Thomas Edward Gass has divided his life between working in the trades and using his psychology degree in a variety of social work settings. At the age of thirteen he entered a Catholic seminary, which included a year of silence. In 1970 he learned meditation, which he still practices daily. He has lived and traveled through most of Asia enhancing his interest in eastern thought. He worked in a nursing home in the Midwest for three and a half years, first as a nursing aide and then as a director of social services. Bruce C. Vladeck is Professor of Health Policy and Geriatrics at Mount Sinai School of Medicine and the author of Unloving Care: The Nursing Home Tragedy. From 1993 through September 1997, he directed the Medicare and Medicaid programs as Administrator of the Health Care Financing Administration of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.