Sent to the United States in 1980 by his mentor, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, to avoid imprisonment for his anti-apartheid activity, Robert V. Taylor is an openly gay, white South African Episcopal priest, and has spent a lifetime helping others leave a footprint of compassion and activism in the world. His book: A New Way to Be Human: 7 Spiritual Pathways to Becoming Fully Alive offers pathways to integrating our personal spirituality with a legacy of compassionate purpose in the world.

Evan McKittrick is Program Director at Ashoka Seattle, where he works with partner schools and organizations and leads workshops to support youth in creating lasting change in their communities. Evan recently completed two years with Teach For America in the Bay Area. Through Ashoka’s Youth Venture, young people in the Seattle area have launched social ventures to: supply public water taps to a rural village in Ethiopia; support Seattle food banks; create youth-run bicycle repair and computer repair shops; fund education and improve schools overseas; provide support for the local homeless population...and much more.

Mark Lilly founded Street Yoga in 2002, an organization that helps homeless and traumatized youth to heal so that they are able to lead inspired, safe, and joyful lives. He has extensive expertise as a mindfulness and communication trainer who has taught workshops all over North America. Mark is initiating Mindful Communication workshops for physicians, nurses, and social workers. He is also co-creator of the Mindful Parents & Caregiver program. In addition to ongoing work with Street Yoga, he has developed the practice of Body-Mind Rehab Therapy, which he currently offers to pediatric inpatients recovering from significant illness or injury.

Andrea drives the pursuit of CFED's mission to build assets and expand economic opportunity for low-income people and disadvantaged communities. CFED designs and operates major national initiatives that aim to expand matched savings for children and youth, bring self-employed entrepreneurs into the financial mainstream and turn manufactured housing into an appreciating asset. She was formerly the Chair of the Board of the Ms. Foundation for Women, and currently serves as the Board President for ROC USA, LLC (Resident Owned Communities USA).  

Thomas Bates oversees Rock the Vote’s civic engagement programs—elections, advocacy and high school civics—for young people year-round. Thomas began his political life in 1992 when he volunteered after high school basketball practice at the Clinton-Gore National Campaign Headquarters in Arkansas. Thomas worked on North Carolina Congressman David Price’s successful 1996 congressional campaign and then served as his Communications Director and Deputy Campaign Manager. Thomas was the co-founder and executive director of Democrats Work, and has been a member of the Democratic National Committee Youth Council, the Young Voter PAC, and a fellow at the Service Politics Institute. 

Jessyn S. Farrell has over two decades of community organizing and activism experience, and is one of the region's foremost experts in building public consensus on major infrastructure projects. She is currently leading an award-winning year-long public involvement effort for Pierce Transit's system redesign. Jessyn was the Executive Director of Transportation Choices Coalition (TCC) from 2005 to 2009 where she played a key role in developing community consensus for the I-90 light rail extension, the Alaskan Way Viaduct Replacement and Sound Transit's successful 2008 ballot package. Guided by her years of successful work, Jessyn has developed a workshop on four key elements that can be practiced by any citizen, to create change on any issue: Learn. Listen. Create. Speak.

John Gastil is a Professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Washington, where he studies political deliberation and group decision making. Besides co-authoring The Jury and Democracy, Gastil is the author of two recent Sage volumes, as well as By Popular Demand: Revitalizing Representative Democracy through Deliberative Elections and Democracy in Small Groups. He is also co-editor of The Deliberative Democracy Handbook and the author of articles that have appeared in Communication Theory, Harvard Law Review, Human Communication Research, Political Communication, Small Group Research, among other journals.

Julie is a professional photographer working predominantly in the social practice, photojournalism, and editorial photography fields. For the last fourteen years she has worked intensively to introduce photography and writing to underserved youth and communities. In 2007, she created the Hello Neighbor Project, a project that used interviews and photographs to introduce neighbors to one another by displaying large-scale portraits with text in six Oregon cities, creating the state’s largest collaborative public art project. Julie was named a finalist in the President’s Council on Arts and Humanity Coming Up Taller Awards, and Top 40 in the Americans for the Arts Project of Year juried competition. She will be co-presenting with artist Majik.

