The 2008 Physics Education Research Conference brought together researchers studying a wide variety of topics in physics education. The conference theme was “Physics Education Research with Diverse Student Populations”. Researchers specializing in diversity issues were invited to help establish a dialog and spur discussion about how the results from this work can inform the physics education research community. The organizers encouraged physics education researchers who are using research-based instructional materials with non-traditional students at either the pre-college level or the college level to share their experiences as instructors and researchers in these classes.