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Michael Herb is an American political scientist who gained prominence through his All in the Family thesis of Arab monarchies. Herb graduated from University of Washington in 1987, earned his masters degree from UCLA in 1992, and completed his doctorate at UCLA in 1997. He joined the faculty of the Georgia State Political Science Department in 1998.

Professor Chaplain is the Head of the Department of Mathematics at the University of Dundee, where he is the chair of Mathematical Biology and leads a research group of 25 students and lecturers. He is a dedicated University teacher, graduate student supervisor, and research advisor. He has received a number of prestigious awards including the London Mathematical Society Whitehead Prize, and became an elected Fellow of The Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2003. Furthermore, Mark served as the president of the International Society for Mathematical Biology. Professor Chaplain edited a number of books, wrote numerous book chapters, and has authored and co-authored more than 130 peer reviewed journal articles.

Lynn Hlatky is the founding director of the Center of Cancer Systems Biology. She joined the Medical Center from the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the Department of Radiation Oncology at Harvard Medical School. The mission of the Center of Cancer Systems Biology is based on the appreciation that carcinogenesis evolves at multiple levels ranging from molecular signalings to cellular and tissue interactions, and that only by their concerted study can the entire process be understood. Accordingly, the Center has recruited people with expertise in clinical oncology, cancer biology, molecular biology, radiobiology, bioengineering, mathematics, informatics and computational biology. Dr. Hlatky also directs a multi-institutional NASA Specialized Center of Research Program, the mission of which is to investigate radiation-induced carcinogenesis of solid tumors. This Program involves active participation from investigators at University of CA Berkeley, Harvard Medical School and the University of Heidelberg.

Sue Williams is a director and producer who has worked on numerous television projects including WGBH's *Frontline*, *The American Experience* and TV specials such as *China: Born Under the Red Flag*.

Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser is the President of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, a think tank and activist Muslim organization which provides a platform for an American Muslim movement to separate spiritual Islam from the political. He is also a former U.S. Navy Lieutenant Commander and a respected physician currently in private practice specializing in internal medicine and nuclear cardiology. Dr. Jasser has been active in a number of interfaith efforts in Arizona including founding the Children of Abraham, a Jewish-Muslim dialogue group. He also been an advisor on Islamic affairs to the U.S. Embassy in the Netherlands. The Center for Security Policy honored him as a "Defender of the Home Front"; the Phoenix office of the FBI presented him with the 2007 Director's Community Leadership Award. Dr. Jasser was recently featured in the films, *The Third Jihad* and *Islam vs. Islamists*. He is a regular columnist and contributing editor for *FamilySecurityMatters.org* and *Hudson New York*. He appears frequently on the Fox News Channel and CNN, and has been published in the *National Review*, *Arizona Republic*, *Middle East Quarterly*, *Dallas Morning News*, *Washington Times*, and *Beliefnet*.

Since 1998, Claudio Martinez has served as the Executive Director of the Hyde Square Task Force, an organization that builds the skills of inner-city youth through innovative arts and cultural, leadership, lifelong learning, economic development and community organizing initiatives. Under his leadership the Hyde Square Task Force has received numerous recognitions including the Coming Up Taller award, the nation's highest honor for out of school arts and humanities programs given by the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities, the Best Practice Award in Teen Programming for Youth Leadership and Achievement by Boston's After School for All Partnership and the Innovations in Education City Excellence Award. Claudio has over 20 years of managerial experience in both the private and nonprofit sectors and has served as an advisor to several governmental, non-profit and transnational initiatives including Boston Housing Authority's Monitoring Committee, Boston University Institute of Nonprofit Management and Leadership and the Boston-Haifa NGO Learning Exchange. As a community organizer, neighborhood activist and parent, Claudio has been involved in Boston school reform efforts for the last 20 years. He served for many years as co-chair of the Boston Parent Organizing Network and a board member of the Latino After School Initiative and the Boston Schoolyard Initiative. He also sits on the Board of Directors of The Boston Foundation, the Nellie Mae Education Foundation and Boston After School and Beyond. He is a member of the inaugural class of the Barr Foundation Fellows Program. In 2008, he was appointed by Mayor Menino to the Boston School Committee.

M. Bilal Kaleem is the Executive Director of the Muslim American Society of Boston (MAS Boston). MAS Boston, the largest Muslim organization in New England, operates the newly completed, $16 million Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center. Bilal received his B.Eng. and M.Eng. from MIT, and is currently pursuing graduate study in sociology and religion at Boston University with some coursework at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. His focus is Muslim civic engagement. He also serves on the board of the Greater Boston Interfaith Organization (GBIO), the Massachusetts Immigration and Refugee Advocacy Coalition (MIRA), and the Center for Jewish Muslim Relations (CJMR). He has also served as a mentor at the Somali Development Center serving youth from Somalia.