Eric Liu, the founder of Guiding Lights Weekend, is an author, educator, and civic entrepreneur. Eric teaches at the University of Washington, hosts an acclaimed television interview program, Seattle Voices, and speaks regularly a venues and events nationwide. Eric served as a White House speechwriter for President Bill Clinton and later as the President's deputy domestic policy adviser, and was an executive at the digital media company RealNetworks. His books include The Accidental Asian: Notes of a Native Speaker, Imagination First, The True Patriot and Guiding Lights: How To Mentor and Find Life's Purpose.

John Cary is the President & CEO of Next American City, a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting socially and environmentally sustainable economic growth in America’s cities and examining how and why our built environment, economy, society, and culture are changing. John previously served as the long-time executive director of San Francisco nonprofit Public Architecture and is the editor of The Power of Pro Bono: 40 Stories about Design for the Public Good by Architects and Their Clients.

Courtney E. Martin is an editor at Feministing.com and a Senior Correspondent for The American Prospect. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Newsweek, and Mother Jones, among other publications, and she has appeared on Good Morning America, the TODAY Show, CNN, MSNBC, and the O’Reilly Factor. Courtney was awarded the Elie Wiesel Prize in Ethics, and was recently a speaker at the inaugural TEDWomen conference.

Judy Pigott is noted for her experiences in teaching, facilitating and mediating, parenting, volunteering and advocating for communities. Ms. Pigott is the co-author of: Personal Safety Nets®: Getting Ready for Life’s Changes and Challenges, and the workbook Personal Safety Nets®: Get Ready/Get Started.  Ben Kaufman is an educator, marketer and administrator. Ben spent years teaching students history and English, served as Superintendent of Schools in the Queets-Clearwater School District, has leant his business skills to Red Robin International, KXRX Radio, and several non-profit organizations, and now directs Personal Safety Nets®.

John Vadino, President and CEO of The Production Network (TPN), is a leader and respected visionary within the Experience Marketing industry. From his career beginnings as a Production Director for the Three Tenors in New York, to the more recent, internationally renowned, Seeds of Compassion, John’s creative solutions have spanned borders and a multitude of industries. In recent years John launched One to the World™ a progressive webcasting tool that delivers an interactive and motivating “virtual live event”. Learn more about John www.tpnevents.com, www.tpnevents.com/blog and www.onetotheworld.com

Majik works tirelessly to build citizenship in her Portland, OR community. She is a founding advocate with Caldera, (the Portland arts non-profit that partners with the Hello Neighbor Project) a thirteen year Parent Coordinator at Self Enhancement, Inc., a counselor at Planned Parenthood, and a Foster Parent to teenage girls for the last eight years.

Food and trees are Jerilyn Brusseau’s instruments for peace.  Brusseau – the original creator of Cinnabon – founded PeaceTable in 1986 to create shared culinary experiences between people of the United States and the former Soviet Republics as a tool for building cultural understanding. Her brother, a young helicopter pilot, was killed in the Vietnam War in 1969. The loss of her brother inspired Jerilyn to create PeaceTrees Vietnam, an organization that has worked since 1995 to undo the consequences of war by sponsoring clearance of landmines and unexploded ordnance in Quang Tri Province, the most wartorn province in Vietnam, and planting trees in their place.

Maya Enista is CEO of Mobilize.org, improving democracy by investing in Millennial-driven solutions. Maya began her career at age seventeen as the East Coast Coordinator for Rock The Vote, a position in which she registered over 30,000 young voters and earned the first ever Rock The Vote "Rockin' The Streets" award.  For the Hip Hop Civic Engagement Project, she directed a thirteen state campaign that registered over 300,000 new voters in the "hip hop generation." Maya has been awarded a YouthActionNet Fellowship, the Independent Sector NGEN American Express Fellowship and Utne Reader’s 50 Visionaries Changing Your World Award.

As executive director of the nonprofit organization Classroom Law Project, Marilyn Cover is responsible for developing partnerships with business, legal communities, and civic organizations to support the teaching of civics in Oregon schools. Cover oversees programs such as the mock trial competition, We the People program, and youth conferences. Cover has been a professor at Lewis and Clark Law School since 1979 where she currently teaches Street Law and Law and Education Seminars. Cover has received the ABA’s Isidore Starr Award for Excellence in Law-Related Education (1998) and holds a J.D. from Cleveland Marshall College of Law.   

