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  • Kenya Evans's paintings and sculptures convey an intentionally didactic message about history's tendency to repeat itself. In their sampling of diverse references, these pseudo historical collages, which combine texts from children's books with popular toys, and comics with Islamic proverbs, comment on the reductive simplicity of history books, while asserting their own critical analysis of the foundations on which the United States was built. Evans is also a hip-hop musician, and his use of the medium itself a repository of black experience and a primary means of black expression in his artwork functions to create a multilayered juxtaposition of historical and contemporary situations, making it all too clear that little has changed. Evans is a member of Otabenga Jones & Associates.
  • Mixed-media painter Dawolu Jabari Anderson attended Texas Southern University in Houston. While enrolled there, he participated in numerous prestigious exhibitions. Along with his individual success, Anderson is a founding member of the Otabenga Jones & Associates collective, which was formed by Anderson and the artists Jamal Cyrus, Kenya Evans, and Robert Pruitt after meeting at Texas Southern University. In 2006, the collective was invited to participate in the Whitney Biennial, displaying both their collective and individual works, and all have since experienced steady success.
  • Born in 1931 into a family of Georgia sharecroppers, David C. Driskell is today a renowned painter and collector of art, as well as one of the leading authorities on the subject of African American art and the black artist in American society. His paintings can be found in major museums and private collections worldwide. Driskell's contributions to scholarship in the history of art include many books and more than 40 catalogues for exhibitions he has curated. His essays on the subject of African American art have appeared in major publications throughout the world.
  • Pearl Cleage is an Atlanta based writer whose work has won commercial acceptance and critical praise in several genres. An award winning playwright whose *Flyin' West* was the most produced new play in the country in 1994, Pearl is also a best selling author whose first novel, *What Looks Like Crazy On An Ordinary Day*, was an Oprah Book Club pick and spent nine weeks on the *New York Times* bestseller list. Her subsequent novels have been consistent best sellers and perennial book club favorites. *I Wish I Had A Red Dress*, her second novel, won multiple book club awards in 2001. *Some Things I Never Thought I'd Do*, was a "Good Morning America!" book club pick in 2003, and *Babylon Sisters* made the *ESSENCE * magazine best seller list in 2005. Her most recent novel, *Baby Brother's Blues*, was the first pick of the new *ESSENCE* Book Club and an NAACP Image Award winner