Alissa S. Wilson is a Policy Associate for the American Friends Service Committee in Washington, DC. Prior to this, Alissa was a researcher in Ethics and Human Development at Tufts University and an affiliate at the Global Equity Initiative, Harvard University. As the Practical Idealism Project’s resident twenty-something, she traveled the United States interviewing people engaged in social change work. Alissa has served as a Long-term Election Observer with the National Democratic Institute in Nigeria and a Jane Addams–Andrew Carnegie Fellow at the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University. She has also conducted research at the United Nations and the Carter Center, facilitated peace education trainings in the United States and Nigeria, and worked at arts organizations in New York City. Alissa is an avid dancer and choreographer. She holds a BA from Amherst College in Political Science and a MALD from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. 2004 Profile of Alissa.

John Hammock is an Associate Professor of Public Policy at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University. He is also currently the North American Director of the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative. Dr. Hammock was President of Oxfam America for eleven years and served as Executive Director of ACCION International, which provides credit and technical assistance to micro-enterprises. He holds a doctoral degree in international relations from the Fletcher School at Tufts University and an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Denison University. He was born in Cuba. He has two married daughters and two grandchildren.

Ann Barham is an independent scholar living in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She has been a writer and researcher for a number of commission reports, articles, and books on human development, political activism, and religious engagement. Previously, Ann worked on the personal staff of Senator Susan Collins in Washington, DC, and on distance learning projects at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She earned her Bachelors of Foreign Service from Georgetown University and a Masters of Theological Studies from Harvard Divinity School.