Denny Heck retired as president and co-founder of TVW, the state version of CSPAN, in 2003. For five years, Denny produced and hosted an award-winning weekly public affairs discussion program, Inside Olympia. Denny is co-founder and a Board member of Intrepid Learning Solutions, a Seattle-based training company. Denny graduated from Evergreen State in 1973. He currently serves on its Board of Trustees. In 1976, at age 24, he was elected to the first of five terms to the State House of Representatives where he rose to the position of Majority Leader. He later served as Chief of Staff to Governor Booth Gardner. 

Hanson Hosein is the Director of the Master of Communication in Digital Media at the University of Washington in Seattle, and the host of Media Space on UWTV. He specializes in storytelling, social media strategies and new models of communication. As President of HRH Media, he employed this expertise to direct the award-winning documentary films "Rising from Ruins" and "Independent America: The Two-Lane Search for Mom & Pop," as well as to provide high-level consulting services on communication strategy.  Because of this work, Seattle Magazine named him "Most Influential" in fall 2010.

William Marler has been a major force in food safety policy in the US and abroad. He and his partners at Marler Clark have represented thousands in claims against food companies whose contaminated products have caused serious injury and death. Marler began litigating foodborne illness cases in 1993 during the landmark Jack in the Box E. coli outbreak. Since then, Marler has represented victims of every large foodborne illness outbreak in the United States. Accolades include: Public Justice Award from the Washington State Trial Lawyers Association, Outstanding Lawyer Award from his bar association, and being in the Bar Register of Preeminent Attorneys every year since 2002.

Steve started at KUOW as a graduate work–study student in 1986. Over the years, as a producer and host, Steve has had the opportunity to talk with senators, poets, presidents, a princess and a duke, but no one has taught him as much about human nature as have the KUOW listeners.  Steve’s previous Guiding Lights Weekend session on ‘The Art of the Interview’ was the closest we’ve come to a blockbuster workshop...come to learn more from one of Seattle’s resident masters!

Previous to directing the Nation Conference on Citizenship, David Smith founded Mobilize.org, and co-founded the Youth Policy Action Center and the Youth Entitlement Summit. David serves on the Board of Directors of The Corps Network, Prepare the Future, and Americans for Generational Equity, and also serves on the Advisory Board of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, The Concord Coalition, Splashlife, and the Davenport Institute at Pepperdine University. He is also a member of the Steering Committee of the Campaign for the Civic Mission of Schools, the Reimagining Service Council, and the Bipartisan Policy Center’s Democracy Project.

Maya Wiley is the founder and Director of the Center for Social Inclusion, a research and policy organization focused on addressing issues of racial inequity and its impact on all racial groups. She is a leading proponent of the “structural racism analysis”, which argues that policies, even race neutral ones, drive persistent poverty and exclude people of color from accessing jobs, education and resources. Maya has served as a global advocate for how this “unintentional” form of racism has an impact on all racial groups and on America.

Dan Dixon coordinates public policy and legislative activity for Swedish, works closely with the Washington State Hospital Association and other health-care systems, and oversees corporate communications, marketing, business development, primary care and community outreach. He was the state of Alaska's first director of international trade and investment and practiced law for many years with the firm of Foster Pepper and Shefelman. Dan currently serves as Trustee for Central Washington University, Seattle Public Library, and is also on the Board of the Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce.

Ellen Haas and Lexie Bakewell are teachers and adventurers with a passion to connect people with wild nature.  We are allied with Wilderness Awareness School, The Children and Nature Network, The Animus Valley Institute, and a burgeoning community of organizations whose intent is to revive our soulful kinship with nature.  Ellen is co-author of the widely praised, Coyote’s Guide to Connecting with Nature, a veteran highschool teacher, environmental activist, elder with Wilderness Awareness School, and inspiring presenter. Lexie is a veteran home-school teacher, marine biologist, artist, musician, and a contagious naturalist. She is president of NW Driftwood Artists and active with Pony Club and Polocross Associations.

