Joseph Alper has been a science and health care writer for twenty-two years. During that time, he has served as a contributing correspondent for Science and as a contributing editor of Nature Biotechnology and Self magazines. He has also written for a variety of publications, including the Atlantic Monthly, Harper’s, the New York Times, the Washington Post, and Health Magazine, and has written numerous policy documents for the National Institutes of Health and the National Academy of Science. Alper has won several national writing awards, including the American Chemical Society’s Grady/Stack Award for career achievements in science writing and two national writing awards from the American Psychological Association. Alper has also taught journalism and writing at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Johns Hopkins University, the University of Minnesota, and Colorado State University. He graduated from the University of Illinois-Urbana and received master’s of science degrees in biochemistry and agricultural journalism from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Sharon Begley was a senior editor at Newsweek, where she covered science since 1977. She has won numerous awards for her journalism, including the Clarion Award from Women in Communications, the Distinguished Achievement Award from the Educational Press Association of America, the Global Award for Media Excellence from the Population Institute, and the Wilbur Award from the National Religious Public Relations Council. She is now the science columnist at the Wall Street Journal.

Paul Brodeur was a staff writer at the New Yorker for nearly forty years. During that time, he alerted the nation to the public health hazard posed by asbestos, to depletion of the ozone layer by chlorofluorocarbons, and to the harmful effects of microwave radiation and power-frequency electromagnetic fields. His work has been acknowledged with a National Magazine Award and the Journalism Award of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. The United Nations Environment Program has named him to its Global 500 Roll of Honour for outstanding environmental achievements.

Ethan Bronner is the assistant editorial page editor of the New York Times. From 1999 through 2001, he was the paper’s education editor. He came to the New York Times in 1997 as a national correspondent and reported on trends in higher education and grades K–12. From 1985 until 1997, he was with the Boston Globe, where he served as Middle East correspondent, based in Jerusalem, and a Supreme Court and legal affairs correspondent in Washington, D.C. He began his journalistic career at Reuters in 1980 and reported from London, Madrid, and Brussels. Bronner is the author of Battle for Justice: How the Bork Nomination Shook America, which was chosen by the New York Public Library as one of the twenty-five best books of 1989. He received a B.A. in letters from Wesleyan University and an M.S. from Columbia University’s School of Journalism.

David C. Colby, Ph.D.,is a senior program officer at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. He serves as team leader for the Coverage Team and is a member of the Supportive Services Team. He is also the program officer for the Scholars in Health Policy Research and Investigator Awards in Health Policy Research programs. He came to The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation in January 1998 after nine years of service with the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission and the Physician Payment Review Commission, most recently as deputy director. Prior to that he was with the University of Maryland, where he was associate professor in the policy sciences graduate program and coordinator of the Master’s of Policy Sciences Program. Colby was a Robert Wood Johnson Faculty Fellow in Health Care Finance, serving in the Congressional Budget Office. Earlier he was dean of freshmen and assistant dean at Williams College and held faculty positions at Williams College and State University College at Buffalo. His published research has focused on Medicaid and Medicare, media coverage of AIDS, and various topics in political science. He was an associate editor of the Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law from 1995 to 2002. He received his doctorate in political science from the University of Illinois, M.A. from Ohio University, and B.A. from Ohio Wesleyan University.

Digby Diehl is a writer, literary collaborator, and television, print, and Internet journalist. Recently honored with the Jack Smith Award from the Friends of the Pasadena Public Library, his book credits include Angel on My Shoulder, the autobiography of singer Natalie Cole; The Million Dollar Mermaid, the autobiography of MGM star Esther Williams; Tales from the Crypt, the history of the popular comic book, movie, and television series; and A Spy for All Seasons, the autobiography of former CIA officer Duane Clarridge. For eleven years, Diehl was the literary correspondent for ABC-TV’s “Good Morning America” and was recently the book editor for the “Home Page” show on MSNBC. He continues to appear regularly on the morning news on KTLA. Previously the entertainment editor for KCBS television in Los Angeles, he was a writer for the Emmys and for the soap opera “Santa Barbara,” book editor of the Los Angeles Herald Examiner, editor-in-chief of art book publisher Harry N. Abrams, and the founding book editor of the Los Angeles Times Book Review. Diehl holds an M.A. in theatre from UCLA and a B.A. in American studies from Rutgers University, where he was a Henry Rutgers Scholar. He is presently collaborating with Coretta Scott King on her memoirs.

Susan B. Garland was a Washington correspondent for twelve years for Business Week. Her beats included social policy, the White House, and legal affairs. As social policy reporter, she wrote on a range of health topics, including the uninsured, Medicare, long-term care, attempts by business to control costs through managed care, and government reform efforts. Since the end of 1999, she has been a freelance writer, and her articles on health care, personal finance, and other areas have appeared in Business Week, the Washington Post, Modern Maturity, Parents, and Martha Stewart Living. In 1999, she won an Easter Seals EDI (Equality, Dignity and Independence) Award for her coverage on persons with disabilities. She holds a B.A. from Colgate University, where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.

