Akhil Reed Amar is the Sterling Professor of Law and Political Science at Yale where he teaches constitutional law.  A Legal Affairs poll placed Amar among the top 20 contemporary US legal thinkers.  He is the award-winning author of numerous publications and books, including The Constitution and Criminal Procedure: First Principles, The Bill of Rights: Creation and Reconstruction, and America's Constitution: A Biography.  The Supreme Court has cited his work in over 20 cases, including the landmark 1998 decision in Clinton v. City of New York, which ruled the presidential line-item veto unconstitutional.  http://www.law.yale.edu/faculty/AAmar.htm

Daemond Arrindell  is a workshop facilitator, community organizer, poet and believes in the power of the spoken word. Curator of the longest running weekly show in Seattle - the Seattle Poetry Slam and 8-time coach of the renowned Seattle National Slam Team. He’s performed in venues throughout Washington State and across the country including the Boston Poetry Slam, Nuyorican Poets Cafe, NYC’s Louder Arts Project, and has been twice commissioned by both Seattle and Bellevue Arts Museums. He facilitates poetry and theater residencies at Monroe men’s prison and is a Writer-In-Residence through Seattle Arts & Lectures' Writers in the Schools Program.

Rahul Bhargava creates civic technologies, playful websites, explanatory data visualizations, award-winning educational museum exhibits, and interactive robots. He has led workshops on a number of topics across three continents, leading to a special interest in finding ways to build technologies and experiences that meet the disparate needs of varying communities and cultures. Rahul is currently working on a variety of technologies to support community building and engagement as a Civic Technology Specialist at the MIT Center for Civic Media.  http://civic.mit.edu/team/rahul-bhargava

An internationally renowned scholar in cognition and technology, Dr. John D. Bransford holds the Shauna C. Larson Endowed Chair in Learning Sciences at the University of Washington College of Education in Seattle, Washington and is also Founding Director of The Learning in Informal and Formal Environments (LIFE) Center, an National Science Foundation (NSF) Science of Learning Center. Among many other accomplishments, Dr. Bransford co-edited Preparing Teachers for a Changing World: What Teachers Should Learn and Be Able to Do (2005).  His work seeks to understand and advance human learning and guide the design of effective new technologies and learning environments.   http://faculty.washington.edu/bransj/

Andrea Brenneke is a graduate of Harvard Law School with nearly twenty years of experience in civil rights and employment litigation and mediation at MacDonald Hoague & Bayless in Seattle. She learned the Restorative Circles practice from its founder and in the immediate aftermath of a Seattle police officer's fatal shooting of John T. Williams, a First Nations wood carver, she facilitated a Restorative Circle between police, the family and community. As part of Compassionate Seattle’s ten year campaign, she is part of a team cultivating a restorative justice system in Seattle to empower us to address the most painful and important conflicts of our day.  http://my.compassionateactionnetwork.com/profile/RestorativeCirclesSeattle

Kristen is Chief Program Officer at NCoC, where she develops and implements all programs including the Annual Conference, NCoC.net, and the Civic Health Index portfolio.  Kristen was previously at the Case Foundation where she was involved in major programs including the Make It Your Own Awards grant program, focused on using citizen–centered dialogue to create community change; America's Giving Challenge, an initiative which used Web 2.0 and social media tools as platforms for online donations to non-profits; and Social Citizens, which took an in–depth look at how a new generation of leaders use digital tools to create social change.

John Collins is the director and founder Elevator Repair Service Theater (ERS), one of New York’s most highly-acclaimed experimental theater companies.  The group's theater pieces are built around a broad range of subject matter and literary forms. They combine elements of slapstick comedy, hi-tech and lo-tech design, both literary and found text, and the group's own highly developed style of choreography.  Among many other honors, John is the recipient of a 2010 Guggenheim Fellowship in Drama and Performance Art, and in 2011 received the Lucile Lortel Award for Outstanding Director and the Elliot Norton Award for Outstanding Director.  http://elevator.org/