Thomas Goldstein is working to usher in a new period of progressive politics and democratic renewal in Washington State. Thomas founded the groundbreaking organization the Service Board. Named for the compelling combination of volunteer service and mountain snowboarding, tSB molds positive and resilient youth. Thomas was tapped to run the Bus in the spring of 2007. The Washington Bus engages tomorrow's leaders on their own terms and empowers them through education, civic and cultural engagement and hands-on democracy. A Judson Rae Butler Scholar and Boston University graduate, Thomas is also an avid cyclist and snowboarder. 

The Honorable Mary I. Yu was appointed to the King County Superior Court by Governor Locke in April 2000. Prior to her appointment, she served as Deputy Chief of Staff to King County Prosecutor Norm Maleng and Director of the Peace and Social Justice Office for the Archdiocese of Chicago. Judge Yu is Distinguished Jurist in Residence at Seattle University School of Law, and has received awards from the Washington State Bar Association, the Asian Bar Association, Washington Women Lawyers, the Latina/o Bar Association of Washington, the American Board of Trial Advocates, Washington Chapter (ABOTA), and Seattle University School of Law.

Sol Villarreal is the Community Engagement Coordinator for the Mayor’s Office. He manages the Seattle Youth Commission (seattle.gov/syc), helps to run the Engage Seattle initiative (engage.seattle.gov), and generally tries to make it easier for Seattleites of all ages and backgrounds to partner with their local government in a meaningful way. Prior to joining the City he was the volunteer coordinator for the McGinn for Mayor campaign in 2009, and he also worked as a field organizer on the Obama campaign in 2008. He’s a big believer in the power of individuals coming together to create change in their own communities.

As Deputy Mayor of Community, Darryl Smith has worked to create a vibrant and diverse Seattle. Darryl leads the city’s civic engagement strategy aimed at neighborhoods, small-business districts, and civic organizations. He supports community engagement by working with the Office of Economic Development, Department of Neighborhoods, Office of Housing and the Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs. Priority projects include neighborhood outreach, homelessness, and creating opportunities for green jobs. Darryl’s civic roles have included Presidency of the Rainier Chamber of Commerce, the Seattle Planning Commission, board memberships of Powerful Schools, Allied Arts, Rainier Valley Community Development Fund and Great City.

Geoffrey Garza has taught creative habits of mind and personal accountability to children in preschool through high school in environments as diverse as community centers, low income housing facilities, Tukwila and Seattle school districts, mental health facilities and transitional foster care homes. Geoffrey has over the years developed a style of engaging young people that is fun, effective and inspiring by employing his training as a professional actor and visual artist. Geoffrey currently works with teenage runaways and street youth in Spruce Street Secure Crisis Residential Center as an Arts Corps Teaching Artist.

Timothy Harris is founding Director of Seattle’s Real Change homeless newspaper. Tim founded his first alternative newspaper, critical times, in his student days at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and founded the Spare Change homeless newspaper in Boston in 1992 while working as Executive Director of Boston Jobs with Peace. He has led numerous organizing campaigns on issues of homelessness, poverty, housing affordability, and civil rights, and teaches an Honors course on homelessness and poverty at UW. Tim is a co-founder of the North American Street Newspaper Association and a recipient of the Society of Professional Journalists prestigious Susan Hutchinson Bosch award.

Keren Taylor is the Executive Director and founder of WriteGirl (writegirl.org), now in its 10th year. WriteGirl is a creative writing and mentoring organization that pairs high school girls with professional women writers for workshops, mentoring, performances, and publications. Keren’s work was awarded the 2010-11 California Nonprofit of the Year Medal for Service, the 2010 Humanitas Philanthropy Prize, and a total of 27 book awards. A poet, songwriter and visual artist, Keren has produced hundreds of creative writing and professional development workshops and presentations for youth and adults, focusing primarily on innovative instructional design, creative collaboration, and long-term organizational sustainability.

Co-owner of the restaurant Hidmo Eritrean Cuisine in Seattle’s Central District neighborhood. “Hidmo” means “home” and, for many, a sense of home is exactly what Rahwa is cultivating through her restaurant. Rahwa’s mission for the restaurant is not only to foster community, but also to increase the visibility and availability of art, music, media culture and cuisine in the Central District through socially responsible actions. Rahwa loves her neighborhood and is passionate about addressing different social issues affecting it, creating pride, cultivating a safe space and open dialogue for all, and fostering local creativity and talent. Rahwa is the winner of Seattle University's Albers School of Business 2010 Red Winged Leadership Award.

