Erin I. Bishop is a historic research specialist for the Historic Sites Division of the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency. Her doctoral dissertation at the University College Dublin in Ireland resulted in the publication of two works on nineteenth-century Irish women's and social history. More recently, her research has involved the interpretive programs and exhibits at four state-owned historic sites-the Pierre Menard Home (Chester), the Jarrot Mansion and the Cahokia Courthouse (Cahokia), and the Martin-Boismenue Home (North Dupo). She was also the chief researcher for the Lewis and Clark Visitor Center at Wood River, which opened in 2003.

Caroline B. Brettell was born and raised in Montreal. She received the Ph.D. in anthropology at Brown University in 1978. She is professor and chair of the Department of Anthropology at Southern Methodist University. Prior to joining the SMU faculty in 1988, she was a research associate in the Family and Community History Center at the Newberry Library in Chicago. She is completing a manuscript tentatively titled "Frontier Schism: Conflict and Identity in a Midwestern French Canadian Immigrant Community".

Margaret Kimball Brown holds the Ph.D. in anthropology from Michigan State University, where she specialized in historic archaeology. She has excavated historic French and Indian sites. She was the staff archaeologist for the state historic preservation office for nine years and the site manager at Cahokia Mounds Historic Site for fourteen years. She has published a number of articles and books on history and the excavation of archaeological sites. In January 2004 she received the Society for Historical Archaeology Award of Merit for her contributions to archaeology and French colonial history.

Melissa Craig has been teaching middle school for twenty-five years. She has been teaching American history at St. Thomas Moore in Elgin for the past eighteen years, in addition to teaching language arts for the sixth, seventh, and eighth grades. For nine years she has involved her students in the History Fair program of the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency. Her hope is to instill a love of the past by helping students bring it to life.

Carl J. Ekberg studied French history at the University of Minnesota and Rutgers University, receiving the Ph.D. at the latter in 1970. He taught at Illinois State University for twenty-eight years, retiring as professor emeritus in 1998. His recent publications include several volumes on the history of the colonial Illinois Country, including Colonial Ste. Genevieve and French Roots in the Illinois Country. He and his wife, Gloria, now live in the northern Shenandoah Valley.

B. Pierre Lebeau, guest editor of this issue of the Illinoi's History Teacher, is professor emeritus of history at North Central College and former president of the Center for French Colonial Studies/Centre pour l'etude du pays des Illinois. He has written articles for many publications and read papers on topics related to the French presence in the Midwest in the 1600s, 1700s, and 1800s at the Illinois State Historical Society Symposium, the Newberry Library, DePaul University and the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay.

Lynnea Magnuson teaches in the history department at Eastern Illinois University. She received the Ph. D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and is currently revising a book manuscript on gender and Manifest Destiny expansion.

Melissa Schmitt-Crafton has taught American History, Government, and World Cultures at Belleville West High School for ten years. She received a bachelor's degree at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, earned a master of arts at Southern Illinois University, and continues her post-graduate work at Washington University in St. Louis. Her interest in southern Illinois history began during her childhood in Randolph County, Illinois, and continues through her work with high school students at the regional history fairs and statewide Expo.

Rachel Steibel has more than fifteen years experience teaching at a variety of levels at her elementary school, Prairie du Rocher Community Consolidated Number 134. She is active in the local historical community through her work at Fort de Chartres State Historic site and La Guiannee. She feels very lucky to live in an area with such a rich heritage and wants her students to appreciate their ancestors.