Linda H. Bearinger, Ph.D., RN, FAAN, is Professor and Director of the Center of Adolescent Nursing, offering master's and doctoral preparation. Dr. Bearinger also served as the Director of Training for the post-graduate interdisciplinary Adolescent Health Training Program in the Medical School of the University of Minnesota; she continues as the nursing director of this interdisciplinary program. Dr. Bearinger has lectured nationally and internationally in areas of adolescent development and sexuality, and counseling and program development strategies for youth. She has served on the adolescent health expert panels for the National Institutes of Health and the Maternal and Child Health Bureau, U.S. Public Health Service. Her research focuses on longitudinal studies of adolescent risk and protective factors, particularly related to sexual health. Over the past six years, Dr. Bearinger led a research team that completed a longitudinal study of urban American Indian young people. E-mail address: beari001@umn.edu

Linda L. Halcon, Ph.D., M.P.H., RN is Assistant Professor in the University of Minnesota School of Nursing and program faculty for the Center for Adolescent Nursing. In addition, she serves as faculty of the University's graduate minor in Complementary Therapies and Healing Practices. She completed her M.P.H. in Public Health Nursing and Ph.D. in Epidemiology at the University of Minnesota. She has worked with underserved and at-risk populations in Minnesota and also has extensive international experience, having worked in public health and disaster relief in Madagascar, Kenya, Uganda, Sudan and Iraq. Her research interests focus on resiliency and spirituality in adolescents, infectious diseases and alternative/complementary healing practices. E-mail address: halco001@umn.edu

Sandra L. Pettingell, Ph.D. is a Research Associate for the School of Nursing, University of Minnesota. She contributes statistical and research methodology consultation to several research projects, helping to develop survey instruments, managing data, performing the statistical analysis, and interpreting the results. She brings five years of experience creating, developing, and standardizing educational and achievement tests as well as eight years of independent statistical consultation. She also serves as adjunct faculty at Bethel College, teaching graduate level statistics and providing methodological and statistical consultation to students as their masters theses near completion. Dr. Pettingell's research interests include the role of risk and protective factors among adolescents, especially among urban American Indian youth. She is also interested in factors specifically pertaining to youth self-directed and interpersonal violence and factors that influence adolescent sexual health and behavior. Pettingell received her undergraduate degree in psychology from Bethel College in St. Paul, Minnesota, and her doctoral degree in Educational Psychology with an emphasis in measurement and statistics at the University of Minnesota. E-mail address: erick001@umn.edu.

Renee Sieving, Ph.D., M.S.N., RNC, PNP is a Assistant Professor, Division of General Pediatrics and Adolescent Health; and Deputy Director National Teen Pregnancy Prevention Research Center. Sieving received her undergraduate degree from Concordia College in River Forest, IL, and a Master of Science in Nursing degree from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Following five years of practice as a nurse practitioner with children and youth, Sieving completed a post-graduate fellowship in Adolescent Health (1991) and doctorate in Epidemiology (1996) from the University of Minnesota. As a behavioral epidemiologist, Dr. Sieving's research interests are in identifying family, peer group, and individual-level factors that influence adolescent health behaviors, particularly those related to substance use and sexuality. Dr. Sieving currently directs a clinic-based intervention research study targeting improvements in contraceptive use and pregnancy prevention among a group of at-risk adolescent girls. Sieving co-teaches courses in critical reading of adolescent health scientific literature; clinical assessment and interventions with adolescents); and adolescent interviewing skills. E-mail address: sievi001@umn.edu.

Carol L. Skay, Ph.D., is Research Associate in the School of Nursing, University of Minnesota where she serves as statistical consultant, psychometrician, and research methodologist to numerous research projects. Dr. Skay has extensive experience in conducting research regarding outcomes measurement in public health and education, and particular expertise in research with children, adolescents, the elderly, and "at risk" populations. Skay's research has focused on three areas: a) methodological issues that affect analytical results and data interpretation (such as non-response, choice of scaling techniques, repeated measure carry-over, and rater biases); b) outcome measurement in public health and education; and c) mental health and public health issues for children, adolescents, the elderly, and "at risk" populations. Dr. Skay has been an independent statistical and research consultant for over fifteen years to corporate, academic, clinical, and educational clients. Her extensive experience encompasses the design, implementation, and analysis of large scale surveys, interviews, secondary-use archivals and observational research. Her coordination of such research has been centered in the areas of public health, psychology, and education. research design, instrument development, psychometric assessment, study coordination, staff management and training, data quality assurance, and performing and interpretation of complex multivariate data analyses, both cross-sectional and longitudinal. E-mail address: skayx002@umn.edu.