Family Re-Union 8: Family and Community

Panelists, Presenters

Speaker Biographies

KAREN ALSCHULER is a Principal and Director of Planning and Urban Design for Simon Martin-Vegue Winkelstein Moris (SMWM), an architecture, planning and urban-design firm in San Francisco, California. As a principal for SMWM, Ms. Alschuler has developed a national practice tackling some of the most interesting and urgent urban issues. These issues include: defining the new generation of urban waterfronts; framing the design and market-based parameters for intensification and transformation of large downtown districts; planning for expanded cultural and educational facilities; defining the terms of urban stewardship and public places which welcome a diverse population; and seeking a critical balance between physical planning and fiscally responsible economic development. Ms. Alschuler's projects range from the precedent-setting waterfront mixed-use projects at Rowes Wharf in Boston, to Dock 20 in Cleveland, to Mission Bay in San Francisco. Before joining SMWM, Ms. Alschuler was a Partner at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, where she directed award-winning planning and urban-design teams. Ms. Alschuler is a past President of Commercial Real Estate Women - San Francisco and serves on the Design Review Board of the Bay Conservation and Development Commission. She has taught classes and continuing education seminars at Harvard University, the University of California, Berkeley and other institutions.

KIM ANDERSON is a member of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe who was born and raised on the White Earth Reservation in Northern Minnesota. She is part of the Aki Planning Circle, which is composed of reservation personnel and community volunteers. In response to its goal of promoting the overall health of the community, the Planning Circle recognized the prevalence of cases of diabetes and cancer as a growing concern on the reservation. To combat these diseases in their community, the Planning Circle is promoting a better way of life through gardening and improved nutrition. Ms. Anderson is supporting this effort by teaching classes in nutrition and horticulture, fostering intergenerational bonds and overseeing several community gardens. Ms. Anderson learned to garden from her grandparents, who were both master gardeners, and her parents, who coordinate the yearly Harvest Festival at the reservation. She is also a volunteer firefighter, and she and her husband are foster parents.

CLARENCE ANTHONY is Mayor of the City of South Bay, Florida, a position he has held since 1984, and President of the National League of Cities (NLC). As President of the NLC, Mayor Anthony initiated the 1998 NLC Futures Report, Building a Nation of Communities. That report, which Mayor Anthony will draw upon as a resource for the coming year, stresses the importance of inclusiveness, interactivity, shared responsibility and mutual obligation as essential elements of a healthy community. The report also contains the five factors rated by city leaders and community-based organizations (CBOs) as most important for effective collaboration. They are: city government understands specific needs; city government and CBOs communicate effectively; city government and CBOs trust and respect each other; CBOs understand specific community needs, and city government has the capacity to achieve results. Mayor Anthony is also Chairman of the Federal Government Ecosystem Task Force and the Directions Committee of the Palm Beach County Municipal League and a member of the Florida Constitution Revision Commission and the State of Florida Environmental Land Management Study Committee. He is a recipient of numerous honors and awards including the South Florida Business Journal's Up and Comer's Award and the Florida Jaycees Mayor of the Year for the State of Florida.

PAULA ANTONOVICH is Communications Director at the Benton Foundation in Washington, D.C., a foundation that focuses on communications in the public interest. Her primary responsibilities include serving as co-director of Connect for Kids, the foundation's flagship children's program. Connect for Kids brings together the powers of the Internet, public service advertising, and original journalism to focus attention on issues that matter to children and families. Prior to joining the Benton Foundation, Ms. Antonovich served as Senior Communications Manager on a project for the Department of Health and Human Services that focused on the application of communications and social marketing models to social issues. She is co-author of Marketing Matters: Building an Effective Communications Program.

ALFRED BABINGTON-JOHNSON is President and Chief Executive Officer of the Stairstep Initiative Companies, which include Stairstep Foundation, Stairstep, Inc., Gye Nyame Tires Plus, and Step Up, Inc. The Stairstep Initiative brings together African-Americans of all income and resource levels in the Twin Cities metropolitan area to participate in the articulation of community values, and in the operation of businesses consistent with those values. Mr. Babington-Johnson is a member of numerous boards, including the Advisory Board of Humphrey Institute the University of Minnesota. He previously served as a Minneapolis Public Housing Commissioner, was co-chair of the Mayor's Task Force on Business Regulation, and was past President of the National Association of Minority Contractors of Minnesota. Mr. Babington-Johnson is also an associate minister at Grace Temple Deliverance Center. In 1996, Mr. Babington-Johnson, his wife, Denise, and their three children were honored as Family of the Year by the Minneapolis Urban League.

ELINOR BACON is Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Office of Public Housing Investment of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. She administers the $3.2 billion HOPE VI Program and other Capital Improvement Public Housing programs, with annual appropriations of approximately $2.5 billion. Before joining HUD, Ms. Bacon was a real estate developer and consultant in Baltimore. Her firm, Bacon & Company, specialized in affordable housing, adaptive reuse, historic preservation and project management of public-purpose urban projects. Among other projects, she served as Development Director for the $160 million Columbus Center for Marine Research and Explorations and the $29 million Baltimore Children's Museum. She was also Co-Development Manager for Washington Square, a 59-unit new and rehabilitated residential moderate-income project in East Baltimore. Prior to forming her company, Ms. Bacon worked for more than 10 years in public-sector housing and community development at HUD, Johns Hopkins Hospital, and the Baltimore City Department of Housing and Community Development.

CINDY BALLARD is Executive Director of the Coalition of Community Foundations for Youth in Kansas City, Missouri, a position she has held since 1993. The Coalition is an association of more than 120 community foundations dedicated to improving conditions for children, youth and families at the local level. Over its seven-year history, the Coalition has provided coaching, technical assistance, and grants totaling million of dollars to more than 80 community foundations. Prior to assuming her position with the Coalition, Ms. Ballard was a law clerk for Judge Ross Roberts of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri, and a partner in a Kansas City law firm. She also worked for the Texas Office of State-Federal Relations in Washington, D.C., and was the Executive Director of Adolescent Resources Corporation in Kansas City.

RICHARD BARON is Founder, President and Chief Executive Officer of McCormack Baron & Associates in St. Louis, Missouri, a firm specializing in the development and management of low- and moderate-income housing with an emphasis on large-scale redevelopment projects in central city locations. The firm has developed 71 projects in 22 cities throughout the country. McCormack Baron worked closely with former HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros and his staff to design the Hope VI program, and is currently involved in seven Hope VI projects nationally. Mr. Baron is also the founder and developer of the Center of Contemporary Arts in University City, a community-based visual and performing arts center that serves more than 50,000 children annually. Mr. Baron has been a consultant to the Urban Land Institute, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Ford Foundation. He is a member of the Board of Trustees for the National Trust for Historic Preservation and the Advisory Board for the Center on Urban and Metropolitan Policy of The Brookings Institution. He has published 12 books and articles.

