Preston A. Britner, Ph.D. is a Professor of Human Development and Family Studies at the University of Connecticut. He is Co-Chair of the UConn’s Public Engagement Forum, which leads the University’s outreach and public engagement efforts. He also holds joint appointments in Educational Psychology and the Ph.D. program in Public Health. Professor Britner is a University Teaching Fellow (the highest teaching honor at UConn) and was recognized by UConn’s AAUP chapter with the 2011 Service Excellence award for his professional contributions. He holds several editorial appointments and numerous administrative and elected positions at university, state, and national levels. He is Editor Emeritus of The Journal of Primary Prevention. He has published in areas that bring child development and parent-child relationship theory and research to applied settings, mostly geared toward the promotion of healthy interactions and the prevention of negative behavioral outcomes.

My research is in the sociology of families and public policy. I have published books and articles on topics such as marriage and divorce, children's well-being, intergenerational relations, family policy, and welfare policy. I am the principal investigator of the "Three-City Study," an interdisciplinary study of low-income children and their caregivers in the post-welfare-reform era. The study’s web site includes downloadable documents that describe the study and a searchable list of publications. The data from all three survey waves of our study are publicly available through Sociometrics and ICPSR.

I am also the author of a textbook in the sociology of the family, Public and Private Families: An Introduction (Sixth edition, McGraw-Hill, 2010); and a companion reader, Public and Private Families: A Reader (Sixth edition, McGraw-Hill 2010).

My most recent book is The Marriage-Go-Round: The State of Marriage and the Family Today (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2009).

Philip A. Cowan is Professor of Psychology Emeritus and Professor of the Graduate School at the University of California, Berkeley. He is co-director of 3 longitudinal preventive intervention projects with Carolyn Pape Cowan. Dr. Cowan served as Director of the Clinical Psychology Program and the Institute of Human Development at UC Berkeley. In addition to authoring numerous scientific articles, he is the author of Piaget with Feeling (Holt, Rinehart, & Winston, 1978), co-author of When Partners Become Parents: The Big Life Change for Couples (Erlbaum, 2000), and co-editor of four books and monographs, including Family Transitions (Erlbaum, 1990), and The Family Context of Parenting in the Child's Adaptation to School (Erlbaum, 2005).

William J. Doherty is an educator, researcher, therapist, speaker, author, consultant, and community organizer. He is Professor and Director of the Marriage and Family Therapy Program in the Department of Family Social Science, College of Education and Human Development, at the University of Minnesota, where he is also an adjunct Professor in the Department of Family Medicine and Community Health.

Bill is past president of the National Council on Family Relations, the nation's oldest interdisciplinary family studies organization. His awards include the Significant Contribution to the Field of Marriage and Family Therapy Award, the Margaret E. Arcus Award for Outstanding Contribution to Family Life Education, and the Outstanding Community Service Award from the University of Minnesota.

A popular speaker to lay and professional audiences, he has won several teaching awards in his career and is frequently interviewed by print, radio, and TV media on family issues.