is Professor and Chair of the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at Iowa State University, College of Human Sciences. Dr. Rendón was previously the Veffie Milstead Jones Endowed Chair in the College of Education at California State University-Long Beach. Her current research focuses on access, retention and graduation of low-income, first-generation students and the transformation of teaching and learning addressing intellectual, social, emotional and spiritual student development. She is co-editor of Transforming the First Year of College for Students of Color, Educating a New Majority, and Racial and Ethnic Diversity in Higher Education. Her scholarly work on access and achievement has been featured in the Chronicle of Higher Education and the PBS documentary, The College Track. She serves on the editorial boards of The Review of Higher Education, Educational Researcher, Journal of Women and Minorities in Science and Engineering, Journal of Latinos and Education, and Journal of Chicana/Latina Studies.

is a poet and philosopher who has taught in the fields of poetry and spirituality for over thirty years. Nominated for the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize, he has written several books. His The Exquisite Risk was cited by Spirituality & Health Magazine as one of the Best Spiritual Books of 2005. He now serves as a Program Officer for the Fetzer Institute in Kalamazoo, Michigan.