Dave Sobecki，I was born and raised in Cleveland， and started college at Bowling Green State University majoring in creative writing. Eleven years later， I walked across the graduation stage to receive a PhD in math， a strange journey indeed. After two years at Franklin and Marshall College in Pennsylvania，I came home to Ohio， accepting a tenure-track job at the Hamilton campus of Miami University.I've won a number of teaching awards in my career， and while maintaining an active teachingschedule， I now spend an inordinate amount of time writing textbooks and course materials. I've written or co-authored either nine or sixteen textbooks， depending on how you count them， as well as a wide variety of solutions manuals andinteractive CD-ROMS.I've also worked on an awfullot of the digital content that accompanies my texts， including Connect， LearnSmart， and Instructional videos.
I'm in a very happy place right now： my love of teaching meshes perfectly with my childhood dream of writing. （Don't tell my publisher this-they think I spend 20 hours a day working on textbooks-but I'm working on my first novel in the limited spare time that I have.） I'm also a former coordinator of Ohio Project NExT， as I believe very strongly in helping young college instructors focus on high-quality teaching as a primary career goal. Ilive in Fairfield， Ohio， with my lovely wife Cat and fuzzy dogs Macleod and Tessa. I'm a recovering sports fan，still rooting for Ohio State and the Cleveland teams in a saner manner. Other passions include heavy metal music， travel， golf，collecting fine art， and visiting local breweries.
Brian Mercer，I can say without a doubt that I was made to be in a classroom. I followed the footsteps of my father，a 35-year middle school math teaching veteran， into this challenging yet rewarding career. My college experience began as a community college student at Lakeland College in Mattoon， Illinois.From there， I received a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics from Eastern Illinois University and a Master of Science in Mathematics from Southern Illinois University. I accepted a tenure-track faculty position at Parkland College， where I have taught developmental and college-level courses for 20 years. I had the opportunity to begin writing textbooks shortly after I started teaching at Parkland. My then department chair and mentor， James W. Hall， and I co-authored several text-books in Beginning and Intermediate Algebra.
In the fall of 2011， our department began discussing the idea of creating two tracks through our developmental math sequence. The idea stemmed from two issues. First， most of our beginning and intermediate algebra students were headed to either our Liberal Arts Math or our Introduction to Statistics course. Second， we wanted to enhance intermediate algebra to better prepare those students who were headed to college algebra. Obviously， these were two competing ideas ! Increasing the algebraic rigor of these courses seemed to "punish"students who were not heading to college algebra. With the two track system， we implemented a solution that best serves both groups of students.
I have to admit that I was initially concerned that offering an alternate path through developmental math for students not planning to take college algebra would lead to a lowering of standards. However， my participation in our committee inves-tigating this idea led me to believe it was possible to offer a rigorous course that was exceedingly more appropriate for this group of students. Since there were no materials for the course， I began creating my own and was paired by McGraw-Hill with Dave Sobecki. The successful partnership that resulted has led to two editions of this book， along with follow-up projects in Quantitative Reasoning and Quantitative Literacy. My thoughts on all three of these projects are summed up by a comment from a trusted colleague who said， "This is just a long overdue idea."
Outside of the classroom and away from the computer， I am kept educated， entertained and ever-busy by my wonderful wife Nikki， and our two children， Charlotte， 10 and Jake， 9. I am an avid St. Louis Cardinals fan and enjoy playing recreational softball and golfin the summertime with colleagues and friends.
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