Ethan Seltzer is director of the School of Urban Studies and Planning at Portland State University. He is also the founding director of the Institute of Portland Metropolitan Studies. His research interests include the Oregon statewide planning program, regional planning, and regional and community development. Ethan currently serves as the Vice-President of the City of Portland Planning Commission and on the board of the innovative Portland Institute for Contemporary Arts.

Sandy Sorlien teaches photography at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, where she holds the rank of Master Lecturer. Sandy's book Fifty Houses: Images From the American Road was published in 2002 by Johns Hopkins University Press.

Sandy's photographs are in the collections of the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, New Mexico State University, and the Center for American Places in Virginia.

Her latest project is called Main Streets in America, color view camera images of distressed or threatened downtowns.