Dr. Drew E. Altman - Drew Altman is President and Chief Executive Officer of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. The Kaiser Family Foundation is a non-profit, private operating foundation. It develops and runs its own research and communication programs, often in partnership with outside organizations.

Ras Baraka - Ras Baraka, former Newark, N.J. Deputy Mayor, has been called “one of the most consistent, courageous, and insightful activists of his generation.” The son of revered poet-activists Amina and Imamu Amiri Baraka, Ras inherited their proud tradition of artistic excellence and community activism. While a student at Howard University, Ras formed Black Nia F.O.R.C.E. (Freedom Organization for Racial and Cultural Enlightenment) - a student youth group at the forefront of campus political and social activism. Through the organization, Ras helped organize and participated in food/clothing drives, neighborhood street clean-ups, and tutorials. During his summer breaks, Ras served as Assistant Youth Coordinator for the Commission for Racial Justice. In 1991, he graduated with a degree in political science and history.

Philip Bennett - Philip Bennett is managing editor of The Washington Post. From 1999 through 2004 he was assistant managing editor for foreign news at The Post. During his tenure, The Post's international coverage was recognized with numerous awards, including two Pulitzer prizes for international reporting, most recently for coverage of the war in Iraq. Bennett joined The Post in 1997 as a deputy national editor for coverage of national security, defense and foreign policy. He came to the paper from the Boston Globe, where he was a foreign correspondent covering Latin America and later the Globe’s foreign editor. He has written about Latin America for a variety of magazines. He started in journalism as a reporter for The Lima Times in Peru. Bennett grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and has a degree in history from Harvard College.

Dr. Bill Cosby - William Henry "Bill" Cosby, Jr. (born July 12, 1937) is an American actor, comedian, television producer, and activist. He received an Ed.D. from the University of Massachusetts for his doctoral thesis on "Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids", an educational children's cartoon series he created. Bill Cosby, a veteran stand-up performer, got his start working clubs and making comedy albums, then moved into television with a vanguard role in the 1960s action show "I Spy". He later starred in his own series, The Bill Cosby Show, in the early 1970s, and created the humorous educational cartoon series "Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids", about a group of young friends growing up in the city. Cosby also acted in numerous films, although none has received the acclaim of his television work.

Dr. Joy Angela Degruy-Leary - Dr. Joy DeGruy-Leary holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Communication, a Masters degree in Social Work (MSW) from Portland State University, a Masters degree in sychology from Pacific University and a Ph.D. in Social Work Research from Portland State University. She has worked in the field of social work for over twenty-five years. Her professional work experience includes extensive specialized work with adolescent and adult male and female prostitutes, homeless youth, and children with emotional disorders, adults with long-term mental illness, and at-risk minority children and adults.

Mayor-Elect Ronald V. Dellums - Ronald V. Dellums is the Mayor-elect of Oakland, California and will take the oath of office in January 2007.

Steven Holmes - For the last year, Steven Holmes has been a deputy national editor at The Washington Post, supervising reporters covering domestic social issues such as immigration, education and religion, in addition to handling coverage of the Supreme Court. Prior to that he worked for 15 years at the New York Times, primarily in the paper’s Washington Bureau where he covered Congress, presidential campaigns, the State Department and race and demographics. While there, he wrote one story and edited others in the Times’ series, “How Race Is Lived in America” which won a Pulitzer Prize in 2001. He also worked at Time magazine in its Chicago, Los Angeles, London and Washington bureaus. He began his career with the Herald Statesman in Yonkers, N.Y., and has also worked at United Press International in Dallas, Tex., and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in Atlanta, Ga. He is the author of “Ron Brown: An Uncommon Life,” a biography of the former Commerce Secretary who was the first black person to head a major political party in the United States.

Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton - Eleanor Holmes Norton is now in her eighth term as the Congresswoman for the District of Columbia. Named by President Jimmy Carter as the first woman to chair the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, she came to Congress as a national figure who had been a civil rights and feminist leader. Norton’s work for full congressional voting representation and for full democracy for the people of the District of Columbia continues her lifelong struggle for universal human rights. Her success in writing bills and getting them enacted has made her one of the most effective legislative leaders in the House. She has the full vote in House committees and serves on the Committee on Homeland Security, the Government Reform Committee and the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. Congresswoman Norton, who taught full time before being elected, continues as a tenured professor of law at Georgetown University, teaching a course there every year. She received her bachelor’s degree from Antioch College in Ohio and simultaneously earned her law degree and master’s degree in American Studies from Yale.

