It is time to introduce readers to the Massage Therapy Journal Editorial Advisory Board (EAB) whose members' names have appeared on the masthead for nearly 2 years. The EAB has an advisory relationship to the editor, who has the responsibility to control the editorial direction and production of MTJ. The general purpose of the EAB is to assist the editor in making MTJ cohesive and responsive to its readers? needs and meeting their expectations of a professional massage therapy publication. The EAB also helps MTJ appropriately reflect the state of knowledge within the general field and various disciplines of massage therapy and bodywork.

More specifically, the EAB provides suggestions and feedback to the editor on editorial policies, editorial content and quality, themes for special sections of MTJ, and the process for reviewing submitted articles. The EAB also gives feedback on the appearance and content of each issue, keeps the editor informed of trends in the profession, suggests ideas for content, and helps recruit authors. Other subjects discussed at recent EAB meetings were the following: the special Millennium2000 issue, which will publish in mid-December; vital current topics for special sections; refreshing the publication's design; critiques of current issues; items for the next reader survey; coverage of the national convention; various article ideas; and future plans.

In addition, the EAB helps the editor maintain an active list of professionals known as the Review Panel, which is separate from the EAB. The editor selects members from the Review Panel to review manuscripts being considered for publication. As a subcommittee of the American Massage Therapy Association (AMTA) Communications committee, the EAB may also suggest policies regarding MTJ to the AMTA Board of Directors for their consideration.

The five EAB members are appointed for 2-year terms on a staggered basis so that no more than three positions may change each year. One member of the EAB is appointed to serve as chair for a 1-year term. The EAB began functioning in January, 1998. It was created as part of a three-part plan for an editorial restructuring of MTJ that was approved by the AMTA Board of Directors in May, 1994. The first part mandated a readership survey to identify strengths, weaknesses, and the readership's primary expectations of MTJ. The second part reorganized the MTJ editor position, which made the transition from a volunteer position, a member located at a remote site, to a full-time, staff position located at the AMTA National Office at Evanston, Illinois. The third part of the plan, pertinent here, established the EAB to provide input from massage therapists, which the AMTA Board of Directors foresaw would balance and complement the shift from a volunteer to a professional editor.

Brief biographies of the current members of the EAB and their portraits follow, in alphabetical order.

Mark W. Dixon graduated in 1988 from the 1,000-hour program of the New Mexico School of Natural Therapeutics at Albuquerque. His full-time practice in Huntington Beach, California, is divided between personal injury and pain management in a chiropractic clinic, remedial care of athletes at all levels, and on-site massage. He has been on the AMTA National Sports Massage Team since 1990 and was Nationally Certified in Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork in 1992. Dixon has been in continuous volunteer service to the AMTA at the chapter and national levels since 1988. He has been an examiner at the AMTA Event Sports Massage Specialty Examination since 1992; served at the Centennial Olympic Games in Atlanta in 1996; is a past chair of the Communications committee; and supervises the Los Angeles Marathon Sports Massage Team each spring.

Dawn Jordan is a New York State-licensed massage therapist in private practice at Buffalo, New York. She has an academic background in the humanities and brings a global and cross-cultural perspective to massage and bodywork, having studied in Brazil, India, and Europe, as well as the USA. She is interested in massage as frontier science and as a vehicle for spiritual growth. Jordan is also an advocate for creating an integrated medical system in the U.S. and has developed university courses for medical students and physicians in alternative medicine and holistic healing. She has conducted research on the effects of massage on cancer patients. She lectures and presents body awareness and meditation workshops to the public, other massage therapists, and body workers.

Lisa Mertz is a licensed massage therapist in New York and Florida, and holds a certificate in Integrative Therapeutics. She received her doctorate in anthropology from the Union Institute. Mertz is director of the massage therapy program at Trocaire College, a community college in Buffalo, and serves as an adjunct faculty member for Union Institute and Greenwich University with programs in somatic studies, creativity and spirituality, and energy medicine. She has done research in cross-cultural indigenous integrative medicine, including the areas of subtle energies and bodywork therapies, and has published papers based on her field work research on Native American shamanism in California. She also is the editor of Anthropology of Consciousness, a journal published by the American Anthropological Association, and serves as book review editor of MTJ.

Dianne L. Polseno, licensed massage therapist and licensed practical nurse, has a private massage practice in Rhode Island, where she specializes in injury rehabilitation massage and pregnancy massage. She is a 1990 graduate of Bancroft School of Massage Therapy at Worcester, Massachusetts, where she teaches anatomy, clinical massage, pathologies, health and hygiene, and ethics, and is the director of the student clinic and the department head of Clinical Massage Applications. Polseno teaches continuing education workshops for body workers throughout New England and massage techniques for physical therapy students at the University of Rhode Island. She served as chair of the AMTA Ethics Subcommittee and writes the ethics column for MTJ. She also authored and published the Comprehensive Review Manual for Massage Therapists.

Grant Jewell Rich, EAB chair, an Ohio-licensed massage therapist and licensed social worker, is Nationally Certified in Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork. He is a doctoral candidate in psychology at the University ofChicago, has served on the faculties of Antioch College and Columbus State Community College, and currently is visiting faculty at the Ohio State University Mansfield campus. Rich has written for a wide variety of publications, including Antioch Review, Anthropology and Education Quarterly, Anthropology of Consciousness, Skeptical Inquirer, Massage Magazine, Family Relations, Psychology Today, and MTJ. He sits on the editorial boards of several journals and has served as a reviewer for the Cambridge University Press and the National Council for Family Relations.