John Ramos graduated from Princeton University in Princeton, N.J. Following college, he was a journalist at the business magazine Across The Board, a publication of the business research and membership organization the Conference Board (www.conference-board.org/). He then moved into the financial markets, wherein he worked as an options trader for 10 years before becoming a film producer and aspiring screenwriter who resides in New York City. He also recaps “Veronica Mars” for the well-known Web site Television Without Pity (www.televisionwithoutpity.com) under the handle “Couch Baron.”
Dr. Katherine Ramsland has done journalistic searches for the limit-experience inside the vampire and BDSM subculture. The bestselling author of forty-two nonfiction books, two novels, and over one thousand articles, she teaches psychology at DeSales University in Pennsylvania and writes a blog, Shadow Boxing, for Psychology Today.
Robert Rand is an Emmy Award–winning journalist who works in TV, print, and digital media. He began covering the Menendez brothers case for the Miami Heraldthe day after the killings on August 21, 1989. He was in court daily for both trials and provided analysis for Court TV, ABC, and CBS News. In March 1991, Playboypublished Rand’s article “The Killing of Jose Menendez.” The 14,000-word story was the longest article ever published by Playboy. Rand’s print work includes stories contributed to People, The Guardian, Stern, Grazia, and Tropic, the Sunday magazine of the Miami Herald. He covered the William Kennedy Smith rape trial for Paris Match.
In July 2016, Rand was hired by Wolf Films as a consultant working on the development of the NBC eight-hour limited series Law & Order True Crime: The Menendez Murders, which aired in the fall of 2017. Rand’s unpublished manuscript of The Menendez Murders provided the primary source material for the series.
Rand has appeared as the primary interview in dozens of documentaries about the Menendez case, including ABC 20/20‘s “Truth and Lies: The Menendez Brothers” and Dateline NBC‘s “Unthinkable: The Menendez Murders,” which both aired in 2017.
Rand was awarded a Los Angeles Emmy Award for two years of stories at KCOP-TV in L.A. about an illegal immigrant who was wrongly convicted. The stories resulted in the overturning of a ten-year-old conviction and the release of the man from jail. He was a member of the Special Assignment investigative reporting group at CBS 2 in L.A. and the I-Team at KYW TV (Philadelphia) that won a Columbia-DuPont Silver Baton Award for a year-long series about wealthy property tax dodgers.
Jim Rapoza was born and currently lives in Massachusetts. Over the years he has worked as a bike messenger, bar back, sports reporter, quality assurance engineer and guitarist in punk rock bands. Since 1993 Jim has worked as a technology reviewer and analyst for high-tech magazines PC Week and eWEEK. Jim Rapoza’s award-winning weekly column, “Tech Directions,” delves into all areas of technology and the challenges of managing and deploying technology today.
Dr. Joshua Z. Rappoport received a bachelor’s degree in Biology from Brown University, and then went on to earn a Ph.D. from Mount Sinai School of Medicine. Dr. Rappoport performed postdoctoral work at The Rockefeller University in New York City in the Laboratory of Cellular Biophysics. Subsequently he was recruited as a faculty member in the School of Biosciences at the University of Birmingham in the UK. In 2014 Dr. Rappoport returned to the United States to serve as the Director of the Center for Advanced Microscopy and Nikon Imaging Center at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, and as a faculty member in the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology. In March 2019, Dr. Rappoport took on the position of Executive Director, Research Infrastructure at Boston College.
Dr. Rappoport is interested in understanding the broader impacts of exciting developments in science and technology. His first book, The Cell: Discovering the Microscopic World that Determines Our Health, Our Consciousness, and Our Future, came out in 2017, and his second book Mapping Humanity: How Modern Genetics Is Changing Criminal Justice, Personalized Medicine, and Our Identities, was recently published.
Books by Joshua Rappoport
Deaf since age six after contracting spinal meningitis, Brandi Rarus could speak and read lips, but felt caught between the deaf and hearing world–fitting into neither. When she realized you don’t need to hear to live a fulfilled life, she became empowered and was chosen as Miss Deaf America. From signing the National Anthem at a Chicago Cubs game to speaking at corporate conferences, Brandi traveled the country speaking out for deaf children and building awareness of what it means to be Deaf.
She married Tim Rarus, an advocate for Deaf people whose work inspired the landmark Americans with Disabilities Act. Together, they have paved the way to bring new technologies that promote equal access in communication. Brandi and Tim live in Austin, Texas, with their four children: three hearing boys and the youngest, Zoe, a Deaf girl they adopted. Today, Brandi and her family are tirelessly dedicated to ensuring all children find their rightful place in our world.
Frequent Associated Press freelancer Melissa Rayworth’s feature stories appear in many newspapers, including the Washington Post and Los Angeles Times. In 2004, she helped launch Life & Style Weekly, serving as associate editor before fleeing the world of celebrity journalism. Before that, she spent three years in Beijing as a writer/actress on the TV series “Modern English” and appeared in two miniseries (including a bizarre turn as a young Margaret Thatcher). In 2002, her play “The Welcoming Committee” made the NY Fringe Festival’s top ten. She’s writing a book about celebrity culture, viewed through the lens of her experiences in China and New York, where she spent the 1990s doing theater and indie films and making blink-and-you-miss-me appearances in soap operas, “Law & Order,” and films such as “The Thomas Crown Affair” and “Mickey Blue Eyes.” Melissa lives in New Jersey with her husband and two sons.
Terrence Real has been a family therapist and teacher for more than 20 years. Terry’s work has been celebrated in venues from “Today” and “20/20” to Oprah and the New York Times.
Emily Reardon received her M.F.A. from New York University. Most recently, she has had her poems published in NYArts Magazine, The Comstock Review and Southern Poetry Review. Emily has also been a guest editor for NYArts Magazine, and she recently finished a stint as the first writer-in-residence for the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. She lives and writes in New York City.
