Joseph Alper has been a science and health care writer for twenty-six years, and is currently the editor of Chemistry magazine and the National Cancer Institute's Nanotechnology in Cancer Website (http://nano.cancer.gov). He has also 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 Smithsonian, 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.

Paul Brodeur was a staff writer at the New Yorker for many 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 Honor for outstanding environmental achievements.

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 he 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.

Elaine F. Cassidy, Ph.D., is a program officer in research and evaluation at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, where she works on grantmaking related to addiction prevention and treatment, obesity, vulnerable populations, and pioneering ideas. Her work and interests focus primarily on adolescent health and risk behaviors and on school-based interventions, particularly for children and adolescents living in low-income, urban environments. Cassidy is a former school psychologist and trained mental health clinician who has provided therapeutic care to children and families in school, outpatient, and acute partial hospitalization settings. Cassidy holds a B.A. in psychology and liberal studies from the University of Notre Dame, an M.S.Ed. in psychological services from the University of Pennsylvania, and a Ph.D. in school, community, and child-clinical psychology from the University of Pennsylvania.

Joel R. Gardner is a writer and oral historian who specializes in the history of private philanthropy. In that capacity, he has worked as a consultant to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation since 1991. In addition, he has conducted oral history projects and written histories for The Pew Charitable Trusts and The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. He has written numerous articles for scholarly journals as well as general-interest publications. Most notably, his article "Oral History and Philanthropy: Private Foundations" appeared in the Journal of American History in 1992. He has also written histories of Memorial Hospital of Burlington County, New Jersey, and the Tasty Baking Company, and conducted interviews on behalf of the Columbia University Oral History Research Office and the Getty Center for the Arts and Humanities. His interview for Columbia with Charles Scribner, Jr., became In the Company of Writers, published in 1991. He holds degrees in French, from Tulane University, and journalism, from UCLA, where he began his oral history career.

Lee Green is an independent writer and journalist. Emphasizing long-form magazine nonfiction and based in Ventura, California, he has pursued stories in Europe, Central America, the Caribbean and throughout the United States. Though he has written for publications as diverse as The Atlantic, Sports Illustrated, and Audubon, in recent years many of his articles have appeared as cover stories for the Los Angeles Times Magazine. Notable among these have been a critique of the U.S. Forest Service, a look at America's secular ethics movement, and an illumination of California's unpreparedness for the state's projected population growth. Green is currently working on a book about U.S. foreign policy.

Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, M.D., MBA, is the fourth president and chief executive officer of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, a position she assumed in January 2003. Under her leadership, the Foundation implemented a defining framework that focuses its mission to improve the health and health care of all Americans and set bold objectives in nursing, health care disparities, childhood obesity as well as improving public health and quality in the health care system. She originally joined the staff in April 2001 as the senior vice president and director, health care group. Prior to coming to the Foundation, Lavizzo-Mourey was the Sylvan Eisman Professor of Medicine and Health Care Systems at the University of Pennsylvania, as well as director of the Institute on Aging. Lavizzo-Mourey was the deputy administrator of the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research, now known as the Agency for Health Care Research and Quality. Lavizzo-Mourey is the author of numerous articles and several books, the recipient of many awards and honorary doctorates and frequently appears on national radio and television. A member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, she earned her medical degree at Harvard Medical School followed by a masters in business administration at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School. After completing a residency in internal medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, Lavizzo-Mourey was a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar at the University of Pennsylvania, where she also received her geriatrics training.

Laura C. Leviton, Ph.D., is a senior program officer of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Before joining the Foundation she was a professor of public health at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) and before that, on faculty of the University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health. Leviton is a leading writer on evaluation methods and practice, in particular for disease prevention. She was president of the American Evaluation Association in the year 2000, coauthored a leading evaluation text, and serves on several editorial boards for evaluation journals. She received the 1993 award from the American Psychological Association for Distinguished Contributions to Psychology in the Public Interest, for her work in HIV prevention and health promotion at the workplace. She served on an Institute of Medicine Committee to evaluate preparedness for terrorist attacks, and was a member of the CDC's National Advisory Committee on HIV and STD Prevention.

David J. Morse is vice president for communications at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. From 1997 to 2001, he was director of public affairs for The Pew Charitable Trusts, responsible for managing the Trusts' relationships with media and policymakers and with advising grantees on communications strategies. Before joining Pew, Morse served as associate vice president for pol-icy planning at the University of Pennsylvania, building the university's relations with the federal government, leading efforts to create new mechanisms for financing higher education, and pro-moting tax policies that preserve incentives for charitable giving. As an aide to U.S. Senators Jacob Javits and Robert Stafford, Morse developed legislation affecting higher education and cul-tural affairs for the Senate Committee on Labor and Human Resources, and in 1981 directed the President's Task Force on the Arts and the Humanities. He received a B.A. from Hamilton College and an M.A. from The Johns Hopkins University. He serves on the board of the Communications Network and on the Ad Council's Public Policy Advisory Committee, and from 1994 to 2001 taught a public policy course at the University of Pennsylvania's Graduate School of Education.

Mary Nakashian is a consultant specializing in public policy, management, program development and training. She is a former vice president and director of program demonstration at The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University. For eighteen years, Nakashian worked for state and local governments, including four years as executive deputy commissioner of New York City's Human Resources Administration where she was responsible for the City's welfare, Medicaid, day care, welfare to work and child support enforcement programs. She has written about welfare policy and practice, and writes extensively for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. For five years, Nakashian taught at New York University's Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service.

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.

Irene M. Wielawski is a health care journalist with twenty years experience as a staff writer for 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 as well as freelance writing and editing for various publications, including The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and science and policy journals. Wielawski has been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for medical reporting, among other solo honors. She is a founder of the Association of Health Care Journalists, and a graduate of Vassar College.