Jay Walljasper is editor of Utne Magazine. A 1976 graduate of the University of Iowa, Jay has worked in print journalism of all varieties. He's been a contributing editor for Minneapolis St. Paul magazine and Chicago magazine, culture editor at the alternative newsweekly In These Times, and a travel editor at Better Homes & Gardens. He's been at Utne Magazine since 1984, and he is also a contributing writer for The Nation and the American correspondent for the British magazine, Resurgence.

Toni Griffin manages the revitalization planning division for the District of Columbia. She is an architect and urban designer, and has managed urban projects throughout the U.S. and abroad. She was vice president for planning and tourism development for the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone Development Corporation in New York City, with the challenge of promoting Harlem's multiethnic heritage to tourists.

As an associate partner with the Chicago office of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, Toni worked on the State Street streetscape project in downtown Chicago, and she was instrumental in establishing a development concept for the Grand Boulevard Community, one of Chicago's premier historic ethnic neighborhoods. As a Loeb Fellow at Harvard in 1997-98, Toni explored methods of using cultural heritage and historic preservation to create economic and community development in urban ethnic neighborhoods.