Secretary Duncan will be joining us for a keynote and  Q&A by live video conference. Arne Duncan was named U.S. secretary of education by President Barack Obama and confirmed by the U.S. Senate on January 20, 2009. Before his appointment, he served as the Chicago Public Schools CEO (June 2001 - December 2008), becoming the longest-serving big-city education superintendent in the country. He’s served on numerous boards including those of the Ariel Education Initiative, Chicago Cares, the Children's Center, Jobs for America's Graduates, Junior Achievement, Scholarship Chicago and the South Side YMCA. Arne graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University in 1987. He and his wife Karen Duncan have two children.

Nassim Assefi is a women’s health specialist, novelist and “thrillionaire” working across disciplines to improve the lives of women worldwide. Author of Aria and forthcoming Say I Am You, her past incarnations include: medical academic in Seattle, humanitarian aid worker (and underground salsa dance teacher) in Kabul, aspiring musician in Havana and writer in Turkey. She has traveled 50+ countries, speaks and sings in five languages and often takes sabbaticals in foreign countries. She is a TED Fellow and was curator for 2010’s TEDxRainier in Seattle.

Van Jones is a globally recognized, award-winning pioneer in human rights and the clean-energy economy. Van is a co-founder of three successful non-profit organizations: the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, Color of Change and Green For All. He is the best-selling author of the definitive book on green jobs: The Green-Collar Economy. He served as the green jobs advisor in the Obama White House in 2009.

Van is currently a senior fellow at the Center For American Progress. Additionally, he is a senior policy advisor at Green For All.

Van also holds a joint appointment at Princeton University, as a distinguished visiting fellow in both the Center for African American Studies and in the Program in Science, Technology and Environmental Policy at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. VanJones.net

William Ernest "Bill" McKibben is an American environmentalist and author who has written extensively on the impact of global warming. He is the Schumann Distinguished Scholar at Middlebury College. In 2010 the Boston Globe called him "the nation's leading environmentalist" and Time magazine described him as "the world's best green journalist." In 2009 he led the organization of 350.org, which coordinated what Foreign Policy magazine called "the largest ever global coordinated rally of any kind," with 5,200 simultaneous demonstrations in 181 countries. The magazine named him to its inaugural list of the 100 most important global thinkers, and MSN named him one of the dozen most influential men of 2009. In 2010, McKibben and 350.org conceived the 10/10/10 Global Work Party, which convened more than 7,000 events in 188 countries. In December 2010, 350.org coordinated a planet-scale art project, with many of the 20 works visible from satellites. billmckibben.com

Deepak Bhargava, panelist and workshop presenter, is Executive Director of the Center for Community Change, a national non-profit organization whose mission is to develop the power and capacity of low-income people, especially low-income people of color, to change the policies and institutions that affect their lives.  Mr. Bhargava has emerged as a leading progressive thinker and strategist, and has written and spoken widely about issues such as poverty, immigration, and community organizing. Born in Bangalore, India, Mr. Bhargava immigrated to the United States when he was a child. He grew up in New York City and graduated summa cum laude from Harvard College.

At this year's Guiding Lights Weekend we feature a dramatic art peice by Seattle artist Luke Haynes as the backdrop for our main stage. Luke is trained as an architect, and works as a fiber artist showing across the country.  His work deals with stories implicit in materials and the histories of functional art manufacturing processes. His recent works have dealt with quilts as a medium for expressing the textile histories of a culture. 

As president of NAMIC (National Association for Multi-ethnicity in Communications), Kathy has oversight of the premier organization focusing on multi-ethnic diversity in the communications industry and its 16 chapters nationwide. She executed the launches of NAMIC’s prestigious Executive Leadership Development Program in partnership with UCLA’s Anderson School of Business. Kathy has been cited as one of cable’s most influential executives and was named Television Week magazine’s 2008 Cable Executive of the Year.  Kathy received her B.S. in Broadcast Journalism, cum laude, from Boston University and her MBA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Scott Macklin serves as the Associate Director of the Master of Communication in Digital Media program at the University of Washington. Scott seeks to create a rich infrastructure that supports innovation and collaboration through the exploration, development, assessment, and dissemination of next-generation technologies and strategies.  Scott serves on the advisory board of the Head Start Center for Inclusion and on board of the South African NGO Saving our Schools and Community (SOSAC).   His co-authored article, The Catalyst Project: Supporting Faculty Uses of the Web...with the Web, won the EDUCAUSE contribution of the year award.

