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  • Geshe Tsetan is a Tibetan Buddhist monk from Ladakh, India who has been living and teaching in the United States for nearly fifteen years. He began his monastic life at age seven in Stok, his family village. At age thirteen he joined the Stok Monastery to study and memorize Buddhist scriptures. His dream was to receive the Geshe degree in Buddhist philosophy, similar in level to that of the Western Ph.D. This dream was deferred for him when the Chinese government intensified their policy of cultural genocide on occupied Tibet in 1959. The daily public humiliation and torture of monks by Chinese officials and the mass destruction of the monasteries and colleges made it impossible to continue the pursuit of this degree there. He fled to his homeland in 1960 for safety. From 1974-1978 he taught high school in Ladakh. Then he met with a special invitation to come to the United States and teach at the first Tibetan Buddhist learning center of America, Labsum Shedrub Ling in Washington, New Jersey. He went in hopes of learning English and completing his Geshe degree studies. He accomplished both, and in 1984 returned to the Drepung Monastery for commencement. Since that time Geshe Tsetan has been living and teaching in the United States from October to June and returning to Ladakh during the summer months to oversee activities at the school. While in the states, he divides his time between Maine and New York City with additional teaching trips to Amhurst, MA and other areas of the United States. His association with the Manjushri Center in Amherst has provided him with extensive teaching positions and lecturing opportunities at a number of schools including Smith, Bowdoin, Amherst, Hampshire, Drew, Maine College of Art, Bangor Theological Seminary, Phillips Exeter Academy, Deerfield Academy, and others. Geshe Tsetan wants to further extend his teaching to the young people of Ladakh, making the Siddhartha School/Choskor Stok the fulfillment of his lifelong commitment to learning.
  • Andrew Sullivan was born in August 1963 in a small town in Southern England, South Godstone. He attended Reigate Grammar School, and Magdalen College, Oxford, where he took a First in Modern History and Modern Languages. He was also President of the Oxford Union in his Second Year at college, and spent his summer vacations as an actor in the National Youth Theatre of Great Britain. In 1984, he won a Harkness Fellowship to Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government, and earned a Masters degree in Public Administration in 1986. In 1990, he returned to Washington, D.C., where he free-lanced for the *Telegraph* and started a monthly column for *Esquire*. He was soon back at *The New Republic* as deputy editor under Hendrik Hertzberg, and in June of 1991 was appointed acting editor, at the age of 27. In October, he took over as editor, and presided over 250 issues of *The New Republic*, resigning in May 1996. In those years, *The New Republic*'s circulation grew to well over 100,000 and its advertising revenues grew by 76 percent. Sullivan has appeared on over 100 radio shows across the United States, as well as on *Nightline*, *Face The Nation*, *Meet The Press*, *Crossfire*, *Hardball*, *The O'Reilly Factor*, *The Larry King Show*, *Reliable Sources*, *Hannity and Colmes*, and many others. He remains a senior editor at *the New Republic* and his book, *The Conservative Soul: How We Lost It; How To Get It Back*, was published by Harper Collins in the fall of 2006.
  • Keith Hylton has published numerous articles in American law journals and peer reviewed law and economics journals. His textbook, Antitrust Law: Economic Theory and Common Law Evolution, was published by Cambridge University Press in 2003. Professor Hylton joined the Boston University Law faculty in 1995 after teaching for six years and receiving tenure at Northwestern University School of Law. At BU Law, he teaches courses in antitrust, torts and labor law. In addition to teaching, he serves as co-editor of Competition Policy International and editor of The Social Science Research Network's Torts, Products Liability and Insurance Law Abstracts.
  • Alan Wolfe is Professor of Political Science and Director of the Boisi Center for Religion and American Public Life at Boston College. He is the author and editor of more than 20 books, including, most recently, *The Future of Liberalism* (2009), *Does American Democracy Still Work?* (2006) *Return to Greatness: How America Lost Its Sense of Purpose and What it Needs to Do to Recover It *(2005), *The Transformation of American Religion: How We actually Live our Faith* (2003), and *An Intellectual in Public* (2003). He is the author or editor of more than ten other books including *Marginalized in the Middle* (1997), *One Nation, After All* (1998), *Moral Freedom: The Search for Virtue in a World of Choice* (2001) and *School Choice: The Moral Debate* (2002). Both *One Nation, After All* and *Moral Freedom* were selected as *New York Times* Notable Books of the Year. Professor Wolfe attended Temple University as an undergraduate and received his doctorate in political science from the University of Pennsylvania in 1967. Wolfe currently chairs a task force of the American Political Science Association on Religion and Democracy in the United States.