Allison Cook designs the media, outreach and advocacy strategies for the Story of Stuff Project’s widely acclaimed online movies, most recently for The Story of Citizens United v. FEC and The Story of Broke. The Project’s longest serving staff person, Allison managed the production of several successful offline learning tools, including a curriculum for high school students and a study guide for faith communities. Prior to joining the Story of Stuff Project team, Allison worked with the Sustainability Funders workgroup and the Funders Network on Transforming the Global Economy. She also currently volunteers as a medic with the Berkeley Free Clinic.  www.storyofstuff.org

Katie Davis is a Project Manager at Harvard Project Zero, where she works with Dr. Howard Gardner and colleagues on a number of projects investigating the relationship between young people’s digital media use and their moral, ethical, and civic lives. The GoodPlay Project explores the distinct ethical issues that youth face online and the habits of mind they bring to bear when confronted with these issues. The Good Participation Project investigates the civic qualities of youth’s digital media practices and the extent to which these practices signal a meaningful shift in the way young people become civically engaged.   http://pzweb.harvard.edu/research/GoodWork.htm

My Name is Nikki Davis and I’m born and raised here in Washington! I joined the United States Air Force shortly after graduating high school and served over 8 years as a Law Enforcement Patrolman, an Air Base Ground Defense Instructor and as a member of the All AF Women’s Basketball Team. I am a veteran of OEF/OIF (Iraq War). I now work for Vet Corps as a Vet Navigator at Bellevue College assisting other veterans’ transition and work towards their educational goals, utilizing referral and resource information. Together, we create a veteran community and culture on and off campus.

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.

http://www.swedish.org/

Warren Etheredge didn't speak until he was 6 years old; he's been going strong ever since.  He hosts The High Bar, the award-winning weekly television series devoted to “raising the bar” through conversation with people who care about culture that matters.  As the founder of The Warren Report, he promotes "slow culture" through commentary, outreach, events and education. Additionally, Warren is one of the founding faculty of TheFilmSchool, served for six years as the Curator for the 1 Reel Film Festival (at Bumbershoot, Seattle) and before that, worked for the Seattle International Film Festival.  http://thewarrenreport.com/

Jessyn Farrell is an expert in building public consensus on major infrastructure projects.   As Executive Director of Transportation Choices Coalition, she led the advocacy, messaging and coalition-building strategy to break through gridlocked “roads vs. transit” debate, unleashing over $25 billion in bus, rail, bike and pedestrian investments in Washington State.  As a mediator, facilitator, and activist, she played a key role in developing community consensus for the I-90 light rail extension, the Alaskan Way Viaduct Replacement, Sound Transit's successful 2008 ballot package, and the 2005 Transportation Partnership Package.  Most recently, for Pierce Transit, Jessyn developed a community-based plan for major transit service reductions.  Jessyn has also worked for Washington Public Interest Research Group, Americorps, and the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague, Netherlands. http://www.mediationservices.net/jessyn

Marc Freedman is founder and CEO of Civic Ventures. He spearheaded creation of Experience Corps, one of America’s largest nonprofit national service programs engaging people over 55, and The Purpose Prize, which annually provides five $100,000 prizes to social innovators in the second half of life.  He is author of four books including The Big Shift: Navigating the New Stage Beyond Midlife, and The Kindness of Strangers: Adult Mentors, Urban Youth, and the New Voluntarism.  The Wall Street Journal states, “In the past decade, Mr. Freedman has emerged as a leading voice in discussions nationwide about the changing face of retirement.”   http://www.encore.org/about

Matthew Fulle is a high school junior at Seattle Academy of Arts and Sciences. Deeply passionate about history and current events as well as effective communication, Matt is an award-winning competitor on the Seattle Academy Speech and Debate team with a degree of distinction from the National Forensic League. He advocates for issues regarding youth as a commissioner on the Seattle Youth Commission. Sitting on the Commission’s Education Committee, he works with other young adults from around Seattle to lobby city and state governments for practical improvements to the education system.

At age 29, Rodrigo Garcia is the second-in-command over the Illinois Department of Veteran Affairs’, an agency with nearly 1300 employees, numerous facilities throughout the state and a critical mission to support Illinois' 1.2 million veterans.  Mr. Garcia served overseas on three separate occasions in support of Operation Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom and earned multiple decorations including the Iraq Campaign Medal, the Afghanistan Campaign Medal, and the Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal with a Gold Star in lieu of a second award.  Nowadays, via a network of 550+ chapters, Mr. Garcia serves to champion and empower today’s warrior scholars.  Moreover, Mr. Garcia also serves as the Chairman of the Board for the National Hispanic Life Sciences Society and remains a pillar of the Latino community.

