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The Runaway Game Author Kevin M. Casey shoots video for a TV news story at Haditha Dam in Iraq's Al-Anbar Province, December 2007. Photo by Navy LCDR James Lee.

Kevin Casey began working with high-risk youths as a street-outreach counselor for a teen homeless shelter, driving a van through the streets of Los Angeles for eight to 12 hours a night offering runaways food, shelter and access to medical care. He also delivered runaway prevention lectures to school, church and youth groups. In Los Angeles, he also worked at a group home for gay and lesbian wards of the state. In the Bronx, New York City, he worked at an AIDS program for HIV-positive injection-drug users and their partners.

The first version of THE RUNAWAY GAME was the thesis for Casey's master's degree in Education from the University of California, Santa Barbara. His academic program at UCSB, Confluent Education founded by Gestalt psychologist George I. Brown, encouraged teachers to replace student lectures with interactive educational experiences. Casey had earlier earned his bachelor of science degree in Psychology from Fordham University in the Bronx. THE RUNAWAY GAME combines principles from both disciplines with real-life experiences from nearly six years working with Hollywood street kids. Casey's first book, CHILDREN OF EVE, was published in 1991 by Covenant House. Casey is also a graduate of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in New York City. He served in the United States Navy as a Pentagon-award-winning TV reporter and radio host at American Forces Network, Sasebo, Japan. He was the editor of the Army newspaper at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico, where he earned a first-place Keith L. Ware Award for news photography from the U.S. Army Chief of Public Affairs. Kevin Casey recently returned from Baghdad where he shot and edited television news stories that appeared on American Forces Network and the Pentagon Channel. His stories on the effort to rebuild Iraq can be viewed at: www.grd.usace.army.mil/video/videocenter.asp and www.youtube.com/USACEGRD. You can e-mail him at kevin_m_casey@hotmail.com.