  • As president and CEO of The Minneapolis Foundation, Emmett D. Carson provides overall vision, leadership and motivation for one of the largest, oldest and most complex community foundations in the country. He oversees the Foundations grantmaking, loan making, communications, fund development and investment management activities. As external spokesperson, he is responsible for developing collaborative relationships with all sectors and segments of the community as well as with other organizations nationwide. Since his arrival in 1994, the Foundation has embarked on a ten-year $20 million initiative to improve the lives of children and families in poverty, raised record annual gifts ($46 million in fiscal year 1999) and increased total assets under management from $186 million to over $400 million. Carson came to The Minneapolis Foundation from the Ford Foundation in New York, where he spent 5 years as program officer, first in the area of social justice and then in governance and public policy. Responsible for the Foundations domestic and international support of community foundations and the nonprofit sector, Carson managed a $10 million grantmaking budget that reached across the country and as far as Africa, Asia and Latin America. Prior to that he served as project director of the Study on Black Philanthropy at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies in Washington, DC, where he designed and directed the first national study of the charitable giving and volunteer behavior of black and white Americans. Earlier in his career, Carson taught research and public policy courses as an adjunct professor in the Afro-American Studies program at the University of Maryland and served as a legislative research analyst at The Library of Congress in Washington, DC. Carson received a Phi Beta Kappa bachelors degree in economics from Morehouse College and MPA and PhD degrees in public and international affairs from Princeton University. He is the author of several books and dozens of articles on American philanthropy.
  • Alexander C. Sanger is the author of *Beyond Choice: Reproductive Freedom in the 21st Century* published in January 2004 by PublicAffairs. Mr. Sanger, the grandson of Margaret Sanger, who founded the birth control movement over eighty years ago, is currently Chair of the International Planned Parenthood Council and has served as a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Population Fund. He also operates a website and weblog www.AlexanderSanger.com with commentary on reproductive rights issues. Mr. Sanger previously served as the President of Planned Parenthood of New York City (PPNYC) and its international arm, The Margaret Sanger Center International (MSCI) for ten years from 1991 - 2000. Shortly after assuming the Presidency of PPNYC, Mr. Sanger launched the Clinician Training Initiative, designed to address the disturbing fact that few doctors were trained or willing to perform abortions. Since its inception in 1993, the program has trained over 100 Ob-Gyn residents and has accomplished two major policy victories with lasting national impact.
  • Peter Goldberg is President and Chief Executive Officer of the Alliance for Children and Families and its parent holding company, Families International, Inc. As president and CEO of Families International, Inc., Goldberg oversees a unique corporate structure that allows four organizations to operate under one parent company. This allows for the financial independence of each of the organizations while creating an environment that encourages collaboration. Goldberg also serves as chief executive officer of Ways to Work, Inc. and United Neighborhood Centers of America (UNCA). Prior to joining the Families International group of companies in 1994, Goldberg held a variety of positions in the corporate and philanthropic field and in the public sector. He was President of the Prudential Foundation (1990-94) and head of Primerica's social responsibility programs (1982-88). He was Project Director of the New York State Heroin and Alcohol Abuse Study (1981-82) and Special Assistant to the Director of the U.S. government's National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (1979-81). Goldberg is a Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration, Immediate Past Chair of the Board of The Children's Institute (Oregon), and a Board Trustee of The Bridgespan Group. He is also Chair of the Advisory Committee of the Listening Post Project at the Center for Civil Society Studies at Johns Hopkins University and Convening Chair of Leadership 18.
  • Norman E. Bowie is the Elmer L Andersen Chair in Corporate Responsibility at the University of Minnesota where he holds a joint appointment in the departments of strategic management and philosophy. He is an Academic Advisor with the Business Roundtable Institute for Corporate Ethics. His most recent books are *Guide to Business Ethics *(2002) and *Business Ethics: A Kantian Perspective* (1999). In addition his text *Ethical Theory and Business* (with Tom Beauchamp) went into its seventh edition in 2003. Professor Bowie has been a Fellow at Harvards Program for Ethics and the Professions and has served as Dixons Professor of Business Ethics and Social Responsibility at the London Business School. He is past president of The Society for Business Ethics, The American Society of Value Inquiry and former Executive Director of the American Philosophical Association. He serves on the editorial boards of *Business Ethics Quarterly* and *Business and Professional Ethics Journal* and is a senior contributing editor of the new *Journal of Business Ethics Education*. He teaches the required business ethics course in the Minnesota Carlson Executive MBA course as well as sections in the regular MBA program. In 2003 he initiated an international business ethics course that takes MBA students to Europe. He teaches the required ethics course in Minnesota's joint MBA with the Warsaw School of Economics.
  • Laurence Bergreen is an award-winning biographer, historian, and chronicler of exploration. His books have been translated into over 20 languages worldwide. In October 2007, Alfred A. Knopf published *Marco Polo: From Venice to Xanadu*, a groundbreaking biography of the iconic traveler. Warner Brothers is developing a feature film based on this book starring Matt Damon and written by William Monahan, who won an Oscar for The Departed. He has written for many national publications including *Esquire*, *Newsweek*, *TV Guide*, *Details*, *Prologue*, *The Chicago Tribune*, and *Military History Quarterly*. He has taught at the New School for Social Research and served as Assistant to the President of the Museum of Television and Radio in New York. In 1995, he served as a judge for the National Book Awards and in 1991 as a judge for the PEN/Albrand Nonfiction Award. A frequent lecturer at major universities and symposiums, he also serves as a Featured Historian for the History Channel. Mr. Bergreen graduated from Harvard University in 1972. He is a member of PEN American Center, The Explorers Club, the Authors Guild, and the board of the New York Society Library. He lives in New York City and is represented by Suzanne Gluck of the William Morris Agency.