AMY BARZACH is Co-founder and Executive Director of the National Center for Boundless Playgrounds in Broomfield, Connecticut. Boundless Playgrounds is an organization committed to helping communities throughout the country create safe, challenging and fun playgrounds that are also universally accessible to children of all abilities. The first Boundless Playground, Jonathan's Dream, was created by a large team of volunteers. The organization's goal is to have one such playground within an hour's drive of every child in the United States. Recently Ms. Barzach's work and organization were nationally recognized and honored by Parenting magazine. In 1997, the National Recreation & Park Association honored Ms. Barzach with the ROSE Award for "outstanding efforts in advancing parks and recreation."

LORETTA BIGGS is an Executive Assistant United States Attorney in the Middle District of North Carolina. She serves as a principal adviser to the United States Attorney in the areas of crime prevention and intervention strategies. She is the supervising attorney of the Winston-Salem branch office and is also responsible for the office's federal child support enforcement and child exploitation cases. Ms. Biggs is a former District Court Judge as well as a former state Assistant District Attorney. She was recently appointed by Governor James Hunt to serve as a member of the North Carolina State Advisory Council on Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention and to the Governor's Task Force on Youth, Violence and Community Safety. She is co-chair of the Partnership for a Drug Free North Carolina with U.S. Congressman Richard Burr and Secretary of Crime Control and Public Safety Richard Moore.

DIANE BOCK is Founder and Director of Community Cousins, a non-profit organization to combat racism that serves more than 200 families in Oliverhain, California. After the riots in Los Angeles, Ms. Bock decided to fight racism on an individual level by helping people of different races to become acquainted. Community Cousins pairs families of different races who initially meet at an all-cousins gathering which is held once a month. The families are then encouraged to interact in any way that fits their lifestyles and time schedules. For example, they may attend each others' birthday parties and ball games, share recipes, dinners or a movie. Community Cousins is now offered by the YMCA as one of its programs. Ms. Bock's two children, ages 10 and 7, have benefited from the many friendships they have made through Community Cousins. Ms. Bock previously worked for the Carnation Company in London, England, and in advertising and publishing in Los Angeles, California.

ALVIN BROWN is Executive Director of the Community Empowerment Board (CEB) in Washington, D.C., a position he has held since February 1999. He is responsible for leading the Clinton/Gore Administration's overall community empowerment initiatives, with special emphasis on the Empowerment Zone and the Enterprise Community program. The first 11 Empowerment Zones and 94 Enterprise Communities were established in 1994. To date they have generated more than $8 billion in private investments to the designated communities and unprecedented levels of public-private partnership. Another 20 Empowerment Zones were designated in January 1999. These new Zones are expected to create or retain about 90,000 jobs and stimulate more than $20.3 billion in private and public investments over the next 10 years. Prior to his recent appointment to CEB, Mr. Brown was the Director of the Office of Special Actions for HUD Secretary Andrew Cuomo. Other positions within the Clinton/Gore Administration that Mr. Brown has held include Senior Adviser for Economic Development for the late Commerce Secretary Ron Brown and Deputy Associate Director for the White House Office of Presidential Personnel. Prior to his federal service, Mr. Brown worked in the private sector for several Fortune 500 companies.

JOHN BRYANT is Founder, Chairman of the Board, and Chief Executive Officer of Operation HOPE, Inc., in Los Angeles, California, America's first non-profit investment banking organization. He also serves as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the growing network of Operation HOPE Banking Centers, which are for-profit subsidiaries of Operation HOPE, Inc., and an innovative model for banking in under served communities. In August 1998, Mr. Bryant was appointed United Nations Goodwill Ambassador for the Partners for Development Initiative to the United States of America by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. In 1994, he was selected by Time magazine as "One of America's 50 Most Promising Leaders of the Future." Mr. Bryant serves on the Board of Directors of several corporations including Southern Pacific Bank and has received numerous awards. He has also served as a United States delegate on business and cultural exchanges in Japan, China, Korea, South Africa and Zimbabwe.

JIM BUEERMANN is Chief of Police and Director of Housing, Recreation and Senior Services in Redlands, California. Prior to his appointment to these positions in May 1998, Chief Bueermann worked for the Redlands Police Department for 20 years. In 1994, he directed the development and implementation of Community Policing in Redlands. In 1997, he supervised the consolidation of Housing, Recreation and Senior Services into the police department as a preventive strategy for reducing crime and problem adolescent behavior in Redlands. Chief Bueermann subsequently directed the research and development of Risk Focused Policing as a crime prevention model and community building tool. He is currently involved in projects to integrate the concepts of healthy cities and sustainable communities into community policing.

SYDNEY BUTLER is Executive Director of the American Zoo and Aquarium Association (AZA), which represents more than 180 major zoos and aquariums, more than 200 commercial members, 38 societies, 25 related organizations, as well as 6,000 individual members throughout North America. Prior to becoming Executive Director of the AZA, Mr. Butler chaired a fund-raising campaign for the League of Conservation Voters, a non-partisan national organization that supports pro-environment candidates for the U.S. Congress. He was also Vice President for Conservation of the Wilderness Society, a 400,000-member national environmental organization, where he served as chief campaign and legislative strategist and was responsible for 14 field offices throughout the United States. Mr. Butler served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Agriculture for Food and Consumer Services from 1977 to 1981. He also represented national, international, and environmental clients before the courts, Congress, and federal agencies as part of his law practices in Memphis, Tennessee, and Washington, D.C.

DONNA BUTTS is Executive Director of Generations United, the only national membership organization focused solely on promoting intergenerational policies, strategies and programs in Washington, D.C. Generations United fosters communication and collaboration and brings together groups representing youth as well as elders and grandparents. The organization is supported by more than 100 national organizations, numerous state and local organizations and hundreds of individuals. Prior to joining Generations United, Ms. Butts was the Executive Director of the National Organization on Adolescent Pregnancy, Parenting and Prevention. Ms. Butts was recently appointed to serve on the National Kinship Care Advisory Panel by Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala. She has authored many articles and chapters on youth issues, fund development and intergenerational programs, public policy and related issues.

GEOFFREY CANADA is President and CEO of Rheedlen Centers for Children and Families in New York City, which develops and operates a network of school-based violence- and crime-prevention programs in Central Harlem, Manhattan's Upper West Side and Hell's Kitchen areas. The programs provide services to youth and families to keep young people in school and to reach beyond the needs of individuals to support the communities in which they live. Community support programs include the Peacemakers Program and East Coast Coordination for the Black Community Crusade for Children, organized by the Children's Defense Fund. Mr. Canada's special initiatives include Rheedlen's Beacon School, which provides 12-hour-per-day, 365-day-per-year support to children and families, and the Harlem Children's Zone, which works with all families in a 23-block section of Central Harlem. Mr. Canada has written two books: Fist, Stick, Knife, and Gun: A Personal History of Violence in America and Reaching Up for Manhood. He has also received a number of awards and two honorary degrees.

