Roger D. Bridges, executive director of the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center in Fremont, Ohio, since 1988 and adjunct professor of history at Bowling Green State University, is the former director of the Illinois State Historical Library, founding editor of the Legal Papers of Abraham Lincoln, and assistant Illinois State Historian. He earned the Ph. D. in history at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and has taught Illinois, American, and public history at several universities, including Illinois State University. He has published articles on black history, presidential history and politics, and Illinois history.

Wanda A. Hendricks, associate professor of history, is the graduate director of the Women's Studies Program at the University of South Carolina. After receiving the Ph. D. in United States history from Purdue University, she taught courses on African American history, black women's history, and United States history at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and Arizona State University in Tempe. Her book Gender, Race, and Politics in the Midwest: Black Club Women in Illinois was published in 1998. She is currently researching and writing a biography of social welfare reformer and clubwoman Fannie Barrier Williams.

Melvin G. Holli, professor of history and former chairman of the History Department (1991-1994) at the University of Illinois at Chicago, has authored thirty-five articles and fifteen books that have received numerous awards. Holli specializes in urban, ethnic, and political history. His latest work is The Wizard of Washington: Emit Hurja, Franklin Roosevelt, and the Birth of Public Opinion Polling (St. Martins Press, 2002).

Bruce D. Janu teaches history and sociology at John Hersey High School in Arlington Heights. He obtained bachelor's and master's degrees in history from Eastern Illinois University and is currently working on a second master's degree in liberal arts at the University of Chicago, He has authored several history-based education books including The Constitution: A Cooperative Learning Approach, "Bring Out Your Dead: Recreating the Black Death in the Classroom, and Mouldering in the Grave: A Dramatic Approach to Teaching About John Brown.

Gloria F. Pate-Hayes is a fifth grade teacher at Meridian Elementary School School Unit District 101 in Mounds, Illinois. She holds a bachelor of science degree in elementary education from Southeast Missouri State University of Cape Girardeau, Missouri. She is actively involved in church, community, and civic activities. She is a member of Alpha Kappa Sorority, Inc.

Graham A. Peck received the Ph. D. in American history from Northwestern University in 2001. He specializes in antebellum American history; his dissertation studied the origins and triumphs of antislavery politics in Illinois. He has taught at Rhodes College, and he is now a member of the History Department at St. Xavier University.

Elaine F. S. Qadeem teaches at Carl Sandburg School in Springfield, Illinois. She has taught the learning disabled for twenty-four years. She holds a bachelor's degree in sociology from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale and a master of arts in psychology from Sangamon State University (now the University of Illinois at Springfield). She is dedicated to the philosophy that motivated teachers can inspire motivation and innovation in students, insuring that the classroom is a learning environment for all.

Bill Ulmer has taught social studies for thirty-three years, the last twenty-four at Chapman Junior High School in Farmington, Illinois. He holds a bachelor's degree in history and a master's degree in economics, both from Western Illinois

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