About the Authors

We wrote Clueless at the Top for all of us in the United States and around the world who want positive change in our families, our workplaces, our communities, our nation, and our world.

We're two people not with a licence, but with a mission.

We began our journey as detectives twelve years ago, traveling with pencil and paper in hand, carefully observing people at work, at home, at play.

Throughout our investigation, we decoded puzzles — the facts, connections, patterns, contradictions, and trends. We uncovered gems hiding in clear view right in front of our faces. We filled many notebooks as we recorded, organized, and deciphered the clues we found.

We visited community meetings, government agencies, job sites, family gatherings, schools, and many other settings in the United States — Northwest, Southeast, Northeast, Midwest, Southwest, Alaska, and Hawaii. We conducted interviews with more than one hundred people from the United States and other countries.

We found countless clues in the several thousands of articles we read — from magazines, newspapers, and even the comics — as we explored events and perspectives from around the world. We examined school curricula and read hundreds of books presenting the experiences and perspectives of a diverse population.

The process enriched our lives, lightened our load, and broadened our opportunities. Throughout our journey, we remained committed to a philosophy that guides and inspires our work:

"If you cannot explain it simply,
you do not understand it well enough"
— Albert Einstein

Collectively they have:
• Earned eight college degrees, including one Ph.D. and four master's degrees.
• Taught college for twenty years: pharmacy, engineering, math, physics, chemistry.
• Received close to a million dollars in grants from the National Science Foundation to research math, science, technology, and engineering education.
• Published 2 books and 18 articles.
• Presented more than thirty seminars or speeches in ten states.
• Worked eleven years in R&D and manufacturing in Fortune 500 companies and NASA.
• Traveled to five continents and forty-eight states.
• Raised a daughter and a son.
• Served on boards of public and historic parks, schools, and neighborhood and community organizations.
• Welcomed more than thirty youths and adults from eighteen countries into their homes, for stays ranging from a weekend to a year.
• Coached twenty-one seasons of youth basketball, soccer, baseball, softball, and swimming, and led Girl Scout troops for more than a decade.
• Enjoy long walks together, swimming, backpacking, camping, rowing, bicycling commuting, walking to work, activities with family, needlework, organic gardening, dancing, reading, and cuddling with cats and dogs.
• Have lived more than a century!