MATTHEW CAVEDON is a 10-year-old who recently completed the fourth grade at the Willard School in Berlin, Connecticut. He is also an intern at Boundless Playgrounds, an organization that helps communities develop their own universally accessible playgrounds. Matthew has worked to promote awareness of the need for fully integrated playgrounds through public speaking, playground tours and interviews with local and national media. He is a member of the Boundless Playgrounds' Junior Advisory Board, a panel of 12 children, ages 5 to15, who review and evaluate potential playground designs. Matthew relied upon his own experiences in playgrounds to design a "boat swing" for Boundless Playgrounds. The swing, which is large enough for Matthew to get on with his wheelchair, is one of the most popular parts of "Jonathan's Dream," the first Boundless Playground. Matthew also enjoys Challenger division baseball, swimming, horseback riding and attending Winners on Wheels, a Scout-style group for children who use wheelchairs.

JENNIFER CHANG is a senior at Vanderbilt University majoring in Psychology and Economics with a concentration in Business Administration. She has previously worked with issues such as as HIV/AIDS awareness and education, mentoring inner-city youth, GED tutoring for male inmates, and life skills training for juvenile delinquents. As the result of volunteer work with female inmates, Ms. Chang founded Aiding Inmate Mothers (AIM), a program in which volunteers help mothers at the Tennessee Prison for Women make audio tapes of books for their children. The books and the audio tapes are then sent to the inmates' children. The program has helped to strengthen the familial relationships between the inmate mothers and their children and improved the literacy of the participants. Last spring, 22 volunteers participated, and more than 30 children received books and tapes in the mail. Ms. Chang is a recipient of the Ingram Scholarship, which encourages students to develop and implement creative service projects that address community needs.

BARBARA CLINTON is Director of the Center for Health Services at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. The Center links university resources to local health initiatives in Appalachia and the Mississippi Delta. The Center's award-winning Maternal Infant Health Outreach Worker Project has mobilized more than 500 community residents in Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia and West Virginia to initiate family health programs. Ms. Clinton is an adviser to the Tennessee Commission on Aging, the National Center for Children in Poverty and the Appalachian Rural Science Initiative of the National Science Foundation. She has been active in all the Family Re-Union conferences and is a board member of "Father to Father," which was inspired by Family Re-Union 3.

MARY C. COMERIO is a Professor and Vice Chair of the Department of Architecture at the University of California, Berkeley. She has designed numerous public and private facilities including market rate and affordable housing. She is a leading authority on post-disaster reconstruction, and her research on the costs and benefits of seismic rehabilitation for existing buildings has been widely published. Ms. Comerio's work for the cities of Los Angeles and San Francisco established a precedent for evaluating the economic impacts of building codes for existing structures and resulted in a $250 million state bond issue and a $350 million San Francisco bond issue dedicated to seismic rehabilitation. In 1997, she was part of the international team that investigated the impacts of the earthquake in Assisi, Italy. Her book, Disaster Hits Home, New Policy for Urban Housing Recovery, was published by University of California Press in 1998.

LUCIA DIAZ is Executive Director of the Mar Vista Family Center and the Mar Vista Institute in Culver City, California. The Mar Vista Family Center was founded in 1977 as a parent participation preschool adjacent to the Mar Vista Gardens Federal Housing Project. It serves an at-risk community populated primarily by low-income Latino and African-American families. In 1981, Ms. Diaz came to Mar Vista Family Center as a parent participant with her children in the child care program. She then enrolled in the UCLA Extension Program at the Center to earn her certificate as a preschool teacher. In 1985, Ms. Diaz began serving as a Mar Vista Family Center head teacher and the following year she was promoted to the position of Program Director. She became the Executive Director of the Center in 1995. Ms. Diaz has trained more than 100 community leaders, and developed a youth leadership program that hosted its second annual citywide youth-led conference this year. She has received many awards including the Pioneer Woman award from the Los Angeles City Council and the Martin Luther King Jr. Westside Coalition Champion for Peace Award in 1998. Ms. Diaz serves on numerous advisory boards including Sabin Productions Children's Educational Television and Playa Vista Capital. She is coordinator of programs for the California Highway Patrol and Los Angeles Board of Public Works.

CATHY DODD is Executive Director of Woodbine Community Organization (WCO) in Nashville, Tennessee. WCO offers Summer Youth Camp, activities for senior citizens, Head Start, English as a Second Language and Spanish classes, Micro Lending groups, Individual Development Account group meetings and many other job training classes. WCO also develops housing for sale and rental. More than 5,000 low- to moderate-income people are served in some capacity at the center each year. As Executive Director, Ms. Dodd initiated a highly successful program called Homebuyers Club that helps low- to moderate-income people purchase housing. In 1996, the Governor's office gave Ms. Dodd the Partners in Housing Award for her contributions in the area of housing.

DENNIS DRESANG, Ph.D., is a Professor of Political Science and Public Affairs and the Founding Director of the

La Follette Institute of Public Affairs at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Dr. Dresang has worked with local and tribal governments on gang and youth violence, with numerous state and local governments on pay equity legislation, and with all levels of government on personnel reform. He is the author of Public Personnel Management and Public Policy and co-author of American Politics: The People and the Polity and Politics and Policy in American States and Communities. He is the former chair of the Wisconsin Task Force on Comparable Worth and is a recipient of several awards for his work to eliminate gender and race discrimination in pay.

PAMELA EAKES is Founder and President of Mothers Against Violence in America(MAVIA). Headquartered in Seattle, Washington, MAVIA is a national network of mothers, fathers, students and others working together to prevent violence by and against children. MAVIA's primary goals are to 1) encourage investment in prevention before young people are affected by violence and 2) to advocate for changes that support a safer America for all children. For her efforts with the organization she has received the 1999 Woman of Achievement Award from Women in Communications, the 1995 YMCA Isabel Coleman Pierce Community Service Award, the 1995 City of Seattle and Providence Medical Center Violence Prevention Award, the 1995 Citizen of the Year from Mercer Island and the Seattle Times 1994 Best of Puget Sound Citizen. In addition to her commitment to MAVIA, Ms. Eakes is co-chair of the SafeFutures Community Planning Board, a national initiative of the Office of Juvenile Justice, Crime and Delinquency, serves on the Advisory Committees for the National Center for Safe Schools and the U.S. Department of Education's “America Goes Back to Schools and the Governor's Council on Juvenile Justice.

GAETANA EBBOLE is Executive Director of the Children's Services Council of Palm Beach County, West Palm Beach, Florida. In this position, she has worked with funders, providers and citizens to develop services designed to enhance families' abilities to successfully raise children to become physically, socially and emotionally healthy adults. Prior to joining the Children's Services Council in 1989, Ms. Ebbole held several positions at Nova University in Florida where she was part of the Institute for Social Services to Families. While there, she developed and implemented 1) community education programs of team building, case management and supervisory training for New Mexico's Department of Social Services' foster care program and 2) a comprehensive foster care training program for the Province of Saskatchewan, Canada. Ms. Ebbole also previously developed programs for Virginia's foster care system, investigated child abuse and neglect referrals in southeast Texas, and worked to improve the foster care system in Saskatchewan Province, Canada.

