Dee Anne Finken, who wrote "Discover Portland" in this issue, is a Portland-area freelancer. A former staff writer for MClatchy Newspapers in Central and Northern California, she writes regularly about engineering, science, and higher education for a collection of national publications as well as about local news events for the Oregonian newspaper. She was introduced to the wonders of Portland by her husband, a licensed mechanical engineer.

"The Big Squeeze" was written by Washington, D.C.-based freelance journalist and charter school-mom Mary Lord who writes about education for a number of publications. Her articles have appeared in Essence magazine, the Washington Post, and U.S. News & World Report, where she is a contributing editor.

Dan Page illustrated this month's cover story, "Difficult Crossing." Page graduated from the Ontario College of Art and Design in 1992 and works out of his home studio in Cambridge, Ontario, where he lives with his wife and three daughters. He works for many national magazines, including Time, Forbes, and Popular Science. In December 2004, he illustrated the cover of Time magazine (Canadian edition), one of his dream job's since setting out as freelance illustrator.