Dr. Tammy L. Henderson, Associate Professor in Human Development and Family Sciences at Oklahoma State University, conducts research in the area of family policy, law, and diversity. She completed her doctoral studies in Human Development and Family Sciences at Oregon State University and earned her other degrees from Louisiana State University. Previously, she was a faculty member at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg, VA. As a family policy and law scholar, Henderson has published more than 32 articles and book chapters focused on grandparent rights and responsibilities, foster care, mentoring Black women, and diversity and policies. She also is conducting research on the impact of Hurricane Katrina on older adults, a critical analysis of mass media reports regarding Hurricane Katrina, and Alaska Native grandparents.

Michael P. Johnson (Ph.D., University of Michigan) is Emeritus Professor of Sociology, Women’s Studies, and African and African American Studies at Penn State, where he taught sociology and women’s studies for over thirty years and was designated an Alumni Teaching Fellow, Penn State’s highest teaching award. He is an internationally recognized expert on domestic violence, invited to speak at conferences and universities throughout the United States and around the world.

His current research focuses on the implications of differentiating among types of violence in intimate relationships, and he consults regularly with organizations and government agencies regarding domestic violence policy. He is widely published in scholarly journals, and his recent work on domestic violence is summarized in A Typology of Domestic Violence: Intimate Terrorism, Violent Resistance, and Situational Couple Violence (Northeastern University Press, 2008).

Shelley M. MacDermid Wadsworth is a professor in the Department of Human Development and Family Studies at Purdue University, where she also directs the Military Family Research Institute and the Center for Families, and serves as Associate Dean of the College of Health and Human Sciences. Dr. MacDermid Wadsworth holds an M.B.A. in Management and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Human Development and Family Studies from The Pennsylvania State University. Her research focuses on relationships between job conditions and family life, with special focus on military families and organizational policies, programs and practices. Dr. MacDermid Wadsworth is a fellow of the National Council on Family Relations, and a recipient of the Work Life Legacy Award from the Families and Work Institute.

Wendy Manning is a Professor in the Department of Sociology at Bowling Green State University. She is the Co-Director of the National Center for Family and Marriage Research and the Associate Director of the Center for Family Demographic Research. She received her doctorate in sociology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She is a family demographer with a research emphasis on union formation and stability and relationships among adolescents as well as adults. She is the co-principal investigator on NIH funded grant, Counting Families: Household Matrices with Multiple Family Members, as well as funded projects on young adult and teen dating relationships and the meaning of cohabiting unions in the U.S. She has served as the President of the Association of Population Centers, Vice-President of the Population Association of America, and the Chair of the American Sociological Association Population Section.