MARTHA FARRELL ERICKSON, Ph.D., Director of the Children, Youth & Family Consortium at the University of Minnesota, promotes university-community partnerships that link research to practice and policy for the well-being of

children and families. Her longitudinal research on parent-child attachment and strategies for breaking intergenerational cycles of abuse has informed the work of health care providers, family support professionals, and policy makers in the U.S. and abroad. In addition to publishing in professional journals, Dr. Erickson writes the parenting column "Growing Concerns," which is featured in family publications across the country, and she appears weekly on the KARE-TV Today Show. In October, Guilford Press will publish her new book, Infants, Toddlers & Families: a Framework for Support and Intervention.

DAVID FACHETTI is Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Family Education Company's Family Education Network in Boston, Massachusetts, the leading Web site connecting educators and parents online. Mr. Fachetti is responsible for the Company's services that provide schools and community groups with the ability to create and host Web sites within the company's Family Education Network Site. He has been instrumental in developing the company's long-range strategy. He also created a strategic marketing partnership with America Online and NBC. Mr. Fachetti was previously President of Trans National Loyalty Management, a subsidiary of Trans National Group. He also worked at Price Waterhouse as a senior consultant in its Comprehensive Professional Services Division.

JULIE FALENDER is Youth Volunteer Assistant at the Oasis Center, a local counseling center and shelter for teens in Nashville, Tennessee. Ms. Falender played an active role in creating People United Leading and Serving Everywhere (PULSE) which is a youth volunteer program. She also helped to created PULSE Day 1998 and 1999 which brought together hundreds of Nashville teens to serve the community. Ms. Falender is leading a group of teens in partnership with Nashville's Mayor Phil Bredesen to form a Mayor's Youth Council. The council will act as a voice for Nashville's youth in the community and government. She is a recent graduate of Hume-Fogg Academic Magnet High School, where she was the Senior Class President. This fall, Ms. Falender will attend Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island.

REVEREND ROBERT FRANKLIN, Ph.D., is President of the Interdenominational Theological Center (ITC) in Atlanta, Georgia, the nation's foremost center of African-American religious training and graduate education. Prior to assuming the presidency of ITC, Dr. Franklin was a program officer at the Ford Foundation, where he had primary responsibility for grants to African-American churches engaged in the delivery of secular social services. Dr. Franklin is also an ordained clergy person who preaches and lectures across the nation. He is the author of two books, Liberating Visions: Human Fulfillment and Social Justice in African American Thought and Another Day's Journey: Black Churches Confront the American Crisis. Dr. Franklin is on the Board of Directors of many organizations, including the Congress of National Black Churches, the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, and the Urban League of Atlanta.

RABBI NANCY FUCHS-KREIMER, Ph.D., has worked for 15 years at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, most recently as Director of the Religious Studies Program. She is currently on leave and working for 18 months at the Jewish Family and Children's Service of greater Philadelphia as the Director of the Jewish Identity Program. Her work is supported by a grant from the Jewish Federation. She is the author of Parenting as a Spiritual Journey as well as numerous articles on religion, inter-religious affairs and family issues.

LUIS GARDEN-ACOSTA is Founder and President of El Puente, a school and neighborhood center In Brooklyn, New York. In 1981, 48 young people lost their lives in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York. At that time, Williamsburg was recognized as the state's largest and one of its poorest Latino communities and was known as the gang capital of New York City. In response, Mr. Garden-Acosta founded El Puente, an organization which currently helps more than 10,000 community members access the arts, medicine, education, sports, green spaces, communications and other community resources. The organization focuses on development rather than treatment. Rather than looking at young people as being at risk, they challenge young people to become artists, educators, scholars, health promoters and leaders. Mr. Garden-Acosta is a past recipient of the Heinz Award in the Human Condition for profoundly influencing the nature of community building and youth development.

EDDIE GEORGE is a Running Back who plays with the Tennessee Titans, formerly the Houston Oilers, in the National Football League (NFL). He is widely regarded as one of the NFL's top running backs and has started in every game of his NFL career. In 1996, Mr. George was awarded NFL Rookie-of-the-Year honors by the Professional Football Writers of America, The Sporting News, Sports Illustrated, and Newspaper Enterprise Association. In 1995, he was the recipient of the Heisman Trophy, given to the top player in college football. Mr. George is also an actor who has appeared on CBS's Nash Bridges, WB's In the House and several commercials including Adidas and Sony Playstation.

ROSS GODWIN recently completed the seventh grade at Westland Middle School in Bethesda, Maryland. This past year, Ross participated in a program called OASIS, in which he taught senior citizens how to use computers and the Internet. An after-school program called Bar-T Kids Club drove Ross to and from the OASIS site so that he could volunteer with the elderly while his mother was still at work. Ross enjoyed this volunteer experience and appreciated the opportunity to give back to the community he feels has given him so much. Many people helped Ross and his family after Ross's father died of cancer when he was three years old. Big Brothers of America was particularly supportive. Ross and his big brother have been together for five years.

JACKIE GREENWOOD, Ed.D., is Principal of Arlington High School in Indianapolis, Indiana. Since 1987, Dr. Greenwood has transformed Arlington High from a school plagued with gang violence and other deviant behavior into an institution that stresses parental and community involvement. She initiated the Security Dads program at Arlington High, in which volunteer fathers chaperone all of the school's social and athletic events. Security Dads also tutor students, monitor the hallways during class time, plan fund-raisers for college tours and provide annual scholarships for two deserving students. In 1994, Dr. Greenwood and Arlington High School received the U.S. Department of Education's Drug-Free Recognition Award, which was presented by President Clinton. Dr. Greenwood is a member of the Board of Directors of many organizations including the Community Council of Indianapolis and the Center for Leadership Development. Dr. Greenwood has received many awards, including the Touchstone Award from Girls, Incorporated; the B'nai B'rith Isidore Feibleman Award; and the 1995 Indianapolis Education Association's Human Rights Award for Leadership in Education.

FATHER JOSEPH HACALA is Special Assistant for Interfaith and Community Outreach in the Office of the Secretary and Director of the Center for Community and Interfaith Partnership at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Father Hacala also serves on a regular basis at a Jesuit inner-city parish near Capitol Hill. From 1996 to 1997 he was the Frank W. Considine Visiting Professor in Applied Ethics at Loyola University, Chicago. He also served a five-year term as Executive Director of the Campaign for Human Development at the United States Catholic Conference in Washington, D.C. From 1980 to 1984, Father Hacala served as Rector of the Jesuit Community and Adjunct Professor of Sociology at Wheeling Jesuit College in West Virginia. For nine years he was involved in ministry in Appalachia. He is the editor/author of three publications: “Dream of the Mountains' Struggle;” “The Appalachian Pastoral Five Years Later;” “The Appalachian Land Ownership Study: from Colonialism to Stewardship;” and “Empowerment and Hope: 25 Years of Turning Lives Around,” as well as a variety of articles.

