Children’s book author Robie H. Harris has written award-winning picture books and nonfiction books for children and teens.  Her newest nonfiction book for children age 4 and up, IT’S NOT THE STORK! A Book About Girls, Boys, Babies, Bodies, Family, and Friends, is illustrated by Michael Emberley.  Harris and Emberley are also the creators of the award-winning and internationally acclaimed books — IT’S PERFECTLY NORMAL, Changing Bodies, Growing Up, Sex, and Sexual Health for children 10 and up, and IT’S SO AMAZING!, A Book About Eggs, Sperm, Birth, Babies, And Families, for children 7 and up. Harris’ picture books include: DON’T FORGET TO COME BACK!, illustrated by Harry Bliss;  I AM NOT GOING TO SCHOOL TODAY! and GOODBYE MOUSIE, illustrated by Jan Ormerod; HI NEW BABY! and HAPPY BIRTH DAY!, illustrated by Michael Emberley. Her picture book series, JUST BEING ME books include, I’M SO MAD!, I’M NOT SLEEPY!, I LOVE MESSES!, and I’M ALL DRESSED!, are illustrated by nationally syndicated cartoonist Nicole Hollander. Harris and Emberley have created a series for younger children called GROWING UP STORIES, which includes: HELLO BENNY! What It’s Like To Be A Baby, GO! GO! MARIA! What It’s Like To Be 1, and SWEET JASMINE, NICE JACKSON, What It’s Like To Be 2 — And To Be Twins. MAIL HARRY TO THE MOON!, Harris’ newest picture book, is being illustrated by Michael Emberley and will be published in late 2007. Her picture book, THE VERY TRUE STORY OF MY COZY QUILT, will be published in 2008. 

Maureen Ambrosino mambrosino@cmrls.orgis currently the Youth Services Consultant for the Central Massachusetts Regional Library System. She has worked in libraries from New York to Texas, with babies, preschoolers, teens and adults. She faced a challenge to books in a library system in Texas, with some surprising – and unexpected – results.

Karen Kosko began teaching in 1973.  During the 1980's she turned to librarianship, and was a public librarian for seven years before becoming a school librarian.  She has been at the Haggerty School, part of the Cambridge Public Schools, for 14 years.

Sarah Novogrodsky was a classroom teacher at grades five and six for 10 years in Lowell, Cambridge and Falls Church, VA before becoming a Library Media Specialist in Cambridge.  She has worked in Cambridge Public School's libraries for the past four years.

Stacey Knibloe is one of Thomson/Gale’s foremost trainers, having made numerous presentations throughout Massachusetts and other states.
http://www.gale.com

Charles Schiller taught in the public schools for many years in every grade level and subject from K to 12, and taught college classes in the use of technology. Charlie worked as IT specialist or coordinator for four school systems and as a librarian/ Library Media Specialist. Over the years, Charlie has worked as a private consultant and evaluator for IT integration in the curriculum for various organizations and schools. He has presented at various conferences and has given professional development workshops for teachers in many schools systems, at conferences, and for departments of education in southern New England. He has served in several state-level leadership positions including the MassCUE board and SIGs, as member and co-chair of the Massachusetts Educational Technology Advisory Council, the MTA Board, chair of the MTA IT committee, MTA Professional Development committee, and as Coordinator of IT Education for the University of Massachusetts President's Office Donahue Institute, where he worked on the new K-12 aspect of the Commonwealth Information Technology Initiative, a K-20 IT project funded by private industry and the Board of Higher Education. Charlie currently is the IT coordinator for the Hampshire Educational Collaborative's DYS project working with teachers across the state at several dozen sites helping to plan and integrate technology use across the curriculum. 

Isa Kaftal Zimmerman is Senior Fellow and Director of The P-16 STEM Initiative in the Office of the President of the University of Massachusetts, with a joint appointment in the Donahue Institute and Academic Affairs.She was Associate Professor and Director of Professional Education at Lesley University in Cambridge, MA, overseeing the development of a PhD in Educational Leadership. Prior to that she directed the Technology in Education Division. Dr. Zimmerman has been a Superintendent of Schools in Lexington, Easton and Acton/Acton-Boxborough, a High School Principal in Hamilton-Wenham, an Assistant Principal in Reading, and a department chair and junior high school teacher in Newton.
She leads several volunteer organizations in the Commonwealth:
BEST (Business and Education for Schools and Technology, which advocates in the Legislature), Educational Technology Advisory Committee to the Commissioner and Board of Education (ETAC), the Board of Young Audiences of Massachusetts. She is a member of a number of advisory committees including BATEC and CITI. She has co-edited and contributed to several books published by the Massachusetts affiliate of ASCD as well as proceedings, articles and chapters in a variety of publications. She has also been central in the development of several funded grants. Her Ed.D is from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Lynn Griesemer, Associate Vice President for Economic Development of the University of Massachusetts, works directly with the Vice President for Economic Development who was appointed in January 1993 and President Jack Wilson. Lynn has been with the University of Massachusetts, Donahue Institute since 1986.  In 1998 she was named Executive Director, having served as Deputy Director since 1989.  Her first responsibilities at the Institute were to manage a relationship with the General Motors plant in Framingham and to develop the business/industry sector of the Donahue Institute's work. Since the formation of the five-campus system in 1991, Lynn and the UMass Donahue Institute have worked closely with the UMass President's Office, managing several system-wide projects in economic development and related topics.  Those projects include: the co-management of the Commonwealth Information Technology Initiative (CITI); the development of Massachusetts Benchmarks, a quarterly publication featuring Alan Clayton-Matthew's indices; numerous economic sector reports; the co-development with the Department of Economic Development of Massachusetts - toward a new prosperity: building regional competitiveness across the Commonwealth and it's predecessor plan, "Choosing to Compete"; the UMASS Center for Professional Education at I-495 and Brockton; the Defense Leadership and Management Program (DLAMP); the Southbridge Department of Defense Education and Training Program; and the Study of the Future of Engineering.  She has also taught as an adjunct professor in the UMASS Amherst Masters program in Public Administration.
Prior to joining the University, Lynn was the Executive Director of a seven-state non-profit collaborative in education for New England and New York; held a faculty position and was the director of a research and evaluation center at the University of Rhode Island; and instructor of research and statistics at the University of Tennessee, where she received her doctorate; and taught mathematics and science in junior high and high school. Born in Allentown, Pennsylvania, she holds a bachelors degree in mathematics from Cedar Crest College; two masters degrees, one in Mathematics Education from the University of Tennessee and the second in public administration from the Kennedy School at Harvard University where she was a Littauer Fellow; and a doctorate in Education Administration and Curriculum from the University of Tennessee.