People

The screenwriter and co-producer of *American Beauty*, Alan Ball earned almost overnight acclaim and recognition for his screenplay for the film, which won a Best Original Screenplay Oscar and Golden Globe, as well as numerous other honors. Ball's success was a long time coming; much of the frustration and anger felt by *American Beauty*'s protagonist, Lester Burnham, was inspired by the screenwriter's own dissatisfaction with his years spent working as a television writer and producer.

Alan Bean was born in Wheeler, Texas, on March 15, 1932. He received a bachelor of science degree in Aeronautical Engineering from the University of Texas in 1955 and was awarded an honorary doctorate of science from Texas Wesleyan College in 1972. He was also presented an honorary doctorate of engineering science from the University of Akron (Ohio) in 1974. Bean helped establish 11 world records in space and astronautics. He was awarded two NASA distinguished Service Medals, the Navy Astronaut Wings and two Navy Distinguished Service Medals. Alan Bean was one of the third group of astronauts named by NASA in October 1963. He served as backup astronaut for the Gemini 10 and Apollo 9 missions. Captain Bean was lunar module pilot on Apollo 12, mans second lunar landing. He was spacecraft commander of Skylab Mission II (SL-3), from July 29 to September 25 in 1973. Captain Bean has logged 1,671 hours and 45 minutes in space and has flown 27 types of military aircraft as well as many civilian airplanes. He has logged more than 7,145 hours flying. Bean resigned from NASA in June 1981 to devote his full time to painting.

Alan Berger joined *The Boston Globe* in 1982 as an editorial writer. He is an expert on foreign policy and security issues. Berger wrote a column about the world press for the *Globe* before joining the editorial page, and also was a freelance writer for several publications. He taught literature and philosophy at MIT, where he was an assistant professor. Berger has a BA from Harvard in history and literature, and an MA in comparative literature from Cornell.

Alan Brinkley is the 20th Provost and the Allan Nevins Professor of History at Columbia University in New York City. An eminent scholar of twentieth-century United States history, he has chaired the Department of History since 2000. Brinkley has been a prolific writer and published numerous works including, *Voices of Protest: Huey Long*, *Father Coughlin and the Great Depression*, which won the 1983 National Book Award, *The Unfinished Nation: A Concise History of the American People*, *The End of Reform; New Deal Liberalism in Recession and War*, and *Liberalism and its Discontents*. His latest book is The *Publisher: Henry Luce and His American Century*. In addition, Brinkley is a frequent commentator on current events, government policy, and economic and social trends. Before joining Columbia, Brinkley taught at M.I.T., Harvard and the City University of New York Graduate School. He has received fellowships from the American Council of Learned Societies, the Guggenheim Foundation, the Woodrow Wilson Center, the National Humanities Center, the Media Studies Center, Russell Sage Foundation and others. Brinkley is chairman of the board of trustees of the Century Foundation (formerly the Twentieth Century Fund), a member of the editorial board of The American Prospect, a member of the board of directors of the New York Council for the Humanities and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 1998 and 1999, he was the Harmsworth Professor of American History at Oxford University. He received his A.B. from Princeton and his Ph.D from Harvard.

Alan Brinkley is the Allan Nevins Professor of History at Columbia University, where he was also Provost from 2003-2009. He is a historian of the New Deal. Brinkley writes regularly in magazines such as The New York Review of Books, the New York Times Book Review, Newsweek and The New Republic and is an advocate for progressive issues.

Alan Cooperman is the associate director for research at the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life. He came to the Pew Research Center in 2009 after a 27-year career in journalism, the last 10 years of which were at The Washington Post. During his decade at the Post, he worked in many parts of the newsroom, including five years as a national staff writer covering religion. He also served as deputy foreign editor, senior editor of the Post's book review section and national security editor. In the latter capacity, he helped oversee the Post's Pulitzer Prize- winning coverage of the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Before joining the Post in 1999, Alan was foreign editor of U.S. News & World Report, where he oversaw eight foreign bureaus and a staff of Washington- based reporters covering the Pentagon, State Department, National Security Council and intelligence agencies. He lives with his wife and two sons in Washington, D.C.

**Alan Cumming** is the author of two previous books: \_Tommy’s Tale: A Novel of Sex, Confusion, and Happy Endings\_ and the memoir \_Not My Father’s Son\_. He has also had an exhibition of his photographs, \_Alan Cumming Snaps!\_ His day job is acting, and most recently he was seen on TV as Eli Gold in the CBS drama \_The Good Wife\_, on Broadway in his Tony Award–winning role as the Master of Ceremonies in \_Cabaret\_, and in concert, touring the world with his cabaret show, \_Alan Cumming Sings Sappy Songs\_, which was also released as a live album. Alan is also a loudmouth—sorry, activist—who believes that knowledge is power and equality is a right, not a privilege. Follow @alancumming on Twitter and @alancummingsnaps on Instagram. Photo: Francis Hills

Professor Alan M. Dershowitz is Brooklyn native. He is the Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. Dershowitz, a graduate of Brooklyn College and Yale Law School, joined the Harvard Law School faculty at age 25 after clerking for Judge David Bazelon and Justice Arthur Goldberg. He has also published more than 100 articles in magazines and journals such as *The New York Times Magazine, The Washington Post. The Wall Street Journal, The New Republic, The Nation, Commentary, Saturday Review, The Harvard Law Review and the Yale Law Journal*, and more than 300 of his articles have appeared in syndication in 50 national daily newspapers.

Ambassador Alan Holmer was appointed Special Envoy for China and the Strategic Economic Dialogue in 2007. Ambassador Holmer leads an Administration team which manages the bilateral economic relationship between the US and China.

Alan Jasanoff is an Associate Member of the McGovern Institute for Brain Research, and an Associate Professor with a primary appointment in the Department of Biological Engineering and additional appointments with the Departments of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Nuclear Science, and Engineering. Prior to joining the MIT faculty in 2004, he was a Whitehead Fellow at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research at MIT. He received a Ph.D. in biophysics in 1998 from Harvard in the laboratory of Don Wiley, where he was supported by a Howard Hughes Medical Institute pre-doctoral fellowship. He also earned an M.Phil. in Chemistry at Cambridge University in 1993 and an undergraduate degree in biochemistry from Harvard College in 1992. He was named a Raymond and Beverly Sackler Foundation Scholar in 2004, and he received a 2006 McKnight Technological Innovations in Neuroscience Award for developing methods to apply MRI calcium sensors for cellular-level functional imaging in living animals.

Alan Keyes was one of the U.S. representatives to the United Nations during the Ronald Reagan administration. In the 1990's he became one of the more well-known conservative African-Americans, thanks to his radio talk program, *The Alan Keyes Show*. His career as a political pundit on the TV and lecture circuit included a 2002 program on MSNBC, *Alan Keyes Making Sense*, but has been periodically interrupted by campaigns for elected positions. A Republican, Keyes ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate in Maryland in 1988 and 1992, for the Senate in Illinois in 2004 (against Barack Obama), and for U.S. president in 1996 and 2000.