JANET HARTEY is Executive Director of Coastal Caregivers in Point Pleasant Beach, New Jersey. Coastal Caregivers provides free, supportive home care services to the frail, elderly, disabled and homebound. Ms. Hartey recruits and trains volunteers from a coalition of congregations and communities to help seniors and disabled individuals live independently and safely in their homes. The volunteers have become advocates in the community for those they serve. Ms. Hartey is currently working with public officials on legislation that would provide better protection for seniors receiving volunteer care in New Jersey.

BART HARVEY is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Enterprise Foundation in Columbia, Maryland. The Foundation works with more than 1,100 nonprofit neighborhood groups in more than 400 locations to give low-income families fit and affordable housing and the opportunity to work themselves up and out of poverty. In order to achieve its goals, the Foundation has committed more than $3 billion in equity, grants and loans to help produce more than 100,000 units of housing for very low-income families. Mr. Harvey assisted James Rouse on the work of the National Housing Task Force and was appointed to the Mitchell-Danforth Task Force on the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit. He is a member of numerous boards including the Board of Directors of the Enterprise Social Investment Corporation, the Enterprise Development Company, the Federal Home Loan Bank of Atlanta and the Baltimore Educational Scholarship Trust. Mr. Harvey previously served as Managing Director of Corporate Finance at Dean Witter Reynolds investment bank.

JILL ISCOL, Ed.D., is an activist interested in education, social and economic justice, child and family policy and social change through philanthropy. She serves as a trustee of the Bank Street College of Education, Prep for Prep, Horizon's Student Enrichment Program and is a member of the Advisory Boards of Facing History and Ourselves, the New York Children's Defense Fund, and the Institute on Education and Government of Teachers College, Columbia University, as well as it's President's Council. Dr. Iscol is also on the Executive Council of the Northeast Chapter of the Women's Leadership Forum of the Democratic National Committee and is a contributor to the Progressive Policy Institute of the Democratic Leadership Council. Currently, Dr. Iscol is chair of the Annual Family Re-Union Conference in Tennessee which is co-sponsored by the Children, Youth & Family Consortium of the University of Minnesota and the Child and Family Policy Center at Vanderbilt University. The conference is moderated by Vice President Al Gore and Tipper Gore. Dr. Iscol received her doctorate from Teachers College, Columbia University and an A.B.D. in Sociology from Yale. She is a former member of the graduate faculty at Bank Street College and was a co-director of the pre-service program in childhood education at Teachers College, Columbia University.

HARRY R. JACOBSON, M.D., is Vice Chancellor for Health Affairs and Professor of Medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee. Dr. Jacobson received his M.D. from the University of Illinois and completed his residency in medicine at Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Jacobson has conducted extensive research on nephrology, contributed to numerous medical textbooks, and edits The Principles and Practices of Nephrology.

GRANTLAND JOHNSON is Secretary of the California Health and Human Services Agency in Sacramento, California, a position he has held since January 1999, when he was appointed by Governor Gray Davis. Mr. Johnson is a member of the Governor's Cabinet and serves as his chief adviser on health, social service, and employment policies. He manages an agency with more than 42,000 employees and a total budget of more than $48 billion. In 1993, Mr. Johnson was appointed by Federal Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala as regional Director for Region IX of the Department of Health and Human Services. He was elected in 1987 to the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors and served on that board for seven years. From 1983 to 1986, he was a member of the Sacramento City Council.

JAMES JOHNSON is Executive Director of the Mutual Assistance Network (MAN) of Del Paso Heights. Located in Sacramento, California, MAN is a community development agency that has initiated programs to build healthy families, encourage youth development, create businesses and increase employment opportunities in high-risk neighborhoods like Del Paso. Programs initiated by MAN include parent support groups, a block grandparent program, youth support groups, an employment program, job retention services, a contingency loan program, community gardens and a childcare provider network. Mr. Johnson was previously an eligibility worker for Aid to Families with Dependent Children in the Sacramento County Department of Human Assistance.

BILL JOHNSTON is Senior Associate for Police and Community Programming for Facing History and Ourselves in Brookline, Massachusetts. Facing History is a national educational and professional development organization which engages students in examining racism, prejudice and anti-semitism to promote a more humane and informed citizenry. Mr. Johnston has been selected by the Federal Bureau of Investigation to serve throughout the country as a lecturer on civil rights investigations and to teach at the National Academy. He has also trained agents for the Immigration and Naturalization Service as well as the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. He is the author of the Civil Rights Training Course for the Massachusetts Criminal Justice Training Council, a member of former Governor William Weld's Advisory Council on Hate Crimes, and a past member of the Board of Overseers of Facing History and Ourselves. Mr. Johnston has been the recipient of numerous police and civic awards, including the First Annual Civil Rights Award presented by the International Association of Chiefs of Police in 1997 and the U.S. Department of Justice Award for Outstanding Performance and Invaluable Support presented by U.S. Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Deval Patrick in 1996. He is also a 31-year veteran of the Boston Police Department who retired with the rank of Deputy Superintendent in July 1997.

CAROLE L. KENNEDY is Principal of the John B. Lange Middle School in Columbia, Missouri. She was also recently named Principal-in-Residence at the U.S. Department of Education, where her two-year tenure will begin in July 1999. Ms. Kennedy has been an educator in the Missouri public schools for 36 years, 17 of which she was an elementary school principal and 2 as a middle school principal. Ms. Kennedy served as President of the National Association of Elementary School Principals from 1996 to 1997. She was also a member of the U.S. Department of Education's America Goes Back to School Steering Committee. Ms. Kennedy was named Executive Educator as one of America's 100 Outstanding Education Administrators in 1990. In 1988, she was chosen Missouri's National Distinguished Principal.

LOUIS KING II is President and CEO of Summit Academy OIC, a non-profit, educational and vocational training institute that empowers residents of the Twin Cities to become self-reliant, employed members of their community. Students at Summit Academy learn to create better communities through programs that teach self-sufficiency, responsibility, accountability and leadership. Mr. King is also currently serving a four-year term on the Minneapolis School Board. He previously served in the U.S. Army for 10 years and achieved the rank of Captain.

ABIOLA LANIYA is Coordinator of the Homefriends Program, a child abuse prevention initiative in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In this position, she recruits, trains and supervises older adult mentors who provide weekly counseling and support to families primarily in West and Southwest Philadelphia. She previously worked as the Director of the Supervised Independent Living Program for pregnant and parenting teenagers and supervised Services to Children in Their Own Homes (SCOH) for more than 40 families annually. Ms. Laniya has provided support and services to at-risk youth and families for the past 12 years.

FRANCES LUCERNA, is Founder and Principal of El Puente's Academy for Peace and Justice in the Williamburg neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York. The Academy challenges young people to become artists, educators, scholars, health promoters and leaders rather than treating them as being at risk. Students are also encouraged to return to the community that nurtured and raised them so that they may help another generation. Ms. Lucerna is a past recipient of the Heinz Award in the Human Condition for profoundly influencing the nature of community building and youth development.

