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Os Guinness speaks widely on social issues, particularly in the western world. He is the founder of the Trinity Forum and a Senior Fellow of the EastWest Institute in New York. As one who has experienced culture from different parts of the world, Guinness is a respected voice on issues of culture, character, calling, faith, worldview, and matters of globalization, religion, postmodernity, and public life. The son of medical missionaries (and the great-great grandson of Arthur Guinness, the Dublin brewer), Guinness was born in China during World War II. In 1951, Guinness was expelled from China shortly after going through the Chinese revolution of 1949. He received his undergraduate degree from the University of London and his D.Phil in social science from Oriel College, Oxford. Os has written or edited more than twenty five books, including *The American Hour*, *Time for Truth*, *The Call*, *Invitation to the Classics*,* Long Journey Home*, and *Unspeakable: Facing up to the challenge of evil*. His latest book, from Harper One, is *The Case for Civility – and Why our Future Depends on It*, published in January 2008. In 2010, Guinness contributed to *A Place for Truth: Leading Thinkers Explore Life's Hardest Questions*, published by The Veritas Forum and InterVarsity Press. Os was previously a freelance reporter with the BBC. Since coming to the United States in 1984, he has been a Guest Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Studies and a Guest Scholar and Visiting Fellow at the Brookings Institution. From 1986 to 1989, Os served as Executive Director of the Williamsburg Charter Foundation, a bicentennial celebration of the First Amendment. From 1991 to 2004 he was a senior fellow at the Trinity Forum, and a frequent speaker and seminar leader at political and business conferences in both the United States and Europe.

When Berklee College of Music President Roger H. Brown assumed his post at the college in 2004, he brought a rich palette of professional and life experiences to the job. Skills accrued playing recording sessions as a drummer in New York, administering United Nations humanitarian operations in Southeast Asia and Africa, and founding a company with his wife that became a corporation valued at over $1 billion and employing 19,000 people have contributed to his effective leadership at the world's largest college of contemporary music. Over the past four years Brown has presented honorary doctor of music degrees to a range of high achievers representing many disciplines. The list includes McCoy Tyner, Aretha Franklin, Ornette Coleman, Clint Eastwood, Melissa Etheridge, Steve Winwood, Earl Scruggs, Philip Bailey, and Gloria and Emilio Estefan, to name a few. Brown himself has been recognized for his accomplishments at Berklee with the Cruz de Honor from the provincial government of Valencia, Spain and the March of Dimes Franklin Delano Roosevelt Humanitarian Award.

Nearly 25 years ago, critic Martin Williams called Gary Giddins "probably the most impressive journalist ever to have written about music." Born in Brooklyn, New York, Giddins graduated from Grinnell College in Iowa, and the following year began working as a freelance writer. In 1973, he joined *the Village Voice*, and a year later introduced his column "Weather Bird," which he ended in December 2003, closing a 30-year run during which he received international recognition and won many prizes, including an unparalleled six ASCAP Deems Taylor Awards for Excellence in Music Criticism. Giddins' writings on music, books, and movies have appeared in *The New York Times*, *The New Yorker*, *Esquire*, *The Atlantic*, *Grand Street*, *The Nation*, and many other publications. He presently writes columns about music for *Jazz Times* and about film for *the New York Sun*. His first book, *Riding on a Blue Note*, appeared in 1981, and was followed by *Rhythm-a-Ning*, *Faces in the Crowd*, and critical biographies of Charlie Parker and Louis Armstrong that he adapted into documentary films for PBS; he won a Peabody award for writing the PBS documentary, *John Hammond: From Bessie Smith to Bruce Springsteen*. He has been nominated three times for Grammy Awards, and won in 1987 for his liner notes to *Sinatra: The Voice*.

Judith Chalmer is the author of a book of poems, *Out of History's Junk Jar *(Time Being Books, 1995). She is the creator of a dance/narrative with oral histories, *Clearing Customs/Cruzando Fronteras/Preselenje*, on the lives of immigrants in central Vermont (1999), and is author and performer of *Don't Go In There!* a one-woman comedy on racial and ethnic consciousness in central Vermont (2002). She is co-founder of a women's interracial dialog group that has met for 3 years in central Vermont. Her essays have appeared in *Celebrating The Lives of Jewish Women* (Haworth Press, 1997), *Urban Spaghetti*, *RAGU*: online journal of the Adult Degree Program at Vermont College and other journals.

Michael C. Dawson is the John D. MacArthur Professor of Political Science and the College at the University of Chicago. He has also taught at the University of Michigan and Harvard University. Dawson received his BA with high honors from Berkeley in 1982 and doctorate degree from Harvard University in 1986. Professor Dawson was co-principal investigator of the 1988 National Black Election Study and was principal investigator with Ronald Brown of the 1993-1994 National Black Politics Study. His research interests have included the development of quantitative models of African American political behavior, identity, and public opinion, the political effects of urban poverty, and African American political ideology. This work also includes delineating the differences in African American public opinion from those of white Americans. More recently he has combined his quantitative work with work in political theory. His previous two books, *Behind the Mule: Race and Class in African-American Politics (Princeton 1994)* and *Black Visions: The Roots of Contemporary African-American Political Ideologies (Chicago 2001), *won multiple awards, including Black Visions winning the prestigious Ralph Bunche Award from the American Political Science Association. Dawson has also published numerous journal articles, book chapters and opinion pieces. Dawson's strong interest in the impact of the information technology revolution on society and politics, as well as his research on race are both fueled in part from his time spent as an activist while studying and working in Silicon Valley for several years. Dawson is currently finishing an edited volume, *Fragmented Rainbow*, on race and civil society in the United States as well as a solo volume,* Black Politics in the Early 21st Century.*

Reginald Hudlin is a writer, producer, director and executive in the modern black film movement, creating movies such as House Party, Boomerang and Bebe's Kids. His work in television includes producing and directing The Bernie Mac Show, directing the pilot of the hit series Everybody Hates Chris and executive producing the animated series The Boondocks. Hudlin was also the first President of Entertainment for Black Entertainment Television, creating 17 of the top 20 rated shows in the history of the network. Hudlin sits on the boards of the Black Filmmaker Foundation, the UCLA Film, Television and Theatre Department, and the Hollywood Television and Radio Society.

David Grant assumed executive leadership of the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation in 1998. He is responsible for development and evaluation of programs in the Foundation's major areas of giving: education, the environment, and the arts in New Jersey, as well as the Foundation's major initiatives: Poetry, technical assistance to non-profit organizations, and Sustainable Morristown. David spent his professional career before Dodge as an educator. In 1983 he and his wife, Nancy Boyd Grant, co-founded The Mountain School of Milton Academy, a semester-long, interdisciplinary environmental studies program in Vermont for high school juniors. From 1994 to 1998 David was a national consultant to schools and leader of workshops on topics of curriculum and program design, professional development, assessment practices and school climate. His public service includes having been town moderator of Vershire, Vermont and a board member of the Vermont Council for the Humanities. He served as chair of the Board of the Council of New Jersey Grantmakers from 2006 to 2008 and is currently a member of the Board of Directors of the Surdna Foundation in New York City. Davids avocation since 1976 has been performing as Mark Twain in a one-man theatrical show, including, in 1982, a performing/lecture tour around the world.