mental health systems. In 2004, she received the Kathryn McDonald Award for Excellence in Service to the Family Court from the Association of the Bar of the City of New York. After leaving New York City to assist Governor Blanco's juvenile justice reform efforts in Louisiana, she joined New Jersey's Department of Children and Families as Director of Policy and Planning. There she focused on rebuilding New Jersey's foster care recruitment and licensing practice and developing the performance metrics, tools, and capacity used to drive reform. Molly specializes in utilizing intensive field and data diagnostics to identify challenges and then design and implement practical, effective and efficient solutions. She is a graduate of Yale University with a law degree from New York University and a Masters of Law in Clinical Advocacy from Georgetown.

In 2006 Patricia established Princeton Printing, LLC which took over the ownership of a printing business that had operated for twenty years at the company's Somerville, MA location. As Owner and CEO, Patricia leads the company's efforts to meet the highest standards of print production and customer service. Before joining the print industry, Patricia practiced law in Massachusetts, serving the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in various capacities including, Deputy Chief Counsel of the Committee for Public Counsel Services, Chief Counsel to the Massachusetts House Committee on Ways and Means and Assistant District Attorney for Plymouth County. Patricia also practiced law in the private sector, specializing in criminal defense and bankruptcy. She is a graduate of Princeton University and Suffolk University Law School and holds a Master of Business Administration degree from Boston University.

Harry Spence is Lecturer on Education. He served from December 2001 until June 2007 as Commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Social Services, where he was responsible for the Commonwealth's child welfare program, supervising 3,400 employees, with an annual budget of $750 million. He developed the "next generation" child welfare practice model, which involved the teaming of social workers, a national innovation that won the Kennedy School Innovations in Government Award in 2006. He served from 1995 to 2000 as the Deputy Chancellor for Operations for the New York City Board of Education, and from 1991 to 1995 in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Executive Office of Administration and Finance as the Receiver for the City of Chelsea, where his responsibilities included the rebuilding of the city school system and enactment of municipal charter reform. He has provided consulting services to major national organizations with a focus on education and held a Lecturer appointment at the Kennedy School of Government from 1988 to 1991. Mr. Spence holds a JD from Harvard Law School (1974).

Lance Neumann has more than 30 years of experience in transportation policy, planning, programming, and finance. He has worked for a broad range of Federal, state, regional, and local agencies, as well as private and international clients. Dr. Neumann started the firm's management systems practice in the late 1970s, and has worked with many agencies developing practical approaches to measure and improve performance, evaluate projects and programs, improve resource allocation decisions, and increase accountability. Most notably, Dr. Neumann has been involved in major program evaluation projects for the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), the Federal Transit Administration (FTA), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), as well as at the state and local levels. He is the chairman of the Transportation Research Board (TRB) Performance Measurement Committee. Dr. Neumann has also published numerous articles and lectured on topics related to resource allocation decision-making, and management.

Timothy W. Brennan is the executive director of the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission (PVPC). Brennan joined the PVPC in 1973 and since 1980 has served as the agency's executive director. He currently serves as the chair of the nationwide Institute for the Regional Community and is active in many other organizations, including the National Association of Regional Councils, the Massachusetts Association of Regional Planning Agencies, the New England Association of Regional Councils and the Hartford-Springfield Economic Partnership. He is also an adjunct faculty member of the Department of Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning at the University of Massachusetts.