Jason DeParle, *New York Times* senior writer and author of *American Dream: Three Women, Ten Kids, and a Nation's Drive to End Welfare*; David Ellwood, Dean of Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government; and Ron Haskins, Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institute, examine our nation's policies regarding poor people. William Julius Wilson of Harvard's Kennedy School of Government moderates.
Jason DeParle is a senior writer at *The New York Times* and a frequent contributor to *The New York Times Magazine*. A graduate of Duke University, DeParle won a George Polk Award in 1999 for his reporting on the welfare system and was a two-time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. He lives in Washington, D.C., with his wife, Nancy-Ann, and their two sons.
David T. Ellwood, the Scott M. Black Professor of Political Economy, has served as Dean of the John F. Kennedy School of Government since July 1, 2004. As Dean, Ellwood sets the strategic direction of the Kennedy School and leads its efforts to advance the public interest. Ellwood joined the Kennedy School faculty in 1980 and served two separate terms as the School's Academic Dean. In 1993, he was named Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation at the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) where he served as co-chair of President Clinton's Working Group on Welfare Reform, Family Support and Independence. At HHS, Ellwood played a key role in the Administration's development and implementation of critical social policy. Ellwood was recipient of the David N. Kershaw Award, given by the Association of Public Policy Analysis and Management to outstanding individuals under the age of 40 who have made a distinguished contribution to the field of public policy. He also received the Morris and Edna Zale Award for Outstanding Distinction in Scholarship and Public Service from Stanford University.
William Julius Wilson is the Lewis P. and Linda L. Geyser University Professor at Harvard University. Wilson received a Ph.D. from Washington State University in 1966. He then taught sociology at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, before joining the University of Chicago faculty in 1972. In 1990 he was appointed the Lucy Flower University Professor and director of the University of Chicago's Center for the Study of Urban Inequality. Joining the faculty at Harvard in 1996, Wilson studies race and urban inequalities. His most recent work is *When Work Disappears: The World of the New Urban Poor*. Wilson is the recipient of numerous awards, including 41 honorary degrees and the National Medal of Science.