David E. Pearson, an Army veteran, graduated magna cum laude with honors in sociology from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. He received his Ph.D. in sociology from Yale University and was a postdoctoral fellow in international security studies at The Ohio State University. For thirteen years he worked at UTB/TSC as professor of sociology, as host of the radio show Society Under Fire, as academic senate president, and as vice president for partnership affairs. Departing Brownsville, he served as dean of San Diego State University's Imperial Valley Campus, another border institution, where he is now emeritus professor. He is the author of three previous books, as well as numerous articles in the scholarly, scientific, and popular presses.