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  • **Reuben Meade** is a retired politician from Montserrat who served as the island's first Premier between 2010 and 2014. He previously served as Chief Minister between 1996 and 1999 and 2009 to 2010. A member of the Movement for Change and Prosperity (MCAP), he previously led the now-defunct National Progressive Party.
  • **Leslie A. Lewis** is 66th Grand Master of Masons, of the Most Worshipful Prince Hall Grand Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons, Jurisdiction of Massachusetts. In addition, he wrote the foreword to the book, \_All Men Free and Brethren: Essays on the History of African American Freemasonry\_.
  • Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, co-editor of All Men Free and Brethren... and author of several books, including, More Than Freedom: Fighting for Black Citizenship in a White Republic, 1829–1889.
  • L. Mahadevan is the de Valpine Professor of Applied Mathematics, Professor of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology and Professor of Physics at Harvard University.
  • Dr. Jaimie D. Crumley is an Assistant Professor in the Gender Studies and Ethnic Studies at the University of Utah. She has used a number of prestigious fellowships to pursue new research including a study of the people of African and Indigenous descent at Old North Church from 1723 to 1860 and her current work on New England’s Black women abolitionists, theologians, sisters, and friends from 1770 to 1870. Dr. Crumley’s research on Old North is shared in the award-winning video series “Illuminating the Unseen,” produced by Old North Illuminated. She has a PhD in Gender Studies from UCLA.
  • David D. Hall has written widely about culture, politics, and religion in early New England. He is best known for Worlds of Wonder, Days of Judgment: Popular Religious Belief in 17th -Century New England (1989) and the more recent, The Puritans: A Transatlantic History (2019). He is Bartlett Professor Emeritus at Harvard Divinity School.
  • John Feldman’s career spans over 40 years and covers a wide range of genres, from independent dramatic feature films and documentaries, to experimental, educational, and business films. His films have won numerous international awards. Feldman’s current film Regenerating Life looks at the climate crisis from an ecological perspective. Prior to this he made Symbiotic Earth (2018), a documentary about the maverick scientist Lynn Margulis, which combines his lifelong passions for filmmaking and the natural sciences. Since 2005 he has focused on making documentaries in the arts and sciences including EVO: Ten Questions Everyone Should Ask about Evolution (2011, CINE Golden Eagle; Parents Choice Award); Energy and You: Renewable Resources and Innovative Solutions (2009, commissioned by San Diego County Office of Education); The Little Plant that Could IS BACK (2013, about a community-based hydroelectric plant); and video portraits of Jessye Norman, Ming Cho Lee, Helen Frankenthaler, and Merce Cunningham (2007, commissioned for the Nelson A. Rockefeller Awards). His earlier feature fiction films include Alligator Eyes (1990, first prize at the San Sebastian International Film Festival), Dead Funny (1995), and Who the Hell is Bobby Roos? (2002, “New American Cinema Award” at Seattle International Film Festival).
  • Jason Blazakis is a professor at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies (MIIS) where he focuses on threat financing, sanctions, intelligence, and violent extremism related research. He is also the Director of MIIS’s Center on Terrorism, Extremism, and Counterterrorism (CTEC).
  • Peter Moore  is an English writer, historian and lecturer. He is the author of Endeavour (2018) and The Weather Experiment (2015), which were both Sunday Times bestsellers in the United Kingdom. The Weather Experiment was also chosen as one of the New York Times 100 Notable Books of 2015. He teaches at the University of Oxford, has lectured internationally on eighteenth century history, and hosts a history podcast called Travels Through Time.
  • Hila Shamir is a Professor at Tel-Aviv University Faculty of Law. She is an expert in the fields of Employment, Labor, Immigration, and Welfare Law with a focus on issues of workers in global value chains, human trafficking, and gender equality. Shamir has taught at Toronto Faculty of Law, Georgetown Law School, Cornell Law School, UC Berkeley, and Harvard University. She served as Associate Dean of Academic and Student Affairs at TAU Law (2017-2018). Shamir received a European Research Council (ERC) grant to pursue research on a Labor Approach to Human Trafficking, and established TraffLab – Labor Perspective to Human Trafficking research project (2018-2023). She then received a second ERC grant to explore “A New Labor Law for Supply Chain Capitalism (Sept 2024- Sept. 2029).
  • James Lackner is recognized for his expertise and innovations related to human adaptation to unusual force environments including weightless and artificial gravity conditions. He is distinguished for studies on the physiological and psychological adaptations necessary in space flight, extending periods in space, and the physical readaptations required on return to Earth. Dr. Lackner is the director of the Ashton Graybiel Spatial Orientation Laboratory, which specializes in artificial gravity research. The lab was featured in a 2011 Nova Now program Can We Make It to Mars? hosted by Neil deGrasse Tyson.
  • Jeff Goodell’s latest book is The Heat Will Kill You First: Life and Death on a Scorched Planet. He is the author of six previous books, including The Water Will Come: Rising Seas, Sinking Cities, and the Remaking of the Civilized World, which was a New York Times Critics Top Book of 2017. He has covered climate change for more than two decades at Rolling Stone and discussed climate and energy issues on NPR, MSNBC, CNN, CNBC, ABC, NBC, Fox News and The Oprah Winfrey Show. He is a Senior Fellow at the Adrienne Arsht-Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Center and a 2020 Guggenheim Fellow.