Ted serves as Executive Director of the Campaign for the Civic Mission of Schools (CMS) a coalition of over 70 national organizations committed to improving the quality and quantity of civic learning in our nation’s schools. Ted also directed the Campaign to Promote Civic Education, a fifty state effort to revitalize and strengthen civic education at the state and district levels. Ted also served as Co – Coordinator of the Congressional Conferences on Civic Education 2003-2006.

For over a decade Shannon has been working to create spaces and programs focusing on youth and the arts. In 1999 Shannon became the Program Coordinator of the Old Fire House Teen Center, Redmond Washington’s progressive Parks program with a focus on youth development, music and the arts.  Since 2005 she’s been the Managing Director of Seattle’s wildly popular Vera Project, an all-ages, youth-focused, volunteer-fueled music and arts non-profit. Through her leadership experiences Shannon has learned a bevy of best practices in youth development, community engagement and organizational management. She’s convinced that all-ages arts spaces help create great youth and great futures.

Both sensual chef and food artist, Tiberio brings a heightened sense of eroticism to the gourmet experience. Born in southern Italy, Tiberio is a James Beard Award winner and a provocateur. He is the owner of La Figa Catering and became involved in the worlds of performance art and theater, where he began experimenting with decorating human bodies with food.  Simone is currently collaborating with Seattle photographer Matt Freedman on La Figa: Visions of Food and Form, a book and photo series of posed nudes adorned with painstakingly arranged ingredients.

Abby Taylor (Executive Director) and Jeff Curley (Deputy Director) of iCivics Inc., an online education program spearheaded by Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. This team has developed iCivics.org online game which has since received more than one million visits from students across the country. Through games and interactive media, iCivics aims to empower the first generation of ‘digital natives’ to become knowledgeable civic participants and leaders.

Milenko Matanovic is a community builder and a visual artist with a professional career and international reputation spanning 40 years. As founding director of Pomegranate Center, he has created an arena in which art, public participation and community betterment converge. Facilitating the conception and construction of open-air gathering places, he involves community members in all phases of these projects, from generation of initial concept, through construction and stewardship. His work at Pomegranate Center has brought people and communities together to create and identify cultural, environmental and social priorities in community development. Milenko is an honorary professor of the Vladivostok Polytechnic University. In 2009, he was honored with the Bill Grace Leadership Legacy Award from the Center for Ethical Leadership.

From the ashes of Los Angeles’ 1992 rebellion/riots arose a collective of East Side musicians committed to respectfully continuing the legacy of over 70 years of Chicano Rock.Their unique combination of community activism and creative compositions has allowed them to travel the world using music as a tool for creating a global network of musicians committed to building community. Quetzal has created a path that has earned them the title of “one of Los Angeles’ most important bands”(LA Times).

Piece's contribution to Seattle's richly diverse musical scene is beyond prominent. After earning a permanent placement in the archives of Seattle's Experience Music Project Museum, for founding Seattle's longest running jam session "Jumbablaya", she began yet another collective of  musicians known as "Queens Ransom". Throughout 2010, Piece will be touring "Street Smartz: The Story of a True School B-girl" with Queens Ransom - the incredible 9 piece ensemble of talented young urban musicians from Seattle. Street Smartz received a Hollywood Music Award for best Hip Hop Artist, and is the soundtrack to Piece's one woman play which represents  Hip Hop through theater, music, and spoken word.

Originally known for his column, “Savage Love”, Dan has gained recognition thanks to his “It Gets Better” video project on YouTube (and a new book) which asks people to upload positive videos about their experiences reaching adulthood in the LGBT community. Savage is the author of several books including, The Kid: What Happened After My Boyfriend and I Decided to Go Get Pregnant which tells how Savage and his boyfriend adopted their son from his willing mother. Savage is the editor of The Stranger, is active in the local theater scene.