CAMERON MACDONALD is Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Connecticut. Her research interests include all aspects of care work. She co-edited Working in the Service Society, an anthology that documents the experiences of service sector workers. Currently, she is completing Shadow Mothers: Nannies, Au Pairs, and the Social Construction of Mothering, a book on child-care, which will be published by the University of California Press. Over the past two years, she has also created a voluntary network of caregivers to support herself and her husband in his fight against cancer.\

RICARDO MARTINEZ, M.D., is Administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) in Washington, D.C. He is a board-certified emergency room physician who has dedicated his career to trauma care and automotive injury prevention with an emphasis on children's issues and community health. Dr. Martinez set four specific goals for NHTSA: (1) Make injury prevention the priority; (2) modernize the agency; (3) provide science-based decisions; and (4) streamline the rulemaking process. The agency has since increased productivity, overhauled and reinvented programs and services, expanded its constituency, improved internal and external communications, and dramatically shortened the time for processing rulemakings. Under Dr. Martinez's leadership, the NHTSA has pioneered Safe Communities, a nationwide program that helps communities identify their injury problems, implement solutions, create coalitions and prevent injury to their children and families. Safe Communities has been successful because it joins together law enforcement, the medical community, local governments and safety groups to embrace safety programs that fit the unique customs of the community. Today there are more than 450 Safe Communities, and the goal is to increase the number to 600 by the year 2000.

GREG MASON is a Neighborhood Coordinator for Summit Academy OIC, a non-profit, educational and vocational training institute that empowers residents of the Twin Cities to become self-reliant, employed members of their community. Students at Summit Academy learn to create better communities through programs that teach self-sufficiency, responsibility, accountability and leadership. Mr. Mason, who describes his previous lifestyle as "inconsistent with community values," became involved with Summit Academy OIC through the Youth Build program. He is a past President of the Academy's Policy Committee, and he is the current coordinator of its summer program. In 1998, he received Summit Academy's Student Leadership Award for the student who best represents the Academy's mission and academic goals.

CHERYL MCAFEE is President of Charles F. McAfee FAIA NOMA PA, Architects, Planners and Program Managers in Atlanta, Georgia, one of the nation's leading architectural design firms. Ms. McAfee is responsible for the company's offices in Georgia, Kansas, Texas and Oklahoma, as well as the firm's international projects. She is also currently developing the firm's regional and national initiatives for housing, community revitalization and assisted living facilities. Among Ms. McAfee's noted accomplishments is her oversight of the planning, design and construction of the Olympic facilities in Atlanta with construction costs of $650 million. She has been featured in many national magazines and newspapers including Ebony, The New York Times, USA Today, and The Wall Street Journal, as well as the noted books African American Architects in Current Practice by Jack Travis and Black Genius by Dick Russell.

FELICIA MICKLES is a senior at the University of Southwestern Louisiana majoring in Elementary Education and is the mother of a young child. She is a recipient of a Critical Difference Scholarship from the Southern Mutual Help Association. Ms. Mickles has developed and conducted parenting and sex education workshops for young girls. Twenty students have graduated from her program. The workshops are funded by a grant from the Foundation for the Midsouth. Ms. Mickles is a board member of Southern Mutual Housing Development Corporation, an organization that seeks to build rural communities through partnerships and self-development. She is also an active member of the Saints Temple Church of God in Christ. She hopes to receive a master's degree in Administration and become a high school principal.

MICHAEL NOLAN is Founder and President of Kids Corporation, a non-profit that creates and manages after-school, summer and weekend academic programs in Morristown, New Jersey. He is currently developing an educational partnership between local corporations, colleges and non-profits, the Archdiocese of Newark and the Newark New Jersey Public School system. This partnership, known as the Schools of Promise Initiative, utilizes existing resources to provide each child in several public and private schools with five fundamental opportunities: a safe place to learn and grow, a personal ongoing relationship with a caring adult, a healthy start including medical and dental screening, meaningful academic programs, and an opportunity to give back to the community through service. The Initiative, which is supported by Lucent Technologies, Bristol-Myers Squibb and the MCJ Foundation, has already fundamentally changed the relationships between schools, teachers, students and parents in Newark. Mr. Nolan previously taught in the Newark public schools. He is currently a senior partner at Pitney, Hardin, Kipp & Szuch, New Jersey's second largest law firm.

KAREN OLSON is Founder and President of the National Interfaith Hospitality Network in Summit, New Jersey. In 1986, Ms. Olson formed the first Interfaith Hospitality Network, a program that provides shelter, meals and assistance to homeless families. The program mobilizes existing community resources like churches and synagogues for overnight lodging, congregations for volunteers and social service agencies for screening and referrals. Each host congregation furnishes overnight lodging and meals for three to five families for one week every two to three months on a rotating schedule. The goal of the program is to help families regain their independence, and approximately 70 percent of the guests find permanent housing. In 1988, Ms. Olson founded the National Interfaith Hospitality Network to provide technical expertise, educational tools, personal support and a link to other local programs to communities interested in forming their own Network. Currently there are 70 Interfaith Hospitality Networks in 24 states with many more in development. The Networks involve more than 60,000 volunteers and more than 1,200 congregations providing service for more than 12,000 individuals annually. Ms. Olson is a recipient of the New Jersey Governor's Pride Award in Social Service, the Jefferson Award from the American Institute for Public Service, and the Association for Children of New Jersey Volunteer Award.

J.B. PAYTON is Director of the Martin Luther King Jr. Educational and Cultural Center ("the MLK Center") in Memphis, Tennessee. At the MLK Center individuals are able to take advantage of educational opportunities, as well as receive assistance in other areas such as housing, income supplement for utilities, psychological intervention for domestic violence, and parenting classes. The Center's programs and services include: adult basic education, a mentoring program for 9- to-12-year-old male students, a homeless assistance program, classes in visual and performance arts, teen childbirth classes, and a one-room drop-in school. During the 30 years that Mr. Payton has worked for the Memphis City School System, he has also served as Assistant Principal at Kansas Vocational Technical Center and Guidance Counselor at Southwest Vocational Technical Center. He has received numerous awards and honors from governmental and community leaders and organizations.

MOISES PEREZ is Founder and Executive Director of Alianza Dominicana, Inc. (ADI), a multiservice, community-based organization for children, youth and families. With a staff of 150, ADI has evolved into one of the largest and most comprehensive community development organizations in north Manhattan, New York. ADI offers a wide range of programs and services including: La Familia Unida Daycare and After School Program; the Center for Employment and Training; the Center for Rehabilitation, Education, and Orientation; and the Family Assistance Program.

RHONDA PHILLIPPI, R.N., is Tennessee's Statewide Project Coordinator for Emergency Medical Services for Children (EMS-C) and was recently appointed Assistant in Pediatrics at Vanderbilt Children's Hospital in Nashville. Tennessee EMS-C is part of a national initiative designed to reduce child and youth disability and death due to severe illness or injury. Tennessee is the only state in the nation to enact legislation requiring appropriate pediatric education and equipment requirements for emergency departments and pre-hospital providers. One of Ms. Phillippi's two sons has developmental disabilities and has benefited from the system of enhanced emergency medical services for children system. Ms. Phillippi was honored as the Tennessee Rural Health Association's 1998 Presidential Award recipient and is also active in the state and local PTA organizations.

