Valerie M. Hudson, a professor of political science at Brigham Young University, has researched national security affairs, foreign policy analysis, and gender in international relations. Hudson has authored numerous publications, including Bare Branches: The Security Implications of Asia’s Surplus Male Population (with Andrea Den Boer, MIT Press 2004), which won the Association of American Publishers Award for best book and the Otis Dudley Duncan Award for best book in social demography. She is a recipient of the Karl G. Maeser Excellence in Teaching Award, served as president of the Foreign Policy Analysis Section of the International Studies Association, and for eight years directed the graduate program in international relations at the David M. Kennedy Center for International Studies. Hudson received a PhD from the Ohio State University.

Chad F. Emmett, an associate professor of geography at Brigham Young University, specializes in political geography and the geography of the Middle East and Southeast Asia, with much of his research focused on the status of Christians in the Islamic world. Emmett speaks Arabic and Indonesian and has traveled and researched widely in both regions. His publications include Beyond the Basilica: Christians and Muslims in Nazareth (University of Chicago Press 1995) and other works that explore possible ways in which the city of Jerusalem can be peacefully shared, how varying methods of sharing sacred places can be used as models for sharing political space, and the role of Palestinian Christians in the Palestinian nationalist movement. In addition to WomanStats, he is working on a similar project that will be used to analyze the status of Christians in countries with a Muslim majority. Emmett received a PhD from the University of Chicago.

Mary Caprioli, an associate professor of political science at the University of Minnesota—Duluth, has researched the role of gendered structural inequality on political conflict and violence, including interstate/intrastate violence and security issues broadly defined to include human rights. Caprioli has published articles in the Journal of Conflict Resolution, International Studies Quarterly, and Journal of Peace Research, and is writing two books. From 1999–2004, she was an associate editor for International Studies Perspectives. Her work has highlighted the need for cross-national data on women that captures the full extent of inequality relative to each society. She has been awarded several research grants and her expertise ahs been sought by the World Bank, UNIFEM, and the Africa Peace Forum. She brings experience in data development and is an advisory board member of the Minorities at Risk Project. Caprioli received a PhD from the University of Connecticut.

Rose McDermott, an associate professor of political science at the University of California—Santa Barbara, researches in the areas of political psychology, American foreign policy, and international relations theory. McDermott has authored Risk Taking in International Relations: Prospect Theory in American Foreign Policy and Political Psychology in International Relations as well as numerous articles on experimentation in political science. She recently completed a series of experiments funded by the Department of Defense on sex differences in aggression. In 2000, she was the recipient of the Erik Erikson Award for distinguished early career contribution from the International Society of Political Psychology and has been a John M. Olin national security postdoctoral fellow and a Women and Public Policy postdoctoral fellow, both at Harvard University. McDermott received a PhD from Stanford University.

Bonnie Ballif-Spanvill, a professor of psychology and director of the Women’s Research Institute at Brigham Young University, has researched in human motivation and emotion, which earned her fellow status in both the American Psychological Association (1984) and the American Psychological Society (1967). After twenty-five years as a professor and department chair in the graduate school at Fordham University at Lincoln Center in New York City, Ballif-Spanvill returned to her alma mater in 1994. She is studying the ramifications of violence and development of peace in women and men across ages and in different circumstances and cultures worldwide. Her recent publications address intergenerational domestic violence, the impact of witnessing violence, and the design of techniques to increase peacefulness. She recently published a global anthology of poetry by women, revealing their experiences with violence and their resilient visions of peace. Ballif-Spanvill received a PhD with distinction from Brigham Young University.