Sharon Reiss Bakerwas born in Buffalo, New York, and grew up in Maryland. After receiving her BA from Harvard University, she taught elementary and middle school in a variety of places, including Florida, Massachusetts, and Puerto Rico. She speaks Spanish, French, and Hebrew; loves to travel; and studied in both France and Israel. Currently she is a high school administrator, and she and her husband, the parents of three children, live near Philadelphia. To research All Kinds of Strong, Sharon conducted oral histories with people who had grown up--or whose parents and grandparents had grown up--on Jewish-owned chicken and dairy farms in Eastern Connecticut. She also read documents at historical societies and consulted with Yiddishists at the University of Pennsylvania and Trinity College. To learn more about Sharon, visit: www.sharonreissbaker.com.