Susan Snyder started off her journalism career writing for "The Canary," the student newspaper for William Allen High School. In 2012, the Allentown native has earned the profession's highest honor: the Pulitzer Prize.

Snyder, a reporter with The Philadelphia Inquirer, co-led a five-reporter team that spent nearly two years working on a seven-part series about violence in the Philadelphia School District. That series, called "Assault on Learning," earned Snyder and her colleagues the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service, the newspaper's first Pulitzer since 1997.

Snyder, the Inquirer's higher education reporter, has been with the paper since October 1998. Prior to starting there, she lived in Allentown and worked at The Morning Call for nine years. Diane Scott, who had been the Allentown superintendent from 1992 to 2002, remembers Snyder as a fantastic reporter who was respected by all the district officials, even when she wrote tough stories about them. David Erdman, editor of The Morning Call, was the city editor when Snyder was hired, and called her one of the hardest-working and best beat reporters he'd ever worked with.

Snyder is currently back to her higher education beat, but said her work on the series has made her look at her regular job a bit differently.

Congresswoman Susan Wild has been a member of the Lehigh Valley community for more than 30 years. Her two adult children were born and raised in the Valley, where they attended public schools. Susan built a successful legal practice while raising her two children and became the first woman to be appointed as Allentown City Solicitor. In November 2018, Congresswoman Wild was elected as the first woman to represent Pennsylvania’s 7th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives. Congresswoman Wild has been appointed to the House Education and Labor Committee and the House Foreign Affairs Committee and is committed to fighting for quality, affordable health care for all, an economy that benefits every member of our community, and reforming our political system to return government to the American people.

Learn more on Congresswoman Wild's website: http://wild.house.gov/.

Calley Stevens Taylor, Ph.D, is the Dean of Student Success at Cedar Crest College. In her capacity as Dean, Dr. Stevens Taylor is responsible for the strategic leadership of the Student Success Center, academic advising and academic recovery programs, the Act 101 program, peer and professional tutoring, disability services, courses for student success, international student services, and the academic components of the First Year Experience program. Dr. Stevens Taylor coordinates the student-centered functions of the Provost’s Office, including academic progress, student appeals, and the academic integrity process, and works collaboratively across campus to ensure consistent attention and consideration to student success.

In 2019, Dr. Stevens Taylor was named an Outstanding First-Year Student Advocate by Cengage and the National Resource Center for the First-Year Experiences and Students in Transition. She has held a variety of leadership roles in NACADA: The Global Community for Academic Advising and currently serves as a mentor in the NACADA Emerging Leaders Program. Dr. Stevens Taylor has presented and published in the US and internationally on topics pertaining to student success and retention, comparative and international education, and strategic planning and program assessment. She currently serves on the editorial board for the Journal of Access, Inclusion, & Retention in Higher Education and teaches a First Year Seminar on education and human rights.

Previously, Dr. Stevens Taylor served as the Director of Advising and Enrollment Services at Reading Area Community College in Reading, PA, and the Director of Advising and Learning Support at the University of North Carolina - Asheville, in Asheville, NC. She earned a bachelor’s degree in Psychology from the University of North Carolina - Asheville, a master’s degree in College Student Personnel from the University of Tennessee - Knoxville, and a Ph.D. in Comparative and International Education from Lehigh University.