Timm Lovitt is the CEO and Founder of the Veterans Empowerment Team (V.E.T.), a group that looks to empower the Veterans of today to become the Leaders of tomorrow through personal connection, education, and entrepreneurship.Timm founded the group after serving five years in the U.S. Army, deploying to the front lines in Afghanistan and Iraq, and personally experiencing the effects of the 'invisible wounds of war.'A survivor of both post-traumatic stress and traumatic brain injury, Timm works closely with Vet Corps, a WA state program that helps Veterans make the transition from military service to the college environment.

Bill Gates Senior is a prominent lawyer, civil activist, philanthropist, husband, father, and grandfather, not necessarily in that order. He currently serves as Co-Chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Bill has served as trustee, board member, officer and volunteer for more than two dozen Northwest organizations, including the Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce, King County United Way and the University of Washington’s Board of Regents.

Bill now resides in Seattle, Washington where he continues his lifelong commitment to many civic programs, cultural organizations, and business initiatives.

A K Mimi Allin has twice crossed the Pacific Ocean by boat, has worked as climbing ranger on Mt. Rainier and has served in the Peace Corps. In 2006, Mimi started practicing as a guerilla poet and performance artist. Her work often includes the participation of onlookers. In one well-known work, Nostalgia: The Poetess at Green Lake (2006-2007), she offered intimate poetry exchanges to the public for a year of Sundays. In January 2010, she became the nation’s first corporate poet, completing a month-long residency at NBBJ Design and Architecture Firm. At the end of the same year, she went to live at a homeless encampment (Tent City 3) as their poet-in-residence

Lance directs the Center for Communication & Civic Engagement at the University of Washington where he teaches in the departments of political science and communication. His work involves understanding how communication processes enhance or inhibit the quality of democratic life in areas ranging from citizen participation to ways in which governments and NGOs can better promote public engagement with policies and causes.  His current focus is on how organizations can use social technologies to attract publics and create high capacity organizational networks. His work has been recognized with career achievement awards from the American Political Science Association and the National communication Association.

Known as the “Queen for the Forest Canopy”, Dr. Nalini Nadkarni is a professor at The Evergreen State College in Washington. Using mountain-climbing techniques to ascend tall trees, she studies the ecology of plants and animals that live in the forest canopy – the treetops of tropical and temperate rainforests around the world. She founded the International Canopy Network to foster communication among canopy researchers, educators, and conservationists, and creatively connects the importance of trees to public audiences such as urban youth, arts audiences, faith-based communities, and incarcerated men and women.

Alberto earned a Masters degree in Public Administration from the Evans School of Public Affairs at the University of Washington. He has over 8 years of serving culturally and economically diverse youth, and is an advocate for integrating positive youth development and youth-driven models into community development. Alberto is a graduate of the leadership institute of the National Association of Latino/a Arts and Culture, and strives to amplify Latin arts. He proudly serves in leadership roles in local arts and youth development initiatives, and mentors with youth service and arts organizations.

Sabine Lang is an Assistant Professor in the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies at the University of Washington. She received her PhD in Political Science from the Free University in Berlin/Germany and has worked in various positions for the Berlin government and for NGOs. The focus of her research is the political public sphere and political advocacy of the nongovernmental sector in Europe and the US. She is completing a book on the challenges of NGO activism in the public sphere.

Vivek Varma is executive vice president for Global Public Affairs, reporting directly to Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz.
Prior to Starbucks, Vivek spent 12 years with Microsoft in various policy and communications roles.    

Vivek came to Seattle from Capitol Hill where he was the Chief of Staff to the late Mike Synar (D-OK) and Policy Director for the House Democratic Caucus. Vivek hails from Chickasha, Oklahoma and holds a bachelor's degree in political science from Swarthmore College and a law degree from the American University Washington College of Law. He resides in Mercer Island, Washington with his wife Laura.

Warren didn't speak until he was 6 years old; he's been going strong ever since, making the most out of every conversation, elevating small talk to high art, discourse to an ideal. He talks. He teaches. He interviews.  He has conducted over 1,500 interviews ¯ in print, on camera, on stage ¯ with a wide range of filmmakers, authors, personalities and smarties. Warren is the host of The High Bar, the award-winning weekly television series devoted to “raising the bar” through light-hearted conversation with people who care about culture that matters as well as the founder of The Warren Report.

