Howard S. Adelman is professor of psychology and codirector of the School Mental Health Project and its federally supported National Center for Mental Health in Schools at UCLA. He began his professional career as a remedial classroom teacher in 1960. In 1973, he returned to UCLA in the role of professor of psychology and also was the director of the Fernald School and Laboratory until 1986. In 1986,nbsp;Adelman and Linda Taylor established the School Mental Health Project at UCLA. The two have worked together for over 30 years with a constant focus on improving how schools and communities address a wide range of psychosocial and educational problems experienced by children and adolescents.… Over the years, they have worked together on major projects focused on dropout prevention, enhancing the mental health facets of school-based health centers, and developing comprehensive, school-based approaches for students with learning, behavior, and emotional problems. Their work has involved them in schools and communities across the country. The current focus of their work is on policies, practices, and large-scale systemic reform initiatives to enhance school, community, and family connections to address barriers to learning and promote healthy development. This work includes codirecting a national Center for Mental Health in Schools, which facilitates the National Initiative: New Directions for Student Support.
Linda Taylor worked for the Civil Service in London and Angola, and as a vice-consul in Sri Lanka before teaching in Japan. On her return, she read English at Oxford. When her first novel, Reading Between the Lines, was published in 1998 it immediately became a Sunday Times Top Ten bestseller; her second novel, Going Against the Grain, was published in 1999 to great acclaim, followed by, Beating About the Bush, Rising to the Occasion and, most recently, Shooting at the Stars. She lives in Kent.