Rev. Donald L. Isaac - Rev. Isaac is the Executive Director of The East of the River Clergy-Police-Community Partnership (ERCPCP), a clergy-led collaboration that was created to address issues associated with at risk and high risk youth and young adults that are in or at great risk of being in the criminal justice system. Since its inception, ERCPCP has grown from a staff of one with one source of funding to the current staff of fourteen with more than ten sources of funding. For the 2003 program year total funding will exceed one million dollars. Before Coming to ERCPCP, Rev. Isaac spent twenty years in the District of Columbia government where he served as Chief Financial Officer for the Council of the District of Columbia and as Senior Financial Auditor for the Office of The District of Columbia Auditor. Rev. Isaac also serves as the Chairman of the Court Services and Offender Supervision Agency Faith Advisory Committee. He is a member of the Juvenile Justice Advisory Committee and the Congressional Committee on the State of Black Men and Boys. He also serves on the advisory board of the Riverside Hospital and Treatment Center, a drug program for juveniles and as Senior Spiritual Advisor to Community Action Group, a residential and transitional program for court assigned persons requiring drug treatment.

Jachin Leatherman - Jachin Leatherman is from Washington D.C. Growing up in the southeast quadrant he attended Martin Luther King elementary school. He then went to Charles Hart Middle School where he became a football player and his academics began to soar. Upon entering the ninth grade Jachin attended Frank W. Ballou Senior High School where his sports and athletics began to become more important features in his life. There he received awards and accolades such as Scholar Athlete of the Year a record three times in a row, was on the National Honor Society, and became Valedictorian with a lot of hard work. Jachin says his dream is to become a multi-millionaire one day and hopes it comes soon in his promising future. He will be attending the College of the Holy Cross in the fall, where he will be a football player.

Dr. Joshua W. Murfree - Dr. Murfree is the Department Head at Albany State University for the Department of Psychology, Sociology and Social Work. He is the Director of the Center for the African-American-Male and former Co-Director of the Honors Program. He further serves in the capacity of Faculty Representative to the NCAA Division II. Dr. Murfree serves as the National/International Mentoring Chairman of 100 BlackMen of America, Inc. and at the 16Annual National Conference was elected as the Vice–President of Programs.

Wayne Nesbit - Wayne Nesbit was born in Washington, D.C. and raised by a single father. He has one brother and sister. He attended Leckie Elementary School, Hart Middle School and Ballou Senior High School. While attending Ballou, Wayne was President of the National Honor Society, a member of the Technology Club, MVP for football, received an award for Most Outstanding Athlete of the year and became Salutatorian with a lot of hard work. Wayne will be attending the College of the Holy Cross in the fall, where he will major in computer technology and engineering.

Charles J. Ogletree Jr. - Charles Ogletree, the Harvard Law School Jesse Climenko Professor of Law, and Founding and Executive Director of the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice, is a prominent legal theorist who has made an international reputation by taking a hard look at complex issues of law and by working to secure the rights guaranteed by the Constitution for everyone equally under the law.

The Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice (www.charleshamiltonhouston.org), named in honor of the visionary lawyer who spearheaded the litigation in Brown v. Board of Education, opened in September 2005, and focuses on a variety of issues relating to race and justice, and will sponsor research, hold conferences, and provide policy analysis.

Professor Ogletree's most recent book, co-edited with Professor Austin Sarat of Amherst College is From Lynch Mobs to the Killing State: Race and Death Penalty in America, and was published by New York University Press in May 2006. His historical memoir, All Deliberate Speed: Reflections on the First Half-Century of Brown v. Board of Education (www.alldeliberatespeed.com), was published by W.W. Norton & Company in April 2004.

Dr. Alvin Poussaint - Dr. Poussaint is Director of the Media Center of the Judge Baker Children’s Center in Boston. He is also a Professor of Psychiatry and Faculty Associate Dean for Student Affairs at Harvard Medical School. He is author of "Why Blacks Kill Blacks", 1972; co-author, with James Comer, of "Raising Black Children", 1992; and co-author, with Amy Alexander, of "Lay My Burden Down", 2000. He has written dozens of articles for lay and professional publications. In 1997, he received a New England Emmy Award for Outstanding Children’s Special as co-executive producer of Willoughby’s Wonders.