Paul Mantell, in addition to his work for The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, is a spokesman, writer, actor, educator, and songwriter. With co-author Avery Hart, he has created more than one hundred popular novels for young adults, including dozens of Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys, and Bobbsey Twin mysteries for Simon and Schuster, many of them best-sellers. Additionally, he has written several award-winning works of nonfiction for families and schools, including Boredom Busters, Kids Garden, Pyramids!, Ancient Greece, Knights and Castles, and Kids Make Music. He has also penned award-winning audio books, plays, songs, and film scripts. Currently, he is the author of Matt Christopher sports books for children 8–12. In addition to his performances on National Public Radio’s In the Dark, his narrative skills and character acting have delighted thousands of children who have listened to his work on audio cassettes and CDs. As co-creator of the New Living Newspaper, Mantell has written and performed in several original shows that dramatize news events and public issues. The New Living Newspaper has been personally recognized by Walter Cronkite and favorably reviewed by NBC-TV, the New York Times, and others.

Carolyn Newbergh is a Northern California writer who has covered health care trends and policy issues for more than twenty years. Her freelance work has appeared in numerous print and online publications. As a reporter for the Oakland Tribune, she wrote articles on health care delivery for the poor as well as emergency room violence, AIDS, and the impact of crack cocaine on the children of addicts. She was also an investigative reporter for the Tribune, winning prestigious honors for a series on how consultants intentionally cover up earthquake hazards in California.

C. Tracy Orleans, Ph.D., is senior scientist at The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. She is responsible for a range of grants and national programs supporting research, programs, and evaluations that focus on translating research into practice and policy in the areas of tobacco control, health and behavior, and chronic disease management. She has played a leadership role in developing grant-making strategy in the area of tobacco-dependence treatment and in the Foundation’s efforts to promote adoption of healthy behaviors, especially physical activity. A clinical and health psychologist, she is currently an adjunct professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. Prior to joining the Foundation’s professional staff in 1995, Orleans served as vice president for research and development, Johnson & Johnson Applied Behavioral Technologies, director of tobacco control research at the Fox Chase Cancer Center, and assistant professor of medical psychology and psychiatry at Duke University Medical Center. She has been principal investigator or co-principal investigator on twenty NIH and other research grants and has served on numerous national behavioral-medicine and tobacco-control panels and committees. She has authored or co-authored more than 150 publications; contributed to numerous Surgeon General reports on tobacco; and co-edited, with John Slade, the first medical text on treatment of nicotine addiction. She currently serves on the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force and the Cessation Subcommittee of the Surgeon General’s Interagency Committee on Smoking and Health, chairs the Tobacco Cessation Scientific Advisory Panel for the American Legacy Foundation, and serves as past president of the Society of Behavioral Medicine.

Renie Schapiro has an extensive background in health writing and policy. She was a reporter for the London Sunday Times and Time magazine and editor of The New Physician magazine and the Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal. She has published in major medical journals and lay publications. She is co-editor of three books. She was also speechwriter and policy advisor to FDA Commissioner David Kessler and a research associate with the President’s Commission on Ethical Problems in Medicine and Biomedical Research. She has taught health policy and bioethics at Yale University and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She was a special communications officer at The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and over the past several years has been a consultant to the Foundation, working closely with its president, Steven Schroeder, on papers on health policy and philanthropy. She has an M.P.H from Yale University and a B.A. from the University of Minnesota.

Steven A. Schroeder, M.D., is president and chief executive officer of The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. A graduate of Stanford University and Harvard Medical School, he trained in internal medicine at the Harvard Medical Service of the Boston City Hospital, in epidemiology as a member of the Epidemic Intelligence Service of the Communicable Diseases Center, and in public health at the Harvard Center for Community Health and Medical Care. He served as an instructor in medicine at Harvard, assistant and associate professor of medicine and health care sciences at George Washington University, and associate professor and professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). At both George Washington University and UCSF, he was founding medical director of a university-sponsored health maintenance organization, and at UCSF he founded its Division of General Internal Medicine. While he was the Foundation president, Schroeder continued to practice general internal medicine on a part-time basis at The Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. He has more than 235 publications to his credit. He has served on a number of editorial boards, including (at present) the New England Journal of Medicine, and is a member of the boards of the International Advisory Review Committee for the Goldman School of Medicine; Ben Gurion University of Negev, Israel; the American Legacy Foundation; and the Harvard University Board of Overseers. He has received honorary doctorates from Rush University, Boston University, the University of Massachusetts, the Medical College of Wisconsin, and Georgetown University. He retires at the end of 2002, and, as of January 1, 2003, will become Distinguished Professor of Health and Health Care at the University of California, San Francisco.

Irene M. Wielawski is a health care journalist with 20 years experience on daily newspapers, including the Providence Journal-Bulletin and the Los Angeles Times, where she was a member of the investigations team. She has written extensively on problems of access to care among the poor and uninsured, and other socioeconomic issues in American medicine. From 1994 through 2000, Wielawski—with a research grant from The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation—tracked the experiences of the medically uninsured in twenty-five states following the demise of President Clinton’s health reform plan. Other projects in health care journalism since then include helping to develop a pediatric medicine program for public television. Wielawski has been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for medical reporting, among other solo honors. She is a founder and former director of the Association of Health Care Journalists, and a graduate of Vassar College.