After earning a degree from Brown University, Chef Jody Adams began her culinary career as a line cook at Seasons restaurant in the Bostonian Hotel in 1983. In 1990, she became the executive chef at Michela’s in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Adams opened Rialto in September 1994 and four months later, *The Boston Globe* awarded her four stars (the newspaper’s highest rating). In 1997, Jody received The Perrier-Jouet Best Chef Award: Northeast, from the James Beard Foundation. Two years ago, Adams launched an internal educational program, Guerilla Grilling, designed to connect her staff to the farmers and artisan producers that supply the restaurant. Adams owns Rialto located in Harvard Square and has been praised for her creativity and support of local farmers by *The Boston Globe*, *Boston Business Journal*, *Gourmet, Food & Wine*, *The New York Times*, and other publications. In addition to running her restaurant, Adams and husband, Ken Rivard, are co-authors of, *In the Hands of a Chef: Cooking with Jody Adams of Rialto Restaurant*.

Donald W. Wiest is the President of Boston Public Market and a founding partner of Brennan, Dain, Le Ray, Wiest, Torpy & Garner, P.C. He focuses his law practice on complex zoning and related permitting work. Wiest served from 2001 to 2006 as the Land Use Counsel to the Boston Redevelopment Authority ("BRA"). In that capacity, he advised the BRA on a wide range of zoning and other land-use matters, including the permitting of nearly all large-scale projects involving complex zoning (such as PDAs, Urban Renewal Areas, and Institutional Master Plans); drafting new zoning governing significant areas of the city; and interpreting and drafting amendments to the Boston Zoning Code in a wide range of contexts. Wiest has given numerous presentations on development-related land-use issues at community meetings and public hearings. He worked closely on these matters with public officials throughout city and state government, private developers, and neighborhood groups and other public advocates. Wiest started his legal career at Kirkland & Ellis in Chicago and then at Hale & Dorr's Boston Office.

Wendy Ballinger is a principal of Ballinger Consulting, a non-profit development and organizational consulting firm. Her experience includes a decade of service as Executive Director of the Ford Hall Forum, as well as staff positions in both the Massachusetts State Senate and the Institute of Politics at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. She is co-author of *How the press Affects Federal policymaking: Six Case Studies* with Martin Linsky, Jonathan Moore and David Whitman. Ms. Ballinger received her B.A. and M.A. from Tufts University.

Annie B. Copps is the senior editor of food for *Yankee Magazine*. Copps oversees the magazine's food coverage, both as an editor and contributor of feature stories and columns. Prior to *Yankee*, she served as food editor of *Boston Magazine* and features editor of *Concierge* and was widely known for her work as host of WBZ radio's *Connoisseurs' Corner* and WTKK's *Table Talk with Annie Copps*. As a television producer, Copps made her mark with two popular PBS series, *Cooking with Todd English* and *Julia Child's Kitchen*--where she was an assistant to the legendary grande dame of French cuisine. She has also appeared as a guest on NBC's *Todayshow*. Before her media career, Copps honed her skills as a cook at several notable Boston-area restaurants, including Olives, Jasper's, The Harvest, and Michela's.

Geshe Damdul Namgyal received his Geshe Lharam, the highest degree of learning in Tibetan Buddhism, from Drepung Loseling Monastery in 1993. In addition to serving as the Editor of Lhaksam Tsegpa, a journal produced by the Institute of Buddhist Dialectics, and Editor of Dreloma, a Drepung Loseling publication, he has also played a key role over the years as a convener, interpreter, and speaker for numerous conferences and forums exploring the interface of Buddhism with modern science, western philosophy and psychology, and other religious traditions, on both a national and international level. With this unique background and expertise in the interface between Buddhism and modern science, he will be an invaluable resource for the Emory-Tibet Science Initiative, which is developing a comprehensive science curriculum for Tibetan monks and nuns. Geshe Damdul-la also served for many years as the Principal of the Monastic School for Modern Education at Drepung Loseling Monastery, and then as a Professor of Indo-Tibetan Buddhism at the Central University of Tibetan Studies in Sarnath, India. In recent years, Geshe Damdul-la has served as the auxiliary English language translator for His Holiness the Dalai Lama and has traveled extensively in this capacity throughout the world.