Ron Tarver received a BA in Journalism and Graphic Arts from Northeastern State University in Tahlequah, OK and an MFA from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, PA. He serves as Visiting Assistant Professor of Studio Art specializing in photography at Swarthmore College. Before Swarthmore, Tarver was a photojournalist at the Philadelphia Inquirer for 32 years where he shares a 2012 Pulitzer Prize for his work on a series documenting school violence in the Philadelphia public school system and has been nominated three previous times. His work has been published in National Geographic, Life, Time, Newsweek, Sports Illustrated, and Black and White Magazine. He is co-author of the book We Were There: Voices of African American Veterans, published by Harper Collins in 2004, which was accompanied by a traveling exhibition that debuted at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia.