Fred Jerome is a journalist and science writer. His articles and op-ed pieces have appeared in dozens of publications, including Newsweek and The New York Times. As a reporter in the South during the early 1960s, he covered the exploding civil rights movement. He has taught at Columbia Journalism School, NYU and other New York area universities.

Rodger Taylor’s articles on city life, jazz, early African American New York, and the African Burial Ground have been published in local newspapers and magazines, including several in New York Newsday. He is a supervising Branch Librarian with the New York Public Library.

Born in 1950 in Birmingham, Alabama, Dr. Hrabowski graduated at 19 from Hampton Institute with highest honors in mathematics. He received his Ph.D. at age 24 from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champagne. President of UMBC since May, 1992, his recent awards include election to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences and the American Philosophical Society, the prestigious McGraw Prize in Education , and the U.S. Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring. He has co-authored two books, Beating the Odds and Overcoming the Odds, focusing on parenting and high-achieving African American males and females in science.