As an assistant professor at Illinois State University, Gardenia Harris, Ph.D., MSW, teaches social welfare policy and field practicum courses. Her research interests include racial disparities in the provision and outcomes of social services, the differential impact of child welfare policies on minorities, the effectiveness of drug treatment courts, and HIV among middle-aged African American women. She began her career working as an in-home family therapist, and later served as a manager of an adolescent residential treatment facility. Subsequently she was employed as an academic skills counselor at a private college. Bernard Ivan Tamas, Ph.D.

is an assistant professor of Politics and Government at Illinois State University. Professor Tamas has been a Fulbright scholar to the Central European University in Budapest, Hungary, a postdoctoral fellow at the Harvard-MIT Data Center, a visiting scholar at Harvard's Center for Basic Research in the Social Sciences, and a visiting professor at both Brandeis University and Williams College. This is his third authored or co-authored book. Nancy S. Lind is professor of politics and government and associate department chair at Illinois State University. Her specializations include public administration and policy as well as bureaucracy and the American presidency. She has four edited books including Violence and Its Alternatives , Presidents from Reagan through Clinton , Controversies of the George W. Bush Presidency , and Comparative Public Administration .