ELIZABETH PLATER-ZYBERK is Co-founder and Principal of Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company and Dean of the University of Miami School of Architecture. She is also the Director of the Center for Urban and Community Design at the University of Miami. The firm of Duany Plater-Zyberk has designed nearly 200 urban and architectural projects. In addition to receiving more than 30 awards and honors from professional journals, government organizations, and universities, the firm has been recognized with 20 national, state and regional awards from the American Institute of Architects. Ms. Plater-Zyberk is a founding member and Chair of the Board of Directors of the Congress for the New Urbanism. She was instrumental in the creation of the Traditional Neighborhood Development Ordinance, a prescription for compact, mixed-use, and pedestrian-oriented urban growth that offers an antidote to suburban sprawl. Ms. Plater-Zyberk is also a Trustee of Princeton University.

ENID RAY is a Program Officer at the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving in Hartford, Connecticut. The Brighter Futures Initiative of the Hartford Foundation supported the creation of four parent-designed neighborhood Family Centers. The Foundation provided parents with sufficient resources to create neighborhood Family Centers by initially investing in parents and not in community-based organizations. At the beginning of the project, parents from four Hartford neighborhoods crafted neighborhood plans for Family Centers that were designed to enrich the community and help parents prepare their children for school. The project created a direct link between the funding community and parents by giving parents support and resources to make informed decisions about programs that affect their children and themselves. Ms. Ray is a bilingual/bicultural Puertorriquena who was raised in the same neighborhoods where she now provides technical assistance to families planning neighborhood family support centers.

DEBORAH REEVE, Ed.D., is Associate Executive Director for Development and Special Projects for the National Association of Elementary School Principals (NAESP). NAESP is a 28,500-member professional organization that represents principals serving more than 33 million children in our nation's elementary and middle schools. Dr. Reeve directs the development of strategic alliances with corporations, foundations and governmental agencies, the administration of association and foundation grants, and the planning and development of new initiatives that directly contribute to the growth and prosperity of the Association. Dr. Reeve has been an educator for more than 20 years. Her teaching experiences range from pre-kindergarten through the high school level and she held an adjunct faculty position in the graduate school at Lesley College in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Dr. Reeve serves as a member of President Clinton's Coalition for America Reads, the U.S. Department of Education's Coalition for Family Involvement, and the Task Force on Early Learning and the Arts.

KEITH RICHARDSON is a Community-Builder Fellow at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in Knoxville, Tennessee, a position he has held since October 1998. Mr. Richardson previously served as Executive Director of the Partnership for Neighborhood Improvement (PNI), an organization that addresses issues challenging Knoxville's low-income neighborhoods such as affordable housing, crime, violence, substance abuse and living wages. Under Mr. Richardson's leadership, PNI identified the benchmarks of healthy neighborhoods and expanded and created a variety of public and private resources to invest in Knoxville's inner city. As a result, HUD selected Knoxville as one of 15 Urban Empowerment Zones to receive $100 million over the next 10 years. Mr. Richardson also previously directed an inter-faith center for the homeless, worked as a private consultant in housing and corrections, directed an inner-city neighborhood revitalization program, and served as a housing specialist for a regional planning agency. He has served on the Boards of Directors of many community agencies including Catholic Charities and AIDS Housing Authority.

REVEREND GENE RIVERS III is Pastor of the Azusa Christian Community in Four Corners, an inner-city section of Boston, Massachusetts and Director of the Ella J. Baker House. He is the author of the Ten Point Plan for a National Church Mobilization to Combat Black-On-Black Violence and a co-founder of the internationally recognized Boston Ten Point Coalition. As co-chair of the National Ten Point Leadership Foundation, he is currently working to cultivate new grassroots church leadership in 40 of the most violent inner-city neighborhoods in the country by 2006. Reverend Rivers is also working with the World Council of Churches Program to Overcome Violence to adapt the U.S. violence prevention model to local conditions in various international cities. He is a contributing editor to Sojourners magazine and the author of two forthcoming collections of essays titled “On the Responsibility of Intellectuals in the Age of Crack” and “Beyond the Nationalism of Fools: A Manifesto for a New Black Movement.”

ARIELA RODRIGUEZ, Ph.D., is Director of Health and Social Services at Little Havana Activities & Nutrition Centers of Dade County, Inc., in Miami, Florida. The Little Havana Activities and Nutrition Centers offer intergenerational programs that serve elderly persons and their families through 17 multipurpose neighborhood senior centers, four adult day-care facilities, a health care facility, two intergenerational pre-school centers, and an employment case management and resource service. As Director, Dr. Rodriguez has participated in national, state, and local health and social services-related task forces. She has also alerted communities and legislators to the deleterious consequences of legislation such as Welfare reform and immigration reform. Dr. Rodriguez previously worked as a Family Counselor for the Neonatal Intensive Nursery Unit of an urban hospital in Orlando, Florida. Her work experience spans the life cycle from preemies and their families to frail elderly persons and their caregivers.

MADELINE ROGERO is Executive Director of Knoxville's Promise - The Alliance for Youth in Knoxville, Tennessee. Knoxville's Promise is an initiative to mobilize community assets to help provide the five fundamental resources identified by America's Promise, the organization created under the leadership of retired U.S. Army General Colin Powell. Those five resources are: an ongoing relationship with a caring adult; safe places and structured activities during non-school hours; a healthy start; a marketable skill through effective education; and an opportunity to give back through community service. Knoxville's Promise hopes to reach 2,000 local children with new resources by the end of the year 2000. Ms. Rogero has worked for non-profits and foundations on children's issues and community development for 25 years. Most recently she served as Executive Director of the Dollywood Foundation (Dolly Parton's foundation in Sevier County, Tennessee) and as Executive Director of the Community Partnership Center at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Ms. Rogero was elected to Knox County Commission and served two terms from 1990 to 1998.

ROBERT ROSS, M.D., is Director of the San Diego County Health and Human Services Agency which serves children, families and the veteran community. Current agency initiatives include the planning and implementation of the County's Welfare Reform Strategic Plan, integration of health and human service delivery for children and families, the implementation of a managed care delivery model for Medi-Cal recipients, and child abuse prevention through home visiting. Dr. Ross previously served as Commissioner of the Philadelphia Department of Public Health. As Commissioner, he created the Division of Health Promotion and Disease Prevention, institutionalized the "Philadelphia Injury Prevention Program" and co-founded Operation Peace, a violence prevention effort. Dr. Ross is a board member of the California Endowment, the United Way, and the National Conference.

JOSE SZAPOCZNIK, M.D., is Director of the Center for Family Studies and the Spanish Family Guidance Center at the University of Miami School of Medicine. He is Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences (School of Medicine), Psychology (School of Arts and Sciences), and Counseling Psychology and Educational Research (School of Education) all at the University of Miami. His accomplishments over the past 25 years include: service to more than 25,000 minority families in Miami-Dade County; direction of the Spanish Family Guidance Center/Center for Family Studies, a major program of intervention, research and student training with minority families; and principal investigator on more than 30 different competitive research grants. Dr. Szapocznik has developed theoretically based interventions specifically targeted at overcoming culturally related stressors in Hispanic immigrants. A current area of study is the interrelationship between the built environment, the role of neighborhoods, block level social processes, and their impact on parents' ability to be effective family leaders.

