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Lucian Leape is a health policy analyst whose research has focused on patient safety and quality of care. Prior to joining the faculty at Harvard in 1988, he was professor of Surgery and Chief of Pediatric Surgery at Tufts University School of Medicine and the New England Medical Center. Dr. Leape is internationally recognized as a leader of the patient safety movement, starting with the publication in JAMA of his seminal article, "Error in Medicine" in 1994. His subsequent research demonstrated the success of the application of systems theory to the prevention of adverse drug events. He has been an outspoken advocate of the nonpunitive systems approach to the prevention of medical errors and he has talked and written widely about the need to make patient safety a national priority. Dr. Leape was one of the founders of the National Patient Safety Foundation, the Massachusetts Coalition for the Prevention of Medical Error, and the Harvard Kennedy School Executive Session on Medical Error. Recent honors include the Distinguished Service Award of the American Pediatric Surgical Association, the Donabedian Award from the American Public Health Association, a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Investigator's Award in Health Policy Research, and honorary fellowship in the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada. In 2003 he received the duPont Award for Excellence in Children's Health Care. In 2004, he received the John Eisenberg Patient Safety Award and Modern Healthcare named him as one of the 100 most powerful people in health care. Dr Leape is a graduate of Cornell University and Harvard Medical School. He trained in surgery at the Massachusetts General Hospital and in pediatric surgery at Boston Children's Hospital.

Linda Kenney remembers the day her life changed forever. It was November 18, 1999. At the time, she was a 37-year-old wife and mom of three and she was scheduled for a total ankle replacement. For Linda, operations were a way of life. Born with bilateral club feet, this was to be her twentieth surgery. She said goodbye to her husband and went to the pre-operative area where the block was performed. Moments later, she was near death, in full cardiac arrest. A rare and frightening complication had occurred. Anesthesia had entered Linda's blood stream and stopped her heart. A Code Blue was called, and when her cardiac function could not be restored, she was rushed to a cardiac OR where her chest was opened and her heart was connected to a bypass machine. It saved her life. When she was discharged, Linda was given instructions on how to manage her physical recovery and obtain help from a visiting nurse. But, she says, no one informed her of the emotional impact an event like this would have on her or her family. Linda then made some difficult decisions: She was not going to sue the doctor or the hospital as many people had assumed she would do, and she wanted to get back on the horse and reschedule her surgery. She also decided to contact Dr. van Pelt and ask him to join her for coffee so she could let him know that she didn't blame him and that she believed this was a truly unanticipated outcome. In June 2002, Linda founded Medically Induced Trauma Support Services (MITSS). Dr. Van Pelt helped get the organization started and is now chairman of the MITSS Board of Directors. Linda has worked with hundreds of patients and their families, as well as clinicians who have found themselves on the sharp end of an adverse event.

Regine O. Jackson is an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Richmond. She specializes in race and ethnic relations, American immigration, and urban ethnography. Her current research project is titled "No Longer Visible: Haitian Immigrants in the 'New Boston.'"

Abigail Garner is a writer, speaker and educator who is dedicated to a future of equality for LGBT families and communities. She speaks from her own experience of having a gay dad who came out to her when she was five years old. Bringing voice to a population of children that is often overlooked, Abigail has been featured on CNN, *ABC World News Tonight*, and National Public Radio. She is the author of the Lambda Literary Finalist, *Families Like Mine: Children of Gay Parents Tell It Like It Is* (2004). She is currently completing her master's degree in Organizational Leadership at the College of St. Catherine with a certificate in dispute resolution from Hamline University. Upon completion of her degree in 2009, her goal is to secure a position in a grant-making foundation or a not-for-profit organization.

Neil Giuliano serves as president of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD). Mr. Giuliano joined GLAAD in September 2005. Under Mr. Giuliano's stewardship, GLAAD has taken the lead on many pressing issues for the LGBT community. He is considered among the nation's most visible and effective leaders of the movement for LGBT equality, earning recognition as one of Instinct magazine's Top 25 of 2005 and one of Out magazine's Out 100 in 2006, which recognizes the 100 most influential people in gay culture. Prior to GLAAD, Mr. Giuliano served for 10 years as the mayor of Tempe, Arizona and also had a 25-year career as a senior administrator at Arizona State University, the largest public university in the United States. As mayor of one of the largest cities in the generally conservative state of Arizona, Mr. Giuliano was among the nation's most visible openly gay elected officials, whose track record of successful coalition building won him endorsement by the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund and overwhelming public support.

Nina Totenberg is NPR's award-winning legal affairs correspondent. Her reports air regularly on NPR's critically acclaimed newsmagazines *All Things Considered*, *Morning Edition*, and *Weekend Edition*. Totenberg was named Broadcaster of the Year and honored with the 1998 Sol Taishoff Award for Excellence in Broadcasting from the National Press Foundation. She is the first radio journalist to receive the award. She is also the recipient of the American Judicature Society's first-ever award honoring a career body of work in the field of journalism and the law. In 1988, Totenberg won the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Silver Baton for her coverage of Supreme Court nominations. Totenberg has been honored seven times by the American Bar Association for continued excellence in legal reporting and has received a number of honorary degrees. A frequent contributor to major newspapers and periodicals, she has published articles in *The New York Times Magazine*, *The Harvard Law Review*, *The Christian Science Monitor*, *Parade Magazine*, *New York Magazine*, and others. Before joining NPR in 1975, Totenberg served as Washington editor of *New Times Magazine*, and before that she was the legal affairs correspondent for *the National Observer*.

John Edwards owned his own law firm in Raleigh, North Carolina called Edwards & Kirby along with his best friend from college and business partner. Edwards ran for The United States Senate in 1998 as a member of the Democratic party in the North Carolina U.S. Senate race and was elected for the 6 year North Carolina U.S. Senate term from January of 1999 to January of 2005. In 2002, the first term Democratic US Senator from North Carolina announced his candidacy for the 2004 US Democratic Presidential nomination. Edwards finished second in the 2004 Democratic Presidential nomination process to Massachusetts Senator John Forbes Kerry. Due to his strong showing in the 2004 Democratic Presidential election primaries he was chosen by Senator Kerry to be his running mate on the 2004 US Democratic ticket for the US Presidency.

**Howard Bryant** is the author of nine books, Full Dissidence: Notes From an Uneven Playing Field, The Heritage: Black Athletes, A Divided America and the Politics of Patriotism, The Last Hero: A Life of Henry Aaron, Juicing the Game: Drugs, Power, and the Fight for the Soul of Major League Baseball, Shut Out: A Story of Race and Baseball in Boston, the three-book Legends sports series for middle-grade readers, and Sisters and Champions: The True Story of Venus and Serena Williams, illustrated by Floyd Cooper, and contributed essays to 14 others. Bryant is the author of nine books and a two-time Casey Award winner for best baseball book of the year. He was a 2003 finalist for the Society for American Baseball Research Seymour Medal. His book The Heritage was the recipient of the 2019 Nonfiction Award from the American Library Association’s Black Caucus and the Harry Shaw and Katrina Hazard Donald Award for Outstanding Work in African American Studies.