Eric Rice was trained as a cultural anthropologist at Johns Hopkins, where he received his Ph.D. in 2002 after completing a study of race and the Afro-Brazilian religion Candomblé. From 1999 through 2001 he was a consultant to the Baltimore City Public School System (BCPSS), for whom he conducted a two-year ethnographic study of the Blum Mentoring Program. He then worked in the BCPSS Department of Professional Development for two years as Staff Associate and then Staff Specialist for Systemic Mentoring. Moving to Johns Hopkins in 2003, he served as the Program Evaluator for a large federal grant (Project SITE SUPPORT) that brought more than 700 new teachers to BCPSS. He spent the 2005-06 year coordinating the JHU School of Professional Studies in Business and Education’s involvement in the East Baltimore Educational Initiative. He is now the Special Assistant to the Dean of the new JHU School of Education, where he also assists with JHU’s involvement in BCPSS leadership programs and MSDE technological initiatives.