A founding faculty advisor for the Pew initiative, Ed Cray in an earlier career reviewed classical music for the Los Angeles Free Press in the 1960s, worked as publicity director for the Los Angeles Philharmonic/Hollywood Bowl Association, and edited a scholarly anthology of bawdy folk songs. He is also the author of 16 books, including, most recently, _Ramblin' Man: The Life and Times of Woody Guthrie_ (W.W. Norton, 2004). He is currently a professor of journalism, Annnenberg School for Communication, University of Southern California.

As to a reconstituted NAJP, Cray suggested that a national organization needed a national board, with members whose views reach beyond the Hudson.