Kathleen Cushman is the author of Fires in the Bathroom: Advice for Teachers from High School Students, the co-author (with Laura Rogers) of Fires in the Middle School Bathroom, and the co-author (with Kristien Zenkov and Meagan Call-Cummings) of Fires in Our Lives (all from The New Press. Student motivation and mastery are the subjects of her recent books Fires in the Mind and The Motivation Equation. Her work with the national nonprofit What Kids Can Do, Inc., which she co-founded with Barbara Cervone in 2001, includes extensive documentation of adolescent learning in print and mixed media. She lives in New York City.