Tom Gibbon is Project Manager for Swedish Medical Center External Affairs Division and the Manager of the Swedish Community Specialty Clinic. He developed the Community Needs Assessment and Community Benefits Program for Swedish. Tom is Chairman of the Board of the Washington Free Clinic Association and has recently served on the Board of Directors for the Lifelong AIDS Alliance. He has worked at Swedish for the past 11 years and is committed to working with programs that focus on Washington State’s underserved and uninsured populations.

Mary Gordon is the Founder/President of Roots of Empathy, a citizen-sector organization that harnesses the power of the parent-infant relationship to build empathy in school children. To date, Roots of Empathy has reached over 450,000 children on three continents. Recognized internationally as an award-winning social entrepreneur, educator, author, child advocate and parenting expert, Gordon has presented and consulted to gatherings organized by institutions such as the Nelson Mandela Foundation, the World Health Organization and the United Nations. Gordon received the 2011 David E. Mitchell Award of Distinction, has had three audiences with His Holiness the Dalai Lama, and was elected an Ashoka Fellow in 2002 and an Ashoka Globalizer in 2011.    http://www.rootsofempathy.org/en/who-we-are/mary.html

There are many bluegrass and old-timey bands out there, but none quite like PICKLED OKRA. This stringband from Seattle Washington breathes new life into a classic genre with fresh ideas and pure family charm. Conceived in 2006 by a husband and wife team, Todd and Paisley Gray, the band’s sound was born out of the couple's mutual love of eras gone by and their dedication to the sparse sound of mandolin, upright bass, and banjo. Paisley’s singing is full of raw emotion and when blended with Todd’s soulful vocals forms an undeniably “old school” bluegrass sound.

Susan Harbage Page has exhibited internationally including Bulgaria, France, Italy, Israel, and China. Her work can be found in the Baltimore Museum of Art, the High Museum of Art, the Houston Museum of Fine Arts, and the Israel Museum, and her fellowships include the North Carolina Arts Council, the Camargo Foundation, and the Fulbright Program. Her public art includes Crossing Over: A Floating Bridge, Brownsville, Texas and Matamoros, Mexico and Handmade a municipal project for the Charlotte Area Transit System’s Light Rail Station. She teaches studio art and women’s studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and teaches creativity through the Innovation Institute.  http://www.innovationatmccoll.org/

Nick Hanauer is a Seattle-based serial entrepreneur, venture capitalist, author and activist with a knack for identifying and building transformative business models. Hanauer directs a significant portion of his time to social and policy issues. He coauthored The True Patriot and The Gardens of Democracy with Eric Liu and cofounded the True Patriot Network, a nonpartisan group committed to furthering patriotic ideals. He also cofounded the Washington State League of Education Voters (LEV), a nonpartisan statewide political organization focused on promoting public education, where he serves as co-president.

Rick Jackson is Co-Founder and Senior Fellow at the Center for Courage & Renewal where he focuses primarily on developing programs for leaders and partnerships and projects with kindred organizations. Rick has been facilitating Courage & Renewal® retreats since 1996 with people from diverse backgrounds and professions.  http://www.couragerenewal.org/

Van Jones is the Co-Founder and President of Rebuild the Dream and is a globally recognized, award-winning pioneer in human rights and the clean-energy economy. Van is also a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress and American Progress Action Fund, focusing on “green-collar jobs” and how cities are implementing job-creating climate solutions.  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, and served as the green jobs advisor in the Obama White House in 2009.  http://vanjones.net/

Nadia Khawaja Mahmud is the Co-Founder & CEO of Jolkona.org, which brings young people into development and philanthropy by connecting donors to global and local micro-giving opportunities. Since its launch, Jolkona has raised and given away over $200,000 to partner non-profits and brought volunteers to work and visit projects in East Africa and South America.  To date, Jolkona’s youngest donor is just 8 years old.  Prior to starting Jolkona, Nadia worked in the non-profit sector in Los Angeles promoting social entrepreneurship and financial literacy to inner city youth. She is passionate about global health and nutrition and spends her spare time volunteering with organizations helping to fight obesity in America and malnutrition abroad. 

