America's Inheritance: Where to Begin on the Big Issues?

David Axelrod

David Axelrod served as senior advisor to President Barack Obama and senior strategist to Obama's 2008 presidential campaign. Axelrod also co-founded AKPD Message and Media, a political consulting firm. In that capacity, he managed media strategy and communications for more than 150 local, state, and national campaigns, with a focus on progressive candidates and causes. In 2004, when Obama was a member of the Illinois State Senate, Axelrod helped him win his US Senate campaign. Before entering politics in 1984, Axelrod spent eight years as a reporter for the Chicago Tribune. Active in charitable work in Chicago, Axelrod has supported Special Olympics and Misericordia. In 1998, he and his wife, Susan, helped found Citizens United for Research in Epilepsy (CURE), which has raised over $15 million so far for scientists searching for a cure. Axelrod currently serves as a senior strategist to President Obama's reelection campaign.

Georges Benjamin

Executive Director, American Public Health Association

Caren Bohan

Caren Bohan is managing editor for domestic policy at National Journal. Before that, she was a White House correspondent for Reuters. As White House reporter, she traveled around the world with Presidents Obama and Bush, covering topics ranging from international summits to the federal budget to the policies on Afghanistan and the Arab Spring. In 2008, she was the lead correspondent for Reuters covering then-Senator Obama’s presidential campaign. She has interviewed President Obama three times, twice during his campaign and once during his presidency. Earlier in her career, Ms. Bohan covered economic policy and financial markets for Reuters, first in New York and then in Washington. She was president of the White House Correspondents’ Association from July 2011 to July 2012. Born in Boston, Ms. Bohan earned her B.A. in English Literature from McGill University and holds a master’s degree in journalism from the University of California, Berkeley.

James Brown

Executive Director, STEM Education Coalition

Ronald Brownstein

Ronald Brownstein is political director of the Atlantic Media Company and National Journal Group’s editorial director, in charge of long-term editorial strategy. He also writes a weekly column and regularly contributes other pieces for both National Journal and The Atlantic, and he coordinates political coverage and activities across publications produced by Atlantic Media. Brownstein was twice named a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for his coverage of the 1996 and 2004 presidential campaigns. In addition, he is the recipient of several journalism awards, including the Exceptional Merit in Media Award from the National Women’s Political Caucus, the Excellence in Media Award from the National Council on Public Polls in 2005, and the Journalist of the Year Award from the Los Angeles Press Club in 2005. In 2007, the American Political Science Association presented him its Carey McWilliams Award for lifetime achievement.

Brian Castelli

Executive Director, Alliance to Save Energy

Matthew Cooper

Matthew Cooper is the editor of National Journal Daily. He has held reporting and editorial positions at several of Washington’s most respected news organizations, serving as White House correspondent for U.S. News & World Report, deputy Washington bureau chief for Newsweek, deputy Washington bureau chief and White House correspondent for Time, and politics editor for Time.com. Mr. Cooper has also been an editor for Washington Monthly and The New Republic, Washington editor for Condé Nast Portfolio, politics correspondent for TheAtlantic.com, and editor-atlarge for TalkingPointsMemo.com. Mr. Cooper has also contributed to Slate and The New York Times. Prior to joining National Journal, he was senior advisor to the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission.

Representative E. Scott Garrett

E. Scott Garrett is a member of the United States House of Representatives. He is a Republican and has represented New Jersey's Fifth Congressional District seat since January 2003. The district includes much of the northwestern portion of the state. Garrett serves as a member of both the House Budget Committee and the House Financial Services Committee.

Michael Hirsh

Michael Hirsh is chief correspondent for National Journal. He also contributes to 2012 Decoded. Hirsh previously served as the senior editor and national economics correspondent for Newsweek, based in its Washington bureau. He was also Newsweek’s Washington web editor and authored a weekly column for Newsweek.com, “The World from Washington.” Earlier on, he was Newsweek’s foreign editor, guiding its award-winning coverage of the September 11 attacks and the war on terror. He has done on-the-ground reporting in Iraq, Afghanistan, and other places around the world, and served as the Tokyo-based Asia Bureau Chief for Institutional Investor from 1992 to 1994.

Hirsh has appeared many times as a commentator on Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, and National Public Radio. He has written for the Associated Press, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Foreign Affairs, Harper’s, and Washington Monthly, and authored two books, Capital Offense: How Washington’s Wise Men Turned America’s Future over to Wall Street and At War with Ourselves: Why America Is Squandering its Chance to Build a Better World. Hirsh has received numerous awards, including the Overseas Press Club award for best magazine reporting from abroad in 2001 and for Newsweek’s coverage of the war on terror, which also won a National Magazine Award. Follow him on twitter @michaelphirsh

James Kitfield

James Kitfield has written on defense, national security and foreign policy issues from Washington, D.C. for over two decades. He is a three-time winner of the Gerald R. Ford Award for Distinguished Reporting on National Defense, most recently in 2009 for his first-hand reporting on the Afghan War and other ongoing conflicts and threats. He has twice won the Military Reporters and Editors Association award and the Medill School of Journalism's top prize for excellence in reporting for his first hand coverage of the war in Afghanistan (2009) and the surge in Iraq (2008). He is a recipient of the 2002 Stewart Alsop Media Excellence Award, sponsored by the Association of Former Intelligence Officers, for his coverage of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and follow-on events. He received the 2001 Peter R. Weitz Prize from the German Marshall Fund for excellence in reporting on European affairs, and the 2000 Edwin Hood Award for Diplomatic Correspondence given annually by the National Press Club to recognize excellence in reporting on diplomatic and foreign policy issues.

Kitfield is the author of the books War & Destiny (Potomac Books, 2005) and Prodigal Soldiers (Simon & Schuster, 1995). He appears frequently on radio and television, including as a regular guest on National Public Radio's Diane Rehm Show, on Public Broadcasting's Washington Week with Gwen Ifill, and on The NewsHour With Jim Lehrer. His articles have appeared in The National Interest, Omni, Newsday, Los Angeles Magazine, Army Times, Air Force Magazine, The Stars & Stripes, Off Duty, and other publications. Kitfield is a 1978 magna cum laude graduate of the University of Georgia's Henry Grady School of Journalism.

Jim Thomas

Jim Thomas is a Research Programme Manager and Writer with ETC group. His background is in communications, writing on emerging technologies and international campaigning. For the seven years previous to joining ETC Group Thomas was a researcher and campaigner on Genetic Engineering and food issues for Greenpeace International - working in Europe, North America, Australia/New Zealand and South East Asia. He has extensive experience on issues around transgenic crops and nanotechnologies has written articles, chapters and technical reports in the media and online. Trained as a historian to look back at the history of technology, Thomas is now busy communicating the future of technology.

Chris Van Hollen

Christopher "Chris" Van Hollen, Jr. is a Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives, representing Maryland's 8th congressional district since 2003. The district includes most of Montgomery County, a suburban county adjacent to Washington, D.C., as well as parts of Prince George's County, another county that borders Washington, D.C. Van Hollen was elected as the ranking member on the House Budget Committee on November 17, 2010.

After the Democrats regained control of the House in the 2006 elections, Van Hollen became the chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the fifth-ranking position among House Democrats. In this post, Van Hollen is responsible for leading efforts to get more Democrats elected to Congress.