Michelle Angela Ortiz is a visual artist, muralist, and community arts educator who uses her art as a vehicle to represent people and communities whose histories are often lost or co-opted. Ms. Ortiz has designed and created over 30 large-scale public works nationally and internationally. She is a U.S. Embassy Cultural Envoy, a 2011 fellow of the National Association of Latino Arts and Culture Fund for the Arts, and recipient of the 2008 Leeway Foundation Transformation Award. She earned a bachelor’s degree in fine arts from Moore College of Art & Design and a master’s of arts and cultural management from Rosemont College. For more information: www.michelleangela.com. Hernando Perez, Ph.D., is an associate professor of public health in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health at Drexel University School of Public Health. He collaborates extensively with the Philadelphia Housing Authority and the Philadelphia Department of Public Health on their federally funded Healthy Homes Demonstration Projects. This work has included research into health and safety hazards in family day-care homes in inner-city Philadelphia as well as the development and delivery of asthma interventions in public housing. He has also worked closely with inner-city populations to reduce pesticide exposure in residential environments. He earned his doctorate degree in industrial hygiene at Purdue University and his master of public health at Emory University. For more information: www.publichealth.drexel.edu and www.nchh.org. Lt. James Reif is a lieutenant in the Upper Darby Police Department where he serves as the Safe Schools Coordinator. He conducts lock-down training and drills for the township’s 20 public, private, and parochial schools. He launched the police department’s successful Mountain Bike Unit and 5th Grade Mentoring Program. He’s a police cyclist instructor for the International Police Mountain Bike Association. In 2013, he was inducted into the Upper Darby High School Wall of Fame, which honors graduates of the school who have made a notable contribution in their profession. For more information: www.udpd.org. 30 About our leaders