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Journalist Greenhaw grew up in Alabama and had relatives and family friends deeply ensconced in the Ku Klux Klan. As an individual and later a reporter covering the civil rights movement for the Alabama Journal and the Montgomery Advertiser, Greenhaw made close contact with the heroic and villainous elements of the civil rights era. He chronicles the famous and the lesser-known, the activists and the people on the sidelines, black and white, who were compelled to make difficult choices to challenge or comply with heinous social customs. He follows the case of a black truck driver killed by the Klan in 1957, against the backdrop of the growing civil rights movement. Drawing on news archives, interviews, and personal accounts, he recalls the individuals who resisted and those who exploited racism, among them George Wallace. Greenhaw recalls Wallace’s wily use of racism to promote his political career and rise to governor and his later conversion to civil rights advocate. Photographs enhance this record of the complex history of race and politics in the South.

Mustafa Akyol is a Turkish writer and political commentator. He writes regular columns in the Turkish media and appears regularly on Turkish televisions. He occasionally writes for American newspapers and magazines as well. His forthcoming book, Islam Without Extremes: A Muslim Case For Liberty, will be published by W.W. Norton in July 2011.

Dick Simon catalyzes business leaders making a difference through Young/World Presidents’ Organization (YPO/WPO), an international network of over 18,000 business leaders in 100+ countries. His work involves creating small, intimate groups of top CEOs from both sides of conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere to build trust and understanding, and engage in actions to bridge divides. Dick is a successful business leader, serial entrepreneur and real estate developer, and travels extensively throughout the world documenting the environments, cultures and people he experiences. Dick received his MBA from Harvard Business School and BA from Cornell University, and serves on boards including Free the Children, Griffin Museum of Photography, Hoffman Institute Foundation and Project Healthy Children, as well as the Guatemala Consul in Boston. He has been recognized by YPO as a Global Humanitarian and by HBS with its Making a Difference Award. He participates in the Clinton Global Initiative, TED, the Aspen Institute and other organizations. Simon says, “For me, photography is both a creative and spiritual endeavor; helping me to slow down, focus and actively engage with the natural world, people and cultures, increasing my ability to forge deep connections with my subjects. I travel throughout the world to see, experience, connect and learn. My photography is an attempt to capture and share the essential commonality of people. Absent the visual cues of costume, ethnicity and geography, we are all interchangeable human beings. This understanding is interwoven in my photography, presentations and lectures, and work I do with business leaders on opposite sides of geopolitical and religious conflicts, all of which address issues of perception, stereotyping, histories, and ‘the other/them’.“

Steve Fitzpatrick is an adjunct faculty member at Georgia Perimeter College. Steve specializes in Geological surveying and mapping, hydrological modeling, computer support, graphic design, geophysical prospecting, scientific and technical writing.

Ambassador Ross Wilson is the former U.S. Ambassador to Turkey (2005-08) and Azerbaijan (2000-03) and is currently the Director of the Dinu Patriciu Eurasia Center at the Atlantic Council of the United States.

Fred Buls is the lab supervisor in the Physics/Astronomy/Geology lab at Clarkston Campus of Georgia Perimeter College. Prior to that he was term-to-term faculty and worked nine years as an adjunct faculty member.

William Kelly, a wholesale diamond broker, is a stroke survivor.

David Walker, an Atlanta business attorney, works with start-up, small, and large businesses. The firm represents business owners that are looking to raise capital, buy a business, sell a business, or get a new business started.

Ryals was named the first Poet Laureate of the Big Bend in 2008 and released her first book of poetry, The Moving Waters, the same year. Ryals performs with a popular poetry troupe, the Java Dogs. She currently is a professor at Florida State University. To give her Business Communications students a better understanding of the global marketplace, she wrote a textbook, Getting into the Intercultural Groove, peppered with anecdotes from her travels. As part of FSU’s International Program, Ryals spends part of the summer in Valencia, Spain, teaching business communication, literature, and writing.

Bill Briggs writes for MSNBC.com, covering business, travel, and health. He is the coauthor of Amped: A Soldier's Race for Gold in the Shadow of War (Wiley, 2008). He earned seven national writing awards for the Denver Post, from investigative journalism to humor pieces. His articles ranged from an exposé on a sexual predator coaching youth basketball to a series of stories revealing dysfunction and financial irregularities within the U.S. Olympic Committee. Briggs also has written for the Financial Times, the Miami Herald, and the Nashville Banner, covering business, sports, health, travel, and crime. Briggs has one daughter, Andrea, a college student. He lives in Denver, Colorado, with his wife, Nancy.

Janet Napolitano was sworn in as U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security in January 2009. Prior to becoming Secretary, Napolitano was in her second term as Governor of Arizona and was recognized as a national leader on homeland security, border security and immigration. She was the first woman to chair the National Governors Association and the first female Attorney General of Arizona. During her term as governor, Napolitano was named one of the top-five governors in the country by Time Magazine. Janet Napolitano is the third and current Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, and the first woman to serve in that office. Janet Napolitano was born in New York City and grew up in Pittsburgh, Penn., and Albuquerque, N.M. She graduated from Santa Clara University, where she won a Truman Scholarship and was the university's first female valedictorian. She received her Juris Doctor from the University of Virginia School Of Law.

Sandip A. Bhagat is a principal at Vanguard and head of equities. Mr. Bhagat has direct oversight responsibility for all passive and active equity portfolios and alternatives strategies managed by Vanguard Quantitative Equity Group. He has more than 20 years of experience in investment management in the areas of quantitative equity, asset allocation, alternatives, currencies, and derivatives. Before joining Vanguard in 2009, Mr. Bhagat was head of global asset allocation and systematic strategies at Morgan Stanley Investment Management from 2004 to 2008. Before that, he was managing director at Citigroup Asset Management. He began his career in 1987 at Travelers Investment Management Company, where he eventually became chief investment officer. Mr. Bhagat, a CFA charterholder, earned a B.S. in chemical engineering from the University of Bombay and an M.S. in chemical engineering and M.B.A. from the University of Connecticut.