Noted for her publications and lectures on human sexuality, Pepper Schwartz is a frequent guest and host on local and network television shows in the Seattle, Washington, area. She was born in Chicago on May 11, 1945, to Julius J. and Gertrude Puris Schwartz. She attended undergraduate school at Washington University in St. Louis, where she was Woodrow Wilson Fellow. Schwartz earned a B.A. in 1968 and an M.A. in 1970. She married John A. Strait in 1970, was divorced, and married Arthur M. Skolnik in 1982. They have two children, Cooper and Ryder, and live on a horse and llama ranch in Snoqualmie, Washington.

Schwartz continued her studies at Yale University, earning a Ph.D. in sociology, 1974. She began her teaching career in 1972 as an associate sociology professor, University of Washington, Seattle, becoming professor of psychiatry and behavioral science in 1988. UW's Department of Sociology was established in the 1920s. Today, Schwartz...