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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.

Robert Selman served as chair of the Human Development and Psychology area from 2000 to 2004. He is the founder within this area of the Risk and Prevention Program in 1992 and served as its first director through 1999. At the Harvard Medical School, he is professor of psychology in the Department of Psychiatry, where he serves as senior associate at the Judge Baker Children's Center and at the Department of Psychiatry at Children's Hospital Boston. Selman has engaged in research and practice focused on how to help children develop social awareness and engagement competencies as a way to reduce risks to their health and to promote their social relationships as well as their academic performance. Currently, he does practice-based research, studying interpersonal and intergroup development across the age range from preschool through high school. His current work on the promotion of children's understanding of ways to get along with others from different backgrounds is conducted in the context of literacy and language arts curricula at the elementary level. Past work focused on the treatment of psychological disorders of youth in day school and residential treatment and the prevention of these disorders in children and adolescents placed at risk.

Carol Hampton Rasco is President and CEO of Reading Is Fundamental, Inc., America's oldest and largest nonprofit children's and family literacy organization. Prior to holding this position, Rasco was the executive director for government relations at the College Board. From 1997 through 2000, Rasco served as the Senior Adviser to US Secretary of Education, Richard W. Riley, and as director of the America Reads Challenge, a four year national campaign to promote the importance of all children reading well and independently by the end of the third grade. Previously, Rasco worked for four years in the White House as domestic policy adviser to the president and directed the Domestic Policy Council.

Carol Bundy has written for film and art publications in both the UK and the US. She has two sons and lives in Cambridge, MA. She became interested in her great-great-great uncle, Charles Russell Lowell, when his worn saddle bags, rusted sword and spurs turned up after her grandmothers death in 1983.

Prior to joining state government, Ms. Edmonds was president of Jane C. Edmonds & Associates, Inc. (JCEA), a workforce development and diversity training and consulting firm. Ms. Edmonds also is a former Chair of the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination (MCAD), the Commonwealth's civil rights law enforcement agency. From there, she went on to serve as Director for the Office of Intergovernmental Relations for the City of Boston. Ms. Edmonds is a former elected member of the Sharon School Committee where she served two terms, one as its Chair. Additionally, Ms. Edmonds is a former member of several private and public sector boards, including: the United Way of Massachusetts Bay, the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce, the Education Loan Services, Inc. and The Boston Club.

Dana Ansel is the research director at MassINC, a nonpartisan think tank in Boston. At MassINC, she oversees all of the research products, including reports on the Massachusetts economy, the changing demographics of the state, home ownership, workforce development, and higher education. Dana developed her interest in public policy as an undergraduate at Wellesley College. She continued her studies at Princeton University where she earned a doctorate in political science in 1997. Her research interests include labor market economics, inequality, and domestic public policy. Her dissertation, entitled "Poor Chances: The Working Poor Speak About Poverty and Opportunity," is based on in-depth interviews with working-poor adults in Boston. Prior to joining MassINC, she did consulting work for the Commonwealth Corporation. She is involved with the United Way of Massachusetts Bay, the Womens Union, and other nonprofit organizations in the area.

Andrew Porter serves as Of Counsel of Todd an Weld LLP, a Boston based firm of trial lawyers. He has over 20 years of experience practicing law in the areas of family and probate law, business representation, business litigation, and collection law. Porter has litigated cases in the Massachusetts State and Federal Courts and has also appeared on numerous occasions before the Massachusetts Appellate courts. Porter currently serves as counsel to the Boards of Directors for several companies and corporations and represents many business entities on matters of law.

David Liroff is the senior vice president of System Development and Media Strategy. David B. Liroff joined CPB in April, 2007, after having served as vice president and chief technology officer at the WGBH Educational Foundation in Boston, Massachusetts. Liroff joined WGBH in 1979, and during his tenure with the station had senior management responsibility for broadcasting, local program production, creative services, membership, major gifts and capital campaign fundraising, and for national "how-to" program production. Most recently at WGBH, Liroff had been responsible for production services, engineering, information technology, telecommunications, and audience research, and he had senior management responsibility for overseeing WGBH's transition to digital production and broadcasting. While at WGBH, Liroff had served on the boards of the Association of Public Television Stations (APTS), American Public Television (APT), Public Interactive (PI), and the Northeast Document Conservation Center. He also served on the Public Broadcasting Service Technology and Distribution Committee and was a member of the Association of Moving Image Archivists. Prior to joining WGBH in 1979, Liroff was director of broadcasting at PBS member station KETC-TV9/St Louis, where he was responsible for programming, production, and audience research. From 1971-1977, he was PTV program director at WOUB-TV20 at the Ohio University Telecommunications Center in Athens, Ohio and was an assistant professor in the College of Communication, School of Radio/Television at Ohio University. Liroff holds a PhD in radio, TV and film from Northwestern University, a master's in speech and theater from Brooklyn College/City University of New York, and a bachelor's in political science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.