Dr. Pearl M. Oliner (Ph.D., University of California Berkeley) is an Emeritus Professor of Education at Humboldt State University and Research Director of the Altruistic Personality and Prosocial Behavior Institute. Her research interests and publications have focused on the topics of altruism and prosocial behavior in education and society at large, and on rescuers of Jews during the Holocaust. She is currently exploring the influence of religion, gender, and national culture on outgroup altruism.

Professor Oliner's forthcoming work is a book titled Saving the Forsaken : Religious Culture and the Rescue of Jews in Nazi Europe. Based on data collected by the Altruistic Personality and Prosocial Behavior Institute, and using both quantitative and qualitative analyses, the book examines the cultural contexts in which the very religious, irreligious and moderately religious, as well as Protestants and Catholics, made their decisions to rescue or not to rescue. Although focusing on a particular historical event, a major purpose of the book is to suggest implications for enhancing the possibilities of ourgroup altruism among diverse cultures.