JUDGE ANDY SHOOKHOFF is Associate Director of the Child and Family Policy Center at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. He previously served as the Juvenile Court Judge of Davidson County, Tennessee, from 1990 to 1998. Under Judge Shookhoff's stewardship the Juvenile Court implemented a neighborhood-based probation program, developed a nationally recognized early truancy intervention program, introduced family group conferencing, and constructed the new Davidson County Juvenile Justice Center. Judge Shookhoff directed the Juvenile Law Clinic at Vanderbilt Law School from 1980 to1990. Before 1980, he was an attorney for the Legal Aid Society of Middle Tennessee. He was one of 10 people appointed by President Clinton to serve on the National Commission on Crime Control and Prevention. He was also appointed by Nashville Mayor Phil Bredesen to serve on the Mayor's Crime Commission.

RODNEY SLATER is U.S. Secretary of Transportation, a position he has held since February 1997. Secretary Slater oversees a department that has 100,000 employees and a budget of more than $40 billion. He believes that "transportation is about more than concrete, asphalt, and steel. It is truly about people and providing them the opportunity to be successful and responsible individuals." Under Secretary Slater's leadership, the Department of Transportation developed a strategic plan that Congress rated the best among all federal agencies. He also worked with Congress to increase investments in infrastructure by 12 percent in fiscal 1998, to the highest levels in history. In Secretary Slater's first year, the Department helped 600 million people fly, had 100 miles of transit lines under construction; repaired thousand's of America's bridges, acted aggressively to improve the safety of America's rail system and averted a strike by Amtrak, initiated a program to get all Americans to buckle seat belts, and saved more than 5,000 lives at sea. He is currently working to ensure that former Welfare recipients have public transportation to get to their new jobs. Secretary Slater also recently launched the Garrett A. Morgan Technology and Transportation Futures Program, aimed at attracting a million youths into careers in transportation. Before becoming Secretary of Transportation, he was Administrator of the Federal Highway Administration. Secretary Slater has received numerous awards and honors in recent years, including, in 1999, an Honorary Doctorate from Howard University, the Albert Schweitzer Leadership Award, and the Lamplighter Award for Public Service from the Black Leadership Forum.

CAL TURNER is Chairman, President, and CEO of the Dollar General Corporation, a chain of 3,595 neighborhood stores with 43,000 employees in 24 states, headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee. Mr. Turner has initiated a wide variety of education and literacy programs throughout his stores, including GED and Learn-to-Read programs. As a result, he received the Presidential Award for Private Sector Initiative in 1988. Mr. Turner also serves on the Board of Directors of a number of civic and charitable organizations and has received awards for his contributions in management and community service.

ELIZABETH VALDEZ, M.D., is the Founder, President and CEO of Concilio Latino de Salud, Inc., a non-profit, community-based organization dedicated to improving the overall health of the Hispanic/Latino community in Maricopa County, Arizona. She is also co-founder of Cultural Communities United in Health and Wellness. Dr. Valdez previously served as Hispanic Health Consultant for Maricopa County Public Health Services for more than 10 years where she was known for her expertise in community mobilization and coalition building. Dr. Valdez is one of 12 members of the Women & Life Stress - Technical Effort Group of the National Women's Resource Center for the Prevention & Treatment of Alcohol, Tobacco, & Other Drug Abuse & Mental Illness. She serves on the Board of Directors of many organizations including Planned Parenthood of Central Arizona and the American Red Cross, Central Arizona Chapter.

ANTHONY WALLACE is President of Security Dads, a program in Indianapolis, Indiana, that organizes fathers to attend and provide a visible parental presence at school-sponsored sporting events, dances, parties and other student activities. The program was founded by Mr. Wallace's wife, Linda, to involve more fathers in school activities by giving them a specific role. Volunteer fathers attend school events wearing a Security Dads T-shirt, walk around and talk to the students. Typically about two dozen Security Dads attend the events at Arlington High School in Indianapolis. Their presence discourages inappropriate behavior and increases security, and students often approach them for advice or to talk about problems in their lives. The volunteers are also examples to the community of caring, involved fathers. In addition to his work with Security Dads, Mr. Wallace works 12-hour-a-day shifts at the White River Environmental Partnership, where he has been employed for 18 years.

JOHN WARDLAW is Executive Director of the Housing Authority of the City of Hartford, Connecticut, a position he has held since 1977. During the many years that Mr. Wardlaw has been Director of the Authority, he has learned that reuniting the family is central to public housing's mission of helping rather than hurting people. As a result, Mr. Wardlaw recently established a "Family Investment Center" in one of the Authority's largest developments. In response to the Million Man March and in the belief that the absence of the father in a family is the root of many social ills, the Authority also developed a Family Reunification Program, which calls upon fathers to be responsible and holds them contractually accountable for providing for their families. The Authority seeks to redevelop each of its public housing units by the year 2000. Over 2,200 units of obsolete public housing have already been deconstructed or decommissioned in the last 30 months. A growing number of new and significantly remodeled single-family and duplex homes are taking their place. Under Mr. Wardlaw's direction, the Hartford Housing Authority has joined the elite rank of HUD's "high performers" and ranks among the very best managed authorities in the nation.

JOE WYATT is the Chancellor of Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn., and has been Chief Executive Officer since 1982. He has served as Chairman of the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce, and sits on the boards of Sonat Corporation, the Universities Research Association, Advanced Network & Services, Inc., Ingram Micro, and the Reynolds Metals Company. He is co-author of a book titled Financial Planning Models and the author of numerous papers and articles in fields relating to technology, management and education. Mr. Wyatt has received numerous awards and honors, including the Governor's Outstanding Tennessean Award

LILY YEH is an internationally celebrated artist and the Executive Director of the Village of Arts and Humanities in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She was born in China and studied classical Chinese landscape painting in Taiwan. Over the past 13 years, Ms. Yeh has established the Village of Arts and Humanities on the site of a previously abandoned lot in Philadelphia. Most of the public art in the village has been created by other artists and community residents under the guidance of Ms. Yeh's vision and sensibility. She has transformed urban blight into beauty, hope and urban renewal. From 1993 to the present, Ms. Yeh has been working with people living in Korogocho, a settlement near a huge garbage dump on the outskirts of Nairobi. During her residency in Korogocho, Ms. Yeh converted a barren and dusty church and schoolyard into a colorful garden of painted and sculpted angels and flowers. In 1999, Ms. Yeh will be traveling to Dzegvi village near Tbilisi in the Georgian Republic to conduct workshops for 110 street children. In June, she will travel to Matera, Italy, to conduct workshops for children who used to live in the ancient caves in Sassi. Ms. Yeh has received many awards, including a Pew Fellowship in the Arts in 1992 and a Lila Wallace-Arts International Fellowship in 1993.