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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.

Lesaux leads a research program that focuses on the reading development and difficulties of children from linguistically diverse backgrounds; her developmental and instructional research has implications for practitioners, researchers, and policy-makers. Lesaux's current research includes a longitudinal study of Spanish-speakers' English reading comprehension and a study evaluating the effects of academic language instruction in urban middle school classrooms with large numbers of struggling readers. Previous research includes a study investigating language-minority learners' reading development from kindergarten through fourth grade and an interdisciplinary study that examines the interaction among kindergartners health and well-being, social competence, socioeconomic status, and language and cognitive processing skills known to be critical for reading development. Lesaux's program of research is supported by research grants from several organizations, including National Institute for Child Health and Human Development, William T. Grant Foundation, William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, and the Spencer Foundation. From 2004-2006, Lesaux was Senior Research Associate of the National Literacy Panel on Language Minority Youth and contributing author to three chapters in that national report.