Dr. Eva R. Rousseau - Eva R. Rousseau was educated in District of Columbia Public Schools. She has a Bachelor of Arts Degree in English and French, a Master of Arts Degree in Counseling, and a Doctorate Degree in Educational Leadership. She graduated from the National Superintendent’s Academy. She was the former principal of Dunbar Senior High School and lead principal for a cluster of 24 schools in the District of Columbia, director of labor relations and chief negotiator, director of career development and training, and an adjunct professor at George Mason University. She has been the coordinator of the Associates for Renewal in Education (ARE) Child Development Associate Training Program and currently Dr. Rousseau is the program manager for the ARE Therapeutic after School Program.

Faye Wattleton - Faye Wattleton is the president of the Center for the Advancement of Women, an independent, nonpartisan non-profit research and education institution dedicated to advocating for the advancement of women. From 1978 to 1992, as president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) Ms. Wattleton played an unsurpassed role in defining the national debate over reproductive rights and health, and in shaping family planning policies and programs around the world. As the youngest person and first woman named to the presidency of the nation’s oldest and largest voluntary reproductive health organization, Ms. Wattleton’s vision, leadership and courage projected Planned Parenthood into the forefront of the battle to preserve women’s fundamental right to self-determination. Under her leadership, PPFA grew to become the nation’s seventh largest charitable organization, providing medical and educational services to four million Americans each year, through 170 affiliates, operating in 49 states and the District of Columbia. Under Ms. Wattleton’s guidance, PPFA also supported family planning programs in dozens of developing nations through its international division, Family Planning International Assistance. Ms. Wattleton holds a Bachelor of Science degree in nursing from Ohio State University and a Master of Science degree in maternal and infant care, with certification as a nurse-midwife, from Columbia University. In addition, she has received twelve honorary doctoral degrees; Simmons College (1993), Hofstra University (1992), Haverford College (1992), Meadville Lombard Seminary at the University of Chicago (1992), Bard College (1991), Oberlin College (1991), Wesleyan University (1991), Northeastern University Law School (1990), Long Island University (1990), University of Pennsylvania (1990), Spellman College (1986), and St. Paul’s College (1985). Ms. Wattleton was a 1993 Inductee into the National Women’s Hall of Fame. Her memoir, "Life on the Line", was published, in the fall of 1996, by Ballantine Books. Ms. Wattleton presently serves on the boards of directors of Savient Pharmaceuticals, WellChoice, Inc., Quidel Corporation, Columbia University, Jazz at Lincoln Center, Pardee RAND Graduate School and the United Nations Association of the United States of America.

James C. White III - James C. White, III, better known as Loose. I grew up with both my mother and father in the household; however, my parents worked a lot to support our home. As I got older, I grew to enjoy the streets. At the tender age of seventeen, I adopted the street organization, known as the notorious CRIP gang. I have many different reasons for joining, but the one that sticks out the most is oppression. By joining this organization, I did not stop oppression, but in some ways I helped to oppress. I helped to form an organization known as Saving OurSelves (S.O.S.). S.O.S. is based on fighting oppression and we offer gang prevention/intervention, mentoring, conflict resolution, and community assistance.

Corey Wiggins - Corey Wiggins is from Hazlehurst, Miss. He attended and graduated from Alcorn State University where he majored in Biology. During his undergraduate studies, he participated in various internships and fellowships at Fisk University, Vanderbilt, University of Rochester and the University of Mississippi Medical Center. Corey has also completed a Master of Science in Public Health at the University of Alabama at Birmingham in Health Policy. During this time, his thesis work included an exploratory work linking disparities of health to disparities of incarceration. His work was based on the context that both of these disparities that disproportionately affect communities of color arise from the same “pool of troubles” that includes economic, social and political factors. Before attending graduate school, Corey participated in the Barbara Jordan Health Policy Scholars Program. As a scholar, Corey worked in the office of Senator Voinovich and presented a policy recommendation for addressing the problem of the uninsured in rural America. Currently, he is pursuing a doctoral degree at the University of Alabama at Birmingham while working as a Program Manager of a national stroke study accessing Racial and Geographical Differences in Stroke (REGARDS). He is also CEO and co-founder of Executive Edge Investments, which promotes stock market education and investing for young African American men. In continuing his love to reinvest in communities, he is currently involved in the planning stages of developing a nonprofit, Advocates for Exposure, which will expose kids from his hometown to colleges and other post high school programs.