David Meinert owns Onto Entertainment, an artist management company and record label; is partners in Fuzed Travel, a boutique entertainment travel agency; owner and producer of the Capitol Hill Block Party, a three-day 30,000 person music festival; owns Seattle's legendary dive diner The 5 Point Cafe and is partners in Big Mario's New York Style Pizza. He was a founding board member of the Vera Project, Is a member of the Seattle Music Commission, and former National Trustee of the Recording Academy.

Margaret has worked as a broadcast journalist for more than 25 years.  Most notably as a foreign correspondent for NBC News, Today Show anchor, Dateline NBC reporter and reporter/news anchor at KING-TV in Seattle.

During the Kurdish refugee crisis in southern Turkey, she began reporting on global humanitarian crises. What she learned and experienced changed her outlook, career and life. As a result, she and her husband moved to Seattle in 1993 to focus on family and find time to devote to international causes in partnership with relief agency Mercy Corps. In 2003, Margaret formed a communications consulting practice for international nonprofit organizations including World Vision, Mercy Corps, PATH and Global Partnerships.

Shandra Benito is excited and honored to be a part of the 2011 Guiding Light Conference. She is a freshman social work major at Seattle University, with a passion for working with people. She has volunteered and worked with many organizations in Seattle, including an internship with the Ballard Food Bank, ADWAS (Abused Deaf Women’s Advocacy Services), Catholic Community Services, Seattle School District’s Secondary Bilingual Orientation Program, Ashoka’s Youth Venture, Teens in Public Service, and Seattle Music Partners. The work Shandra is most proud of is the creation of Reach Out in 2009, an organization that runs summer camps and school year programming for the children’s program of ADWAS. She is hoping to see Reach Out expand over time to serve other organizations.  Shandra is continuously inspired and awed by the people she has met in all of the organizations she works with.

Dawn Trudeau is currently serving as Chairperson of Force 10 Hoops LLC. Trudeau spent over 20 years in the software industry including 14 years at Microsoft, where she led divisions in Database and Development tools as well as Consumer Products. For the past 10 years she has worked with emerging non-profits to build organizational capacity and sustainability.

Trudeau currently chairs the Board of the Economic Opportunity Institute and is a member of the University of Washington Women’s Center Advisory Board. She also serves on the Board of Social Venture Partners International and the Advisory Board of the Business Partnership for Early Learning.

John Vassall, M.D., is a board-certified internist and chief medical officer for Swedish.

Liaison between Swedish medical staff and Swedish Administration and oversees the management of medical education, medical staff services, clinical effectiveness, regulatory compliance and other areas associated with medical affairs.

Prior to his most recent position as vice president of medical affairs, Dr. Vassall was chief of staff from 2005 to 2007 and former division chief of General Internal Medicine at Minor & James Medical. He served as chief of staff-elect from 2003 to 2005 and he was medical staff president for Swedish Medical Center/Cherry Hill Campus.

An HBO Def Poet with a Master’s in Education, a Mexican and a Muslim, a Khalil Gibran meets Pablo Neruda in a lyrical break dance cypher, Mark Gonzales lives in the center of intersections. With appearances in Palestinian refugee camps in Jordan, universities in Beirut, foster homes in Portugal, and cities across the Americas, he transcends citizenship identity to break borders and build beauty across continents through culture. He is respected internationally for his creative approaches to suicide prevention, human rights and human development via performance, photojournalism, and narrative therapy.

Speaking truth for the voiceless and dreaming for the world. Single mama doing what I have to, I've got a king to raise. Artist, organizer, survivor, and lover. This is JusMoni.

Previous to directing the Nation Conference on Citizenship, David Smith founded Mobilize.org, and co-founded the Youth Policy Action Center and the Youth Entitlement Summit. David serves on the Board of Directors of The Corps Network, Prepare the Future, and Americans for Generational Equity, and also serves on the Advisory Board of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, The Concord Coalition, Splashlife, and the Davenport Institute at Pepperdine University. He is also a member of the Steering Committee of the Campaign for the Civic Mission of Schools, the Reimagining Service Council, and the Bipartisan Policy Center’s Democracy Project.