The last few weeks have been unusually busy at NextBillion. You've seen several new names, topics discussed, and the diversity of perspectives represented in our pages continues to expand. Moreover, the site's managing partners (Acumen Fund, WDI and WRI) recently met for a planning session where we discussed several ideas that get to the heart of our site's goal: bringing value to our readers and being the web's primary resource for analysis, news and opportunities related to market-based approaches to poverty alleviation. 

Lots of exciting ideas and lots of work, to be sure, but all of this has been accompanied by several conversations with a growing base of contributors. Today I'd like to introduce you to four new members whose name you'll see more and more often in NextBillion: Maria Zheng, from the University of Michigan, Adeena Schlussel from Acumen Fund, Andrew Eder from NextBillion's partner Technoserve, and Bryan Farris from Bain & Co.

While Maria will join as Editor, Andrew, Adeena and Bryan join as Staff Writers. For more information about their backgrounds and interests I encourage you to visit their profiles. Please join me in welcoming all of them!