Justin Anderson is an adjunct philosophy professor at Paradise Valley Community College who specializes in epistemology (is knowledge possible?), metaphysics (what is real?), and ethics (what is the good?). Beyond the classroom, he has presented on topics such as Reason and Belief Systems, Mysticism, and Medieval Hinduism. In his free time, Justin enjoys making art, mountain biking, running, and hiking with his dog.

In 1965, Ronald E Smith graduated from High School and joined the Marine Corps, served 2 tours in Vietnam. After discharge in 1969, he married his wife, Joanne, and she has been there for him ever since. Under the GI Bill, he enrolled in a Community College, and got recruited by the F.B.I. as a Night Security Clerk.  In his career, he was was a Sky Marshall flying Northwest  Airlines and a U.S. Customs Criminal Investigator, where he worked a lot of drug cases. 

Mitra Birkmann was born in Iran, moved to Germany for university and has lived in Phoenix for the past 30+ years. She received her undergraduate and graduate degrees in Business from NAU and has been an instructor for over 20 years, teaching business courses at PVCC since 2010.

She is currently serving as an instructor for the Small Business Start-Up Certificate program at the Federal Correctional Institute. The program offers courses on marketing, management, finance, and a capstone project. The objective of the program is to lay the groundwork for aspiring small business proprietors and aid in fostering the growth of the business sector.

She says she is humbled to receive this distinction and is honored to teach alongside so many talented educators.

There were 9 moves during Ronald Smith's career, including an assignment in Washington D.C., as the Director of Foreign Operations, the Customs Attache in the American Embassy in Vienna, Austria. He ended his career in Phoenix. In 1998, he retired as the Special Agent in Charge. Retirement bored him so he attained his Masters in 2003. He was hired at SCC, as an Adjunct. After a couple years, he was hired by the State Department and went to the Baltics (Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia) for a 1 year assignment. Subsequently, he was hired at PVCC, became a member of the Administration of Justice family and found his home ever since.