Danielle is a first generation Korean-American and college graduate from her family.  While pursuing her Bachelor’s Degree at Seattle University, she encountered first hand, the disparity between civic engagement in democracy and the youth in our communities. This inequality guided her career goal towards putting democracy back in the hands of the people. Through her work at the Washington Bus, she is able to ensure that our government policies reflect our values, informed public opinion, and the issues that define our generation. As the Fellowship coordinator, she is able to reach out to different communities to raise awareness of issues that affect them, and how to effectively engage in politics to make positive change.

Gene Koo, Executive Director of iCivics, has devoted his career to bringing innovation to educational and civic enterprises. Prior to iCivics, Gene developed new media to help nonprofit organizations connect with their grassroots constituencies. As a Fellow at Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society he brought Web-based innovation into law school classrooms and experimented with using virtual worlds for civic engagement. Gene also helped found the nation’s first online skills training program for legal aid attorneys. He holds a J.D. and a B.A. from Harvard.  http://www.icivics.org/

David Korten is an author and engaged citizen focused on changing the cultural story from one of empire to one of a caring, cooperative Earth Community. He is co-founder/board chair of the Positive Futures Network, which publishes YES! Magazine, co-chair of the New Economy Working Group, founder/president of the Living Economies Forum, and a founding board member of the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (BALLE). His books include Agenda for a New Economy: From Phantom Wealth to Real Wealth, The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community, and When Corporations Rule the World.

Author and activist Annie Leonard is the Co-Director, with Michael O'Heaney, of The Story of Stuff Project.  Annie's 20-minute movie, The Story of Stuff, takes viewers on a provocative and eye-opening tour of the often hidden costs of our consumer driven culture and has become one of the most successful environmental-themed viral films of all time. Prior to The Story of Stuff Project, Annie spent 2 decades working on international sustainability, environmental and health issues for organizations including Greenpeace International and GAIA.  She traveled to 40 countries, visiting the factories where our stuff is made and the dumps where it is dumped.  http://www.storyofstuff.org/

A visionary whose influence extends across the worlds of technology, economics and politics, Lawrence Lessig is the Roy L. Furman Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, and director of the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard University.  His books include Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace, Remix: Making Art and Commerce Thrive in the Hybrid Economy, and Republic, Lost: How Money Corrupts Congress--and a Plan to Stop It.  Lessig’s numerous awards include the Free Software Foundation's Freedom Award, Fastcase 50 Award and being named one of Scientific American's Top 50 Visionaries.  http://www.lessig.org/

Samson Lim is the Founder/Executive Director of Scholarship Junkies, a Seattle-based scholarship resource website dedicated to helping scholarship applicants compile more competitive applications. After graduating in 2010 from the University of Washington, Sam spent the 2010-2011 academic year in Berlin, Germany, as a U.S. Student Fulbright Scholar. Inspired by four years of mentoring high school students in the UW Dream Project and working on other college access projects, Sam plans to pursue graduate studies in public policy/public affairs. Sam also serves on the Advisory Group for the Washington Scholarship Coalition and the Board of Directors for Graduate Washington.

Eric Liu is an author, educator and civic entrepreneur. He’s the author of The Accidental Asian and Guiding Lights and co-author of Imagination First, The True Patriot and The Gardens of Democracy. He is the founder of the Guiding Lights Network, an organization dedicated to promoting great citizenship, and the True Patriot Network, dedicated to promoting progressive civic values. Eric served as a White House speechwriter and the deputy domestic policy adviser for President Clinton.
Eric lives in Seattle, where he teaches civics at the University of Washington and hosts the acclaimed television interview program "Seattle Voices". He serves on the boards of the Seattle Public Library, the League of Education Voters, and the Swedish Medical Center Foundation. He is a graduate of Yale College and Harvard Law School, and a proud Seattle Public Schools parent.
http://www.guidinglightsnetwork.com/

