Forum Network

**Slava Menn** believes that biking makes better cities with healthier citizens. As the CEO of Fortified Bicycle he’s empowering urban cyclists to ride safely with unstealable, invincible bicycle equipment. Prior to Fortified, Menn co-founded Socrative (acquired by MasteryConnect), an ed-tech startup whose software is used in millions of classrooms worldwide. Menn has spoken at WGBH's Innovation Hub with **Kara Miller** and **Christina Quinn**. To hear the interview and read the article [**Click Here**](http://blogs.wgbh.org/innovation-hub/2014/4/25/are-stressful-jobs-good-you/ "") He holds a BSEE and MSEE from Boston University and a MBA from MIT Sloan and guest lectures at both on entrepreneurship. Menn's articles have appeared in \_Fast Company\_, \_The Boston Globe\_,\_ BikeRumor\_. Follow Slava Menn on Twitter [@slavamenn](https://twitter.com/slavamenn "") and [@fortifiedbike](https://twitter.com/fortifiedbike "")

Daniel D’Oca is an urban planner. He is Design Critic in Urban Planning and Design at the Harvard Design School, where he received a Master in Urban Planning degree.

Ed has 30+ years of real estate development, investment and management experience. He founded Cresset to focus on opportunities solely in New England, principally the Greater Boston area. Since the firm’s inception in 2000, he has been involved in all aspects of the company’s projects, which have an approximate aggregate total of $400 million. Prior to founding Cresset, he was president and a principal of the three operating companies of Intercontinental, a group of real estate development, construction and management companies based in Boston.

Viet Thanh Nguyen was born in Vietnam and raised in America. His stories have appeared in Best New American Voices, TriQuarterly, Narrative, and the Chicago Tribune and he is the author of the academic book Race and Resistance. He teaches English and American Studies at the University of Southern California and lives in Los Angeles.

Gabriella Gomez-Mont directs Laboratorio para la Ciudad, Mexico City’s new creative think-tank and experimental space, created at the invitation of Mexico City’s mayor, Dr. Miguel Angel Mancera. This initiative supports creativity and civic innovation by bringing together people from different sectors and disciplines, such as urbanists, artists, scientists, architects, government officials, sociologists, and economists. It also encourages conversations across different platforms, invents and implements pilot programs, and creates editorial projects and other initiatives and strategies–all with the aim of injecting good ideas into the city’s system. A multilingual writer, visual artist, documentary film director, cultural advisor, and arts curator, Gomez-Mont has also founded such projects as Toxico Cultura, Cine Abierto, and Laboratorio Curatorial 060, for which she has won awards and recognitions including the Prince Claus Fund (Holland), First Place of the Best Art Practice Award (Italy), and an IMCINE National Film Grant (Mexico). She is also a City 2.0 TED Prize grant awardee, a Fabrica alumna, and a TED Senior Fellow.

Stacy is the Executive Director of LivableStreets, overseeing all programs including Vision Zero, Better Buses, and the Emerald Network, and ensuring overall programmatic and operational excellence for the organization. A relentless optimist, Stacy is undaunted by the many challenges facing Metro Boston today, including increasing access to jobs and affordable housing, improving safety and public health outcomes, and building climate resiliency. Stacy believes that improving our streets isn't simply a transportation issue, but one of justice, equity, and opportunity. Previously Stacy served as the Director of Events & Sponsorship at Ceres, where she developed the strategic focus, content, and communications strategy for Ceres' major events. She also worked for the Office for Peace and Justice at the Archdiocese of Chicago where she collaborated with community partners to organize educational forums and supported a broad array of social justice initiatives. She has a Master of Arts in Social Justice from Loyola University, Chicago and a Bachelor of Arts in Religious Education from Saint Vincent College.

**Sister Simone Campbell** has served as Executive Director of NETWORK since 2004. She is a religious leader, attorney and poet with extensive experience in public policy and advocacy for systemic change. In Washington, she lobbies on issues of peace-building, immigration reform, healthcare and economic justice. Around the country, she is a noted speaker and educator on these public policy issues. She belongs to the [Sisters of Social Service.](http://www.sistersofsocialservice.com "Sisters of Social Service") She has received numerous awards, including a “Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Award” and the "Defender of Democracy Award" from the international Parliamentarians for Global Action. In addition, she has been the keynote or featured speaker at numerous large gatherings, including the 2012 Democratic National Convention. >> [Follow her on Twitter.](https://twitter.com/sr\_simone "Sister Simone on Twitter")

Mike Barry is a Software Engineer at Twitter who focuses on backend services and data analysis. He has bachelor's degrees in Electrical & Computer Engineering from The Pennsylvania State University and is currently working on a master’s degree in Computer Science from the Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

Founder and President of the Children’s Defense Fund (CDF), has been an advocate for disadvantaged Americans throughout her professional life. Under her leadership CDF has become the nation’s strongest voice for children and families. The mission of the Children’s Defense Fund’s Leave No Child Behind® is to ensure every child a Healthy Start, a Head Start, a Fair Start, a Safe Start, and a Moral Start in life as well as a successful passage to adulthood with the help of caring families and communities. A graduate of Spelman College and Yale Law School, Mrs. Edelman was the first black woman admitted to the Mississippi Bar. In 1968, she moved to Washington, D.C., as counsel for the Poor People’s Campaign organized by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. She subsequently founded the Washington Research Project, a public interest law firm and the parent body of the Children’s Defense Fund. Mrs. Edelman has received numerous honorary degrees and awards, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom (the nation’s highest civilian award) and the Robert F. Kennedy Lifetime Achievement Award. Her writings include: \_Families in Peril: An Agenda for Social Change; The Measure of Our Success: A Letter to My Children and Yours; I’m Your Child, God: Prayers for Our Children; I Can Make a Difference: A Treasury to Inspire Our Children;\_ and \_The Sea Is So Wide and My Boat Is So Small: Charting a Course for the Next Generation.\_

George Marshall is the founder of the Climate Outreach Information Network. He has worked at government and NGO consultancies, as the director of the Greenpeace US Forests Campaign, the international campaigns director for the Rainforest Foundation and the coordinator of the grassroots RisingTide UK network.

**T.C. Boyle** is an American novelist and short story writer. Since the late 1970s, he has published fourteen novels and ten collections of short stories. He won the PEN/Faulkner award in 1988 for his novel \_World’s End\_, and the Prix Médicis étranger for \_The Tortilla Curtain\_ in 1995, as well as the 2014 Henry David Thoreau award for excellence in nature writing. He is a Distinguished Professor of English at the University of Southern California and lives in Santa Barbara.

Nader Tehrani is an Iranian American designer and educator. He was born in England, raised in Pakistan, South Africa, Iran, and the United States. With degrees from Harvard and RISD, he was also educated in London and Rome during his college years.