Kassie Freeman is the Dean of the Division of Education and Professor of Education at Dillard University. Prior to her appointment at Dillard University, she was an Assistant Professor of Education at Vanderbilt University. Dr. Freeman received her Ph.D. from Emory University, and she also studied at the University of Oslo, Norway, and at the University of Vienna, Austria. Her research interests include cultural considerations related to African Americans and college choice and comparative/international issues related to higher education and the labor market. She has edited a book titled, The African American Culture and Heritage in Higher Education Research and Practice, and she has recently completed another book titled, African Americans and College Choice: The Influence of Family and School. As the recipient of the Pro Renovanda Cultura Hungariae Foundation Award, two times, she has served as visiting Professor and Scholar at the Budapest University of Economic Sciences to further her international research. She has also been the recipient of a Spencer Postdoctoral Fellowship, two Spencer Foundation Grants to conduct her research on high-achieving African Americans and college choice, and a Kellogg Foundation grant to study the under-utilization of human potential across cultures. As a Presidential appointee, she currently serves on President Clinton¹s Board of Advisors on Historically Black Colleges and Universities.

Michele Foster has held appointments at several universities and has taught in public school and community college. Her research is broadly focused on the social and cultural contexts of learning for African-Americans. Her scholarship includes studies of teachers, research on teacher professional development and change, sociolinguistic and ethnography of communication research in classrooms. Having held appointments in education as well as in African and African American Studies, she has taught a variety of courses, including Education in the African American Community, African American English in Society and Schools, and Anthropology of Education. She has received several fellowships, awards and research grants. Between1989-91, she held a National Academy of Education Spencer Postdoctoral Fellowship and a University of North Carolina Minority Postdoctoral Fellowship. In 1992, she received an Early Career Award from the American Educational Research Association. Over the past five years, she has received funding from the Spencer Foundation, the Carnegie Corporation, and the Office of Educational Research and Improvement. Author of more than 50 publications, she is editor or co-editor of three books and the author of Black Teachers on Teaching.

Beverly J. Lindsay

Beverly Lindsay is Dean of the University Office of International Programs and Professor of Higher Education and Policy Studies at The Pennsylvania State University, where she addresses academic, research, and public service international matters for the University System. She was a key executive in launching the Pennsylvania Consortium (Penn State, University of Pittsburgh and Lincoln University), which focuses on international affairs, policy initiatives and international development throughout the world and instituted the semiannual publication, the International Mosaic. She is the immediate former Dean of International Education and Policy Studies and Executive Director of Strategic Planning at Hampton University. Over seventy of Dr. Lindsay’s articles, chapters, and essays appear in academic publications, as well as in her four books: The Quest for Equity in Higher Education: Towards New Paradigms in an Evolving Affirmative Action Era (forthcoming, with Manuel J. Justiz), The Political Dimension in Teacher Education (with Mark B. Ginsburg), African Migration and National Development, and Comparative Perspectives of Third World Women. She has consulted on international affairs, directed academic programs, conducted research, and studied on six continents through grants from the Ford Foundation, U.S. Department of State­USIA, USAID, and U.S. Department of Education. Dr. Lindsay currently chairs the Strategic Planning Committee for International Affairs of NASULGC, and is on the National Advisory Board for the Southern Center for Studies in Public Policy. She holds a Ph.D. in administration and management from the American University (Washington, D.C.), and an Ed.D. in comparative sociology of education and policy studies from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

Robert E. Slavin