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Scott Stossel has been associated with *the Atlantic* since 1992 when, shortly after graduating from Harvard, he joined the staff and helped to launch *The Atlantic Online*. In 1996, he moved to *The American Prospect* where, over the course of seven years, he served as associate editor, executive editor, and culture editor. He rejoined *the Atlantic* staff in 2002. As a writer, Scott tends to focus on what Lionel Trilling called "the bloody crossroads where literature and politics meet." His articles have appeared in a wide array of publications, including *The New Yorker*,* The New Republic*, *The New York Times*, *The Washington Post*, and *The Boston Globe*. Along with writing and editing, Scott has taught courses in the American Studies Department at Trinity College. He currently divides his time between Washington and Boston, where he lives with his wife and daughter.

Mark Shields is an American political columnist and commentator. Since 1988, Shields has provided weekly political analysis and commentary for PBS' award-winning *The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer*. Shields is also a regular panelist on *Inside Washington*, the weekly public affairs show that is seen on both PBS and ABC. For 17 years, Shields was moderator and panelist on CNN's *Capital Gang*. In 1968, Shields went to work for Robert F. Kennedy's presidential campaign. He later held leadership positions in the presidential campaigns of Edmund Muskie and Morris Udall, and was political director for Sargent Shriver when he ran for vice president on the Democratic ticket in 1972. Over more than a decade, he helped manage state and local campaigns in some 38 states. In 1979, Shields became an editorial writer for *The Washington Post*. He began writing a column the same year that is now distributed nationally by Creators Syndicate. He's covered the last 11 presidential campaigns and attended 17 national party conventions. Shields has taught American politics and the press at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, Georgetown University's Graduate School of Public Policy, and he was a fellow at Harvard's Kennedy Institute of Politics. He's author of* On the Campaign Trail*, about the 1984 presidential campaign.

Kiana Davenport is an American author of part-Hawaiian ancestry. She is the author of critically acclaimed novels *Shark Dialogues (1994)* and *Song of the Exile*, both of which explore aspects of life as a Polynesian in Western society. She was also a 1992-93 Fiction Fellow at the Bunting Institute at Harvard-Radcliffe. Her most recent novel was the *House of Many Gods*. Her novels have been translated into fourteen foreign languages. Her short stories have been included in "The O'Henry Awards Anthologies", "The Pushcart Prize Collection", and "The Best American Short Stories, 2000". She has received the Eliot Cades Awards in Literature, and a writing Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Lydia K. Bergen leads strategic direction and outreach efforts for the Sustainable Fisheries Initiative at the New England Aquarium. As a member of the SFI team for close to four years, Lydia is responsible for overseeing SFI's strategic growth and reputation. Today, the program has grown to include SFI Advisory Services-that provides technical advice and expertise on seafood sustainability to major corporations that buy and sell seafood-and our Celebrate Seafood program-that promotes environmentally responsible seafood options and shares information on seafood sustainability with the general public. Lydia holds a Master of Public Policy degree from Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government.

Myriam Cyr is a mother, a television and radioannouncer, as well as a programming director.

George Kierstead is the executive chef at the New England Aquarium.

Casserly has a PhD in the economics of education from Stanford University and a BA in mathematics from Boston College. Before joining the Hewlett Foundation, she was the program officer for evaluation for the Walter S. Johnson Foundation and worked as a policy analyst for SRI International. She was also a mathematics teacher in Kingston, Jamaica, and tutored in a high security prison. She served as a trustee for the San Mateo County Board of Education from 1997 to 2000.

Paul N. Courant is the University Librarian and Dean of Libraries at the University of Michigan. He is also Harold T. Shapiro Collegiate Professor of Public Policy, Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of Economics, Professor of Information, and Faculty Associate in the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan. From 2002-2005 he served as Provost and Executive Vice-President for Academic Affairs, the chief academic officer and the chief budget officer of the University. He has also served as the Associate Provost for Academic and Budgetary Affairs, Chair of the Department of Economics and Director of the Institute of Public Policy Studies (which is now the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy). Courant has authored half a dozen books, and over 70 papers covering a broad range of topics in economics and public policy, including tax policy, state and local economic development, gender differences in pay, housing, radon and public health, relationships between economic growth and environmental policy, and university budgeting systems. More recently, he is studying the economics of universities, the economics of libraries and archives, and the changes in the system of scholarly communication that derive from new information technologies. Paul Courant holds a BA in History from Swarthmore College (1968); an MA in Economics from Princeton University (1973); and a PhD in Economics from Princeton University (1974).