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Robert Calfee is a cognitive psychologist with interests in the effect of schooling on the intellectual potential of individuals and groups. He earned his degrees at UCLA, did post-graduate work at Stanford, and spent five years in Psychology at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. In 1969 he returned to Stanford University to join the School of Education. In 1998 Dr. Calfee was appointed Professor and Dean of the Graduate School of Education at the University of California Riverside, serving as Dean for five years. Dr. Calfee has studied literacy assessment, effective instructional practices for helping all students become competent readers and writers, and methods for assisting schools to become learning communities. His Project READ-Plus and The Inquiring School programs have been implemented in hundreds of schools across the country. Dr. Calfee has conducted workshops and seminars for teachers and administrators from elementary, middle, and high schools, and works directly with teachers and schools to demonstrate innovative techniques. He is a frequent invited speaker at conferences across the country, author of over 200 published research articles and numerous books in the fields of education and psychology.

Since 1991, Carl Honore has written journalism from all over Europe and South America, spending three years as a correspondent in Buenos Aires. His articles have appeared in The Economist, Observer, National Post, Houston Chronicle and Miami Herald. His first book, In Praise of Slow: How A Worldwide Movement Is Challenging the Cult of Speed, examines the modern compulsion to hurry and chronicles a global trend toward putting on the brakes. It has been translated into 30 languages and landed on bestseller lists in many countries.

Bob Herbert joined The New York Times as an op-ed columnist in 1993. His twice a week column comments on politics, urban affairs and social trends. Prior to joining *The Times*, Mr. Herbert was a national correspondent for NBC from 1991 to 1993, reporting regularly on *The Today Show* and *NBC Nightly News*. He had worked as a reporter and editor at *The Daily News* from 1976 until 1985, when he became a columnist and member of its editorial board. In 1990, Mr. Herbert was a founding panelist of *Sunday Edition*, a weekly discussion program on WCBS-TV in New York, and the host of *Hotline*, a weekly issues program on New York public television. He began his career as a reporter with The Star-Ledger in Newark, N.J., in 1970. He became its night city editor in 1973. Mr. Herbert has won numerous awards, including the Meyer Berger Award for coverage of New York City and the American Society of Newspaper Editors award for distinguished newspaper writing. He was chairman of the Pulitzer Prize jury for spot news reporting in 1993.

Davis McCullough is called the "citizen chronicler" by Librarian of Congress James Billington. His books have led a renaissance of interest in Portrait of David McCulloughAmerican history, from learning about a flood in Pennsylvania that without warning devastated an entire community to discovering the private achievements and frailties of an uncelebrated president. McCullough's biography of Harry Truman won him a Pulitzer, as did his most recent biography of another president, John Adams. David McCullough throws himself into the research of his subjects, tracing the roads they traveled, reading the books they read, and seeing the homes they lived in. His diligence pays off in detailed and engaging narratives. In receiving an honorary degree from Yale University the citation praised him. As an historian he paints with words, giving us pictures of the American people that live, breath, and above all, confront the fundamental issues of courage, achievement, and moral character.

Frank Bidart writes poetry, and has published several volumes. He also teaches poetry workshops and 20th century poetry, both "modern" and contemporary. Currently he is editing a one-volume *Collected Poems of Robert Lowell* for his publisher, Farrar Straus & Giroux.

Lloyd Schwartz has taught at Boston State College, Queens College, and Harvard University, and is currently Frederick S. Troy Professor of English at the University of Massachusetts in Boston. He is also the Classical Music Editor of *The Boston Phoenix* and a regular commentator on NPR's *Fresh Air*. His most recent book of poetry is *Cairo Traffic* (University of Chicago Press, 2000), which was preceded by *Goodnight, Gracie* (1992) and *These People* (1981). He is also the co-editor of a volume of Elizabeth Bishop 's collected works for the Library of America. His poems, articles, and reviews have appeared in *The New Yorker*, *The Atlantic*, *Vanity Fair*, *The New Republic*, *The Paris Review*, and *The Best American Poetry*. In 1994, he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.