Paul Loeb has spent thirty-five years researching and writing about citizen responsibility and empowerment--asking what makes some people choose lives of social commitment, while others abstain.  Paul Loeb is the author of Soul of a Citizen: Living With Conviction in a Cynical Time, and The Impossible Will Take a Little While: A Citizen’s Guide to Hope in a Time of Fear, named the #3 political book by the History Channel and American Book Association, and winner of the Nautilus Award for best social change book.  He's in demand as a lecturer and writer and has been interviewed on CNN, NPR, C-SPAN, NBC news, CBC, the BBC, and NPR.  http://www.paulloeb.org/

Scott Macklin is 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 participatory media and community engagement.  Scott is an award winning author, filmmaker and the Executive Producer the Four Peaks TV program - a monthly series that features interviews with leading media and technology visionaries.  Scott uses social media as a powerful tool for building meaningful relationships that create opportunities to engage in acts of social justice.  http://fourpeaks.org/

Shaniqua Manning anchors for NorthWest Cable News during the week and KING 5 News on the weekends. She joined NorthWest Cable News in April 2005 as a weekend anchor and midday co-anchor. Shaniqua also anchors the weekly NorthWest Families segment on NWCN, highlighting issues of importance to families in the region.
Previously, Shaniqua was an anchor for WXII-TV in Winston-Salem, NC. During her time with WXII Shaniqua focused on issues affecting children. Her reports on unlicensed day care providers and school bus dangers prompted changes in local policy and state legislation. Shaniqua has previously worked in 24 hour cable news as a reporter for NewsChannel 8 in Washington, D.C.

Courtney E. Martin is an author, blogger, and speaker. She is Editor Emeritus at Feministing.com and a Fellow at Dowser.com. Her most recent book is Project Rebirth: Survival and the Strength of the Human Spirit from 9/11 Survivors. She is also the author of Do It Anyway: The New Generation of Activists, and Perfect Girls, Starving Daughters: How the Quest for Perfection is Harming Young Women. Courtney has appeared on the TODAY Show, Good Morning America, MSNBC, and The O’Reilly Factor, and is the recipient of the Elie Wiesel Prize in Ethics, a Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Centre residency, and is a TED speaker.  http://www.courtneyemartin.com/

Mark has owned a variety of businesses, and has served legal clients across many industries including internet advertising law.  Mark is a long-time registered “independent” voter and prior to helping launch the grassroots tea party movement, he was not politically active.   He regularly brings the Tea Party Patriots perspective to television and news media including MSNBC, ABC, NBC, Fox News, CNN, BBC, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, L.A. Times, and local outlets nationwide.   His first book "Tea Party Patriots, The Second American Revolution" will be released in 2012.  His current focus is on teaching the Founder's concept of self-governance as it relates to America’s modern-day challenges.

Cheryl Miller is the director of WhatSoProudlyWeHail.org, a new educational resource about what it means to be an American. She also manages the Program on American Citizenship at the American Enterprise Institute. Previously, she worked as head news clerk and editorial researcher at the New York Times and as deputy director of research in the White House Office of Presidential Speechwriting. She is co-author of the AEI reports “Strengthening the Civic Mission of Charter Schools” (with Robin Lake) and “Contested Curriculum: How Teachers and Citizens View Civics Education” (with Daniel Lautzenheiser and Andrew Kelly ).

Sallie Neillie founded Project Access Northwest in 2006 to improve access to needed specialty services for the low-income uninsured and underinsured. Since its inception, Project Access has served over 9,000 patients from all over King and Snohomish Counties. The specialty care services they received are valued at over $20 million dollars. By staying focused on the goal – appropriate and timely specialty care provided by a broad network of providers – Sallie and her organization continue to grow and are an important part of the local safety net. http://projectaccessnw.org/

Dr. Diem Nguyen is the Director of the Knowledge in Action Project and is a Research Scientist at the LIFE Center at the University of Washington. She received her Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Washington in 2008. She has authored a forthcoming book, Vietnamese Immigrant Youth and Citizenship: How Race, Ethnicity, and Culture Shape Sense of Belonging  and has coauthored peer-reviewed articles appearing in the American Educational Research Journal, the Journal of General Internal Medicine, and the Bilingual Review Journal. Her research interests include exploring issues of equity, diversity, and the quality of education for urban youth.

