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Pooja Makhijani was born in Queens, New York and grew up in Edison, New Jersey. She attended Johns Hopkins University, where she received a degree in biomedical engineering. Pooja also received her Masters in Fine Arts from Sarah Lawrence College. Makhijani's work has appeared in *The New York Times*, *The Village Voice*, *The Newark Star-Ledger*, T*he Indian Express*, *Time Out New York*, *India Today*, *Writing*, *Weekly Reader*, and *Time Out New York Kids* among others. She is the editor of *Under Her Skin: How Girls Experience Race in America* (Seal Press, November 2004), an anthology of essays by women that explores the complex ways in which race shapes American lives and families. She is also the author of *Mama's Saris* (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 2007). *Mama's Saris* tells the story of a precocious girl's desire to dress up in her mother's beautiful saris. Pooja is the proud receiver of the 2003 Magazine Award Honor in Nonfiction by The Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators for her essay, "The First Time," in the November/December 2003 issue of *Cicada*. Pooja is also deeply interested in using memoir and storytelling to discuss and deconstruct the idea of race. She has conducted several writing workshops for young adults on this topic. In addition, she teaches writing and children's literature at Western Connecticut State University's new MFA in Professional Writing program. Pooja currently resides in New York City with her husband.

Judith Chalmer is the author of a book of poems, *Out of History's Junk Jar *(Time Being Books, 1995). She is the creator of a dance/narrative with oral histories, *Clearing Customs/Cruzando Fronteras/Preselenje*, on the lives of immigrants in central Vermont (1999), and is author and performer of *Don't Go In There!* a one-woman comedy on racial and ethnic consciousness in central Vermont (2002). She is co-founder of a women's interracial dialog group that has met for 3 years in central Vermont. Her essays have appeared in *Celebrating The Lives of Jewish Women* (Haworth Press, 1997), *Urban Spaghetti*, *RAGU*: online journal of the Adult Degree Program at Vermont College and other journals.

Consulting Editor of *Hip Mama* magazine, Ariel is also the author of *The Hip Mama Survival Guide*, *The Mother Trip*, *Atlas of the Human Heart*, and *Whatever Mom*.

Lincoln C. Chen is the Director of the Global Equity Center at Harvard Kennedy School of Government. Before arriving at Harvard, he served as the Executive Vice President for Strategy at the Rockefeller Foundation. In addition to providing strategic guidance for Rockefeller's worldwide programs in food, health, work, culture, and global policies, Dr. Chen also served as a member of the Board of Trustees Committee on Future Strategies and chairs or directs programs in global philanthropy, such as the Program Venture Experiment and the Bellagio Committee. For a decade before joining the Rockefeller Foundation in January 1997, Dr. Chen was the Director of the University-wide Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies and the Taro Takemi Professor of International Health at the Harvard School of Public Health. From 1981 - 1987, Dr. Chen was the Representative of the Ford Foundation in India, and in 1973 - 1980, he worked for the Ford Foundation both on its staff and seconded as Scientific Director of the International Center for Diarrheal Disease Research in Bangladesh. Dr. Chen has more than 100 publications on world social development, especially in health, population, and food and nutrition.

Composer/clarinetist Evan Ziporyn is a founding member of the Bang on a Can All-stars (Musical America's 2005 Ensemble of the Year), with whom he has toured the globe since 1992. He redefined the clarinet with his 2001 solo CD, *This Is Not A Clarinet*, which made numerous Top Ten lists across America. His music provided the soundtrack for the PBS film *Tail-enders*, and his playing was featured in Tan Dun's soundtrack for the film *Fallen*. He has also recorded with Paul Simon, Matthew Shipp, and Ethel. He received a Fulbright in 1987, and in 1990 began composing an ongoing series of groundbreaking cross-cultural works, combining gamelan with saxophones, guitars, electronics, Chinese and African instruments, and full orchestra. His fusion opera, "Shadow Bang," a collaboration with master Balinese dalang Wayan Wija, was the centerpiece of the 2006 Amsterdam GrachtenFest; his works have also been featured at festivals in London, New York, and the Sydney Olympics. He is Kenan Sahin Distinguished Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and has two children. He is currently working on a opera based on the life of Colin McPhee, to be premiered in Bali with the All-stars in June 2009.

Rita Evelyn Freed is the curator of the department of ancient Egyptian, Nubian and Near Eastern Art at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, She is a professor in the art department at Wellesley College, from which she graduated. She received a PhD in Near Eastern art and archeology from New York University.

Michael Hintlian is a full time documentary photographer based in Boston. His work has appeared in major US dailies and periodicals internationally. Self taught as a photographer, he studied at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and Tufts University. In 1996 he was distinguished as a Traveling Scholar from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and was a visiting artist at the Museum School for the following academic year. His work has been widely exhibited and is in the collections of museums and galleries worldwide. Currently he is working on long term documentaries in former Soviet Republic of Armenia and Nagorno-Karabagh and in Africa. His documentary project on the Central Artery/Tunnel Project in Boston (the Big Dig) was published by Commonwealth Editions in 2004. He currently directs the Documentary Photography department at the New England School of Photography and is a Graduate Mentor at the Art Institute of Boston.