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Paul Tough is the author of *Whatever It Takes: Geoffrey Canada's Quest to Change Harlem and America*. He is an editor at *the New York Times Magazine*, where he has written extensively about education, poverty and politics, including cover stories on the Harlem Children's Zone, the post-Katrina school system in New Orleans, and No Child Left Behind and charter schools. He has worked as an editor at *Harper's Magazine* and as the founding editor of Open Letters, an online magazine of first-person correspondence, and as a reporter and producer for the public-radio program *This American Life*, where he reported, most recently, on the parents enrolled in the Harlem Children Zone's Baby College. His writing has appeared in *Slate*, *Esquire*, *GQ*, and *the New Yorker*. He lives with his wife in New York City.

Presiding over the Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Center, Joy Hirsch, professor of functional neuroradiology, has established and directs a research center focused on medical applications, education, and the study of brain, behavior, and therapy-induced cortical effects utilizing the developments in functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI). Dr Hirsch has a joint appointment in the Department of Radiology and the Center for Neurobiology and Behavior, and her laboratory includes a large number of graduate students and postdoctoral students from the graduate school. Dr Hirsch joined Columbia from Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and the Weill College of Medicine at Cornell University where she founded the fMRI laboratory and pioneered the introduction of brain-mapping procedures for neurosurgical planning. Using fMRI, her laboratory made fundamental contributions to the understanding of sensation and perception, language and the cognitive processes, and brain regions that are modified by specific drugs. These initial studies were built upon research done by Dr Hirsch as a professor at Yale University School of Medicine, where she focused on the cortical mechanisms directly involved in human visual processing, serving as a foundation to connect the advantages of fMRI to ongoing and new research directions at Columbia University.

The majority of Joe McKendry's work consists of two areas of focus: commercial and architectural illustration, which is produced for magazines, newspapers, or architects and studio painting, where his focus is producing a body of work to be shown in a gallery. *Beneath the Streets of Boston: Building America's First Subway*, McKendry's first children's book, was an introduction to the challenges of working in a new 'medium'.

Vice Admiral H. Denby Starling II assumed command of Naval Network Warfare Command on June 15, 2007. He is responsible for operating, maintaining and defending Navy networks, and conducting information operations and space operations. Overseeing a global force of more than 14,000, he is also the functional Component Commander to U.S. Strategic Command for space, information operations and network operations. He was designated a Naval Flight Officer in March 1975, and a Naval Aviator in March 1983. At sea, Vice Adm. Starling flew the A-6 Intruder with the Black Falcons of VA-85, the Golden Intruders of VA-128 as an instructor, and the Milestones of VA-196 as a department head. Additionally, he served as the commissioning executive officer of USS John C. Stennis (CVN 74). Ashore, Vice Adm. Starling served on the staff of Medium Attack Tactical Electronic Warfare Wing, Pacific, and as a student at the Naval War College, where he graduated with Highest Distinction. His first flag assignment was to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in Northwood, U.K., as the Assistant Chief of Staff, Operations, Intelligence and Exercises, for the Commander-in-Chief East Atlantic/Commander Allied Naval Forces Northern Europe.

While growing up in Michigan, Monica Groves had as many ideas about what she wanted to do with her life as there was snow. There was only one profession that was not an option, and that was teaching. She couldn't imagine being the one in the front of the classroom sometimes loved and sometimes not demanding the respect of a class. Although future careers changed throughout the years, one thing remained the same - she loved being a student. Monica's studies led her to attend the University of Virginia where she double majored in her two passions, English Language and Literature and Spanish. During her time at UVA, Monica thrived as a member of Resident Staff, and the unforgettable influence of two professors in particular inspired her to reconsider her outlook on teaching.

Katherine Merseth's work concentrates on charter schools, teacher education, mathematics education, and the case-method of instruction. At Harvard, she founded the Harvard Children's Initiative, a university-wide program focusing on the needs of children as well as the School Leadership and the Teacher Education Programs at the School of Education. In mathematics education, she was the principal investigator of the Mathematics Case Development Project funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Massachusetts Math and Science Partnership working with middle school mathematics teachers using classroom based cases; she also served as co-principal investigator of the Teacher Education Addressing Mathematics and Science in Boston and Cambridge Project. Her book, Windows on Teaching Mathematics: Cases of Secondary Mathematics Classrooms (Teachers College Press), represents work in mathematics education and the case method while her involvement as a case method teacher of school administrators exists in her Cases in Educational Administration (Longman). In the charter field, she recently concluded a two year study examining best practices in high performing urban charter schools which culminated in the book, Inside Urban Charter Schools (Harvard Education Publishing Group). View an interview about the book. Merseth has served as a math curriculum developer, teacher, and administrator in K12 schools. In addition to her Harvard doctorate, Merseth holds a bachelor's in mathematics from Cornell University, a master's in mathematics from Boston College, and a master of arts in teaching secondary mathematics from Harvard. She spends any free time on her tractor at her Maine farmhouse, hiking, playing tennis, or rowing on the Charles.

Karen Herbaugh is the curator at the American Textile History Museum. She joined the ATHM staff in 1994, when she was hired as part of the project team to move the Museum's textile and wooden tool and machinery collections to Lowell. Since that time, she has assumed increasing responsibilities within the collections department and is now curator of those collections. She has coordinated and mounted several of ATHM's recent temporary exhibitions. She holds a BS from Arizona State University and an M.S. from Oregon State University in historic costume and textiles. She serves on the Costume Society of America, Region I board of directors and the Textile Society of America 2002 biennial symposium committee.

Joseph G. Garver grew up in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and received his undergraduate degree from Dickinson College. He has a Ph.D. in history and a master's in library science from the University of Pittsburgh. Garver is the reference librarian of the Harvard Map Collection of the Harvard College Library and the newsletter editor for the Boston Map Society. He lives in Acton, Massachusetts.