A major figure in the art and photography worlds, and co-founder of the Precipice Alliance, Joel Sternfeld was born in New York City in 1944. Recent monographs on his work include Sweet Earth: Experimental Utopias in America, Walking the High Line, and a new edition of his seminal 1987 publication, American Prospects. Sternfeld's work has been extensively exhibited and collected, most notably by the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. He is the recipient of numerous awards and grants, including two Guggenheim Foundation Fellowships, the Citibank Prize and a Prix de Rome. Sternfeld has been a professor at Sarah Lawrence College since 1985. He lives in New York City and Vermont.

Donna Wingate is co-founder and executive director of the Precipice Alliance. From 2000-06 she served as director of publisher services at D.A.P./Distributed Art Publishers, the North American art book publisher and distributor. During her tenure, Wingate served as editor and/or managing editor for many of the company's most notable titles, working closely with artists, publishers, and institutions, both in the United States and abroad, to bring their works to public view via artist monographs, exhibition catalogues, and special artist editions. Wingate holds a M.A. in Comparative Literature and a M.F.A. in Photography, both from San Diego State University.

Robert Hammond is currently co-founder, President and Executive Director of Friends of the High Line (FHL). He co-founded and grew a grassroots non-profit into a full-time staff of 10. FHL has taken the High Line, a 1.5 mile disused rail structure on Manhattan’s West Side, from the brink of demolition, in 1999, to the start of construction in spring of 2006. With FHL, Mr. Hammond organized one of the largest international ideas competitions in history for the High Line’s reuse. The 2003 competition, with over 700 entrants from 36 countries, was followed up with a multi-stage design team selection process, ultimately selecting a design team led by Field Operation and Diller Scofidio + Renfro. Construction on the High Line is currently under budget and on schedule to open the first section in 2008.