Alejandro Portes is Professor Emeritus of Sociology at Princeton University, and Research Professor and Distinguished Scholar of Arts and Sciences at the University of Miami. Portes is coauthor, with Alex Stepick, of City on the Edge: The Transformation of Miami, winner of the Thomas and Znaniecki Award from the American Sociological Association, and the Anthony Leeds Award from the American Anthropological Association.

Ariel C. Armony is Vice Provost for Global Affairs, Director of the University Center for International Studies, and Professor at the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs and Department of Political Science, all at the University of Pittsburgh. Armony is the author of The Dubious Link: Civic Engagement and Democratization.