At Points of Light Institute, Michelle Nunn leads the organization in engaging millions of volunteers each year to solve the pressing issues of our time. Michelle helped found HandsOn Atlanta in 1989, which has grown into the largest volunteer network in the country.  She has served on the President’s Council on Service and Civic Engagement and as a co-convener of the Service Nation Coalition and Re-Imagining Service. Her awards include the Fast Company Social Capitalist Award and honorary degrees from Oglethorpe University and Wesleyan College. The NonProfit Times has named Michelle to its annual “Power and Influence Top 50” list for four consecutive years.

The Story of Stuff Project has produced six acclaimed web films over the past two years, most recently The Story of Citizens United v. FEC and The Story of Broke. Michael’s focus is to provide the over 250,000 members of the Story of Stuff community with the tailored content and tools they need to engage in collective learning and social change. Prior, Michael developed fundraising and communications strategies for environmental, civil rights, reproductive justice and media reform organizations as the principal of Channing Way Consulting. He also served as the Development Director of San Francisco Bay Area-based organizations Global Exchange and Pacific Environment.  www.storyofstuff.org

Jennifer Pahlka is the founder and executive director of Code for America, which works with talented web professionals and cities around the country to promote public service and reboot government.  She spent eight years at CMP Media where she led the Game Group, responsible for GDC, Game Developer magazine, and Gamasutra.com; there she also launched the Independent Games Festival and served as executive director of the International Game Developers Association. Recently, she ran the Web 2.0 and Gov 2.0 events for TechWeb and co-chaired the successful Web 2.0 Expo. She is a graduate of Yale University and lives in Oakland, CA with her daughter and six chickens.  http://codeforamerica.org/

Dr. Walter Parker is a professor of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Washington. He has studied discussion pedagogy, the depth-breadth problem in curriculum development, and critical thinking in the classroom for many years and published over 100 articles and six books on these and other areas of curriculum and instruction. His books include Educating the Democratic Mind (1996), Teaching Democracy (2003), and Social Studies Today: Research and Practice (2011). 

Anthony Pennay is the Director of The Walter and Leonore Annenberg Presidential Learning Center at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation. Anthony originally entered the field of education when he worked for the Teach for America program in Pasadena.  He taught for five years at Sinai Akiba Academy in Los Angeles, and served as the Director of Curriculum Projects in his final year there. He is Technology Liaison and Advisory Board Member for the Cal State Northridge Writing Project, and his articles have appeared in TinFish, Assembly on Literature for Adolescents, California English, Social Education, and Social Studies Review.  http://www.reaganfoundation.org/annenberg-presidential-learning-center.aspx

Ai-jen Poo, Director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance, has been organizing immigrant women workers since 1996. In 2000 she helped start Domestic Workers United, the New York based organization that spearheaded the successful passage of the state’s historic Domestic Workers Bill of Rights in 2010. In 2007, DWU helped organize the first national domestic workers convening, out of which the National Domestic Workers Alliance was formed. Ai-jen serves on the Board of Directors of Momsrising, National Jobs with Justice, Working America and the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy. Among Ai-jen’s numerous awards are the Ms. Foundation Woman of Vision Award and the Independent Sector American Express NGen Leadership Award.

Gregory Rodriguez, founder and executive director of Zócalo Public Square, is a senior fellow at the New America Foundation and founding director of the Center for Social Cohesion at Arizona State University.  He has written widely on issues of social cohesion, civic engagement, national identity, assimilation, race relations, religion, immigration, ethnicity, demographics and social and political trends in such leading publications as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, Time, Newsweek, and the Los Angeles Times, where he is an op-ed columnist.  The author of Mongrels, Bastards, Orphans and Vagabonds: Mexican Immigration and the Future of Race in America (Pantheon), which The Washington Post listed among the "Best Books of 2007," Rodriguez is at work on a new book on the American cult of hope.
http://www.zocalopublicsquare.org/

Executive Director and Co-Founder of MomsRising, Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner has been deeply involved in grassroots engagement and policy analysis for more than two decades, and is also an award-winning author of books and articles on subjects covering women and families, public policy, motherhood, economic security, equality, health, civic engagement, and new feminism. Started in May 2006, MomsRising is an on-the-ground and online organization with over 1 million members, as well as more than a hundred aligned national organizations, working together to increase family economic security and to help ensure all children can thrive. In addition to being a grassroots force, in both 2010 and 2011, Forbes.com named MomsRising's website one of the “Top 100 Websites For Women.”  http://www.momsrising.org/

Jill Savitt is a human rights advocate.  Currently, she is a Special Advisor at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, working with the unit of the Museum that focuses on contemporary genocides.  In addition, Savitt is the Human Rights Curator for the National Center for Civil and Human Rights, a new museum in Atlanta that will open in 2014.  In 2007, Savitt founded and directed Dream for Darfur. The New York Times Magazine profiled Savitt and the initiative in March 2008.  Savitt, based in New York, graduated from Yale and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Rick Shenkman's latest book, Just How Stupid Are We? Facing the Truth About the American Voter, makes the provocative argument that as American voters have gained political power in the last 50 years, they have become increasingly ignorant of politics and world affairs—and dangerously susceptible to manipulation.  An associate professor of history at George Mason University, Rick is regularly seen on Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC and is the founder and publisher of George Mason's History News Network, the only website on the Internet wholly devoted to the task of putting events in the news into historical perspective every day.  http://home.sprynet.com/~rshenkman/

David B. Smith is the Executive Director of NCoC. Founded in 1946 and chartered by the U.S. Congress in 1953, NCoC measures and promotes civic engagement with the goal of building a more informed, engaged, giving and trusting citizenry. Prior to joining NCoC, David founded and directed Mobilize.org, and under his tenure, Mobilize.org expanded from a team of 10 students to a national organization with activists in over 200 communities.  David serves as Chairman of Mobilize.org, Vice Chair of the Youth Policy Action Center (YPAC), Treasurer for Prepare the Future, Director of Common Sense California, and Trustee of Americans for Generational Equity.

Heather Smith led Rock the Vote to achieve its highest voter registration tally in the organization’s 20-year history during the historic election season of 2008 - 2.2 million individuals used Rock the Vote’s tools to register to vote. Prior to becoming President of Rock the Vote, Smith founded and directed Young Voter Strategies, a project that provided research on the youth vote and registered 540,000 new voters age 30 and under in 2006.  Heather has also worked for the Student PIRGs New Voters Project, and for Green Corps’ Field School for Environmental Organizing in Boston.

Jacob Soboroff co-hosted the NBC series “School Pride”, a reality series that told the stories of communities coming together to renovate their aging and broken public schools.  Jacob is executive director of Why Tuesday?, an organization founded in 2005 to find solutions to increase voter turnout, and a member of the associates board of City Year Los Angeles. He is a correspondent for AMC News and KCET, is executive producer and narrator of the AMC original documentary “Committed” (directed by Oscar and Emmy nominee Morgan Spurlock), and has contributed reporting to CNN, NPR’s “Weekend Edition,” and the PBS/Wired Magazine series “Wired Science.”  http://www.whytuesday.org/

The New Orleans Workers’ Center for Racial Justice was formed after Hurricane Katrina to organize African-American and immigrant workers and residents across the colorline.  Along with the members and organizers at the Center, Saket Soni has crafted and led strategic campaigns on international labor trafficking, human rights conditions in detention centers, ICE collusion with employers, and the enforcement regime in the post-Katrina Gulf Coast. He is also Executive Director of the National Guestworker Alliance, which works to improve conditions for minority workers, day laborers, guestworkers and others who face exploitation, treacherous working conditions, abuse and wage theft at the hands of corporate giants.

Prior to her appointment as Director of the Innovation Institute at McColl Center for Visual Art, Barbara Spradling spent more than 20 years as a senior vice president with Bank of America. She successfully led large domestic and global enterprise efforts in the areas of operations, technology, finance and risk. She developed and led the implementation of crisis management initiatives and business and data recovery programs following global natural disasters and acts of terrorism. Barbara has volunteered on behalf of the Arts and Science Council, Council for Children’s Rights, YWCA, Children and Family Services Center and National Alliance of Artist Communities.  http://www.innovationatmccoll.org/

Marilyn Strickland was born in Seoul, Korea, grew up in South Tacoma, and served on Tacoma City Council for two years before being sworn in as Mayor in 2010.  Previously, she was Development Officer for the Tacoma Public Library and has held management positions with American Cancer Society, Starbucks Coffee Company and JayRay Communications, where she worked with Tacoma Public Utilities to help launch Click!Network.  She is vice-chair of the Tacoma Pierce County Health Board, a commissioner for Pierce Transit, and an executive committee member for the Economic Development Board.  Marilyn was recently appointed to the US Conference of Mayors Public Education Task Force.

Janet Tran is the Education Manager of the Walter and Leonore Annenberg Presidential Learning Center at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and is charged with authoring National Civics curricula and programming. Janet has worked as a high school teacher and education innovator and is College Board certified in AP US History, AP US Government and AP Psychology. The Educational Testing Services (ETS) has selected her as an AP Reader for United States History since 2006. Janet has successfully authored significant grants for her schools.  Her work has been published in journals, presented at conferences, and featured on NPR.  http://www.reaganfoundation.org/annenberg-presidential-learning-center.aspx

Estrus Tucker specializes in designing and leading conversations and retreats across the country in support of personal, professional, and community transformation. Estrus is a seasoned Courage & Renewal® Facilitator.  His mission is to inspire courage and life giving values that promote community, nonviolence and justice.  http://www.couragerenewal.org/

Sarah van Gelder is co-founder and executive editor of YES! Magazine and YesMagazine.org, which feature powerful ideas and practical actions towards a more just and sustainable world. YES! covers issue ranging from community resilience to prison alternatives, from climate justice to sustainable happiness. Sarah also edited, “This Changes Everything: Occupy Wall Street and the 99% Movement” and wrote the lead essay.  Sarah co-founded a cohousing community, organized tenants, built a produce cooperative. She serves on the board of the Suquamish Tribe’s foundation and is among those organizing a new “occupy” group in Kitsap County.   http://www.yesmagazine.org/

Award-winning journalist Jose Antonio Vargas is the founder of Define American, a new campaign that seeks to elevate our nation’s immigration conversation. In the summer of 2011, Jose stunned the media and political circles with his groundbreaking New York Times Magazine essay, "My Life as an Undocumented Immigrant." Born in the Philippines, he emigrated to the United States at age 12. Jose has served as a senior contributing editor at the Huffington Post, covered tech, HIV/AIDS, and the 2008 presidential campaign for the Washington Post, and was part of the team that won a Pulitzer Prize for covering the 2007 massacre at Virginia Tech.  http://joseantoniovargas.com/

Gerda Weissmann Klein survived atrocities during the Holocaust, met her future husband on the day of her liberation in 1945, and journeyed to the United States, where her constant fight to promote tolerance, encourage community service and combat hunger continues to this day. Klein’s classic autobiography, All But My Life, has been in print for 54 years and is the foundation for the Oscar and Emmy-winning HBO documentary One Survivor Remembers. Among many other accomplishments, Gerda Klein was the keynote speaker at the United Nation’s First Annual Official Observance of the Holocaust in 2006, and was awarded the 2010 Presidential Medal of Freedom—the nation’s highest civilian honor. In 2008, Gerda founded Citizenship Counts, an organization whose mission is to educate today’s youth on the tenets of citizenship. "To perpetuate the miracle that is America we must teach our children about its rich history as a nation of immigrants who chose this country and have given meaning to its ideals.”  citizenshipcounts.org

Pastor Patrinell “Pat” Wright was born in Carthage, Texas to a Baptist preacher dad and a school teacher mom.  By the time of her 14th birthday, she had taught herself to play the piano and was directing two choirs in her father’s church.  She founded the Total Experience Gospel Choir in 1973.  The choir is a community choir—multi-racial, multi-generational, and multi-talented.  The Total Experience Gospel Choir has traveled and performed in 38 states, on 5 continents and 22 countries. The choir consists of persons ages 7– 72.  The choir has to its credits numerous awards and 7 recordings.