Mark Lester is an experienced grammarian, ESL expert, and college professor. He was the founding chair of the ESL department at the University of Hawaii, which is now considered one of the best ESL programs in the United States. He is the author of more than a dozen books, including Grammar and Usage in the Classroom, the most widely used college grammar textbook in the country. For McGraw-Hill Professional, he authored McGraw-Hill's Essential ESL Grammar and with Larry Beason he coauthored The McGraw-Hill Handbook of English Grammar and Usage. Lester is Eastern Washington University professor emeritus of English (he was formally chair of the English department). Dr. Lester obtained his BA in philosophy and English Literature at Pomona College and his PhD in Linguistics from UC Berkeley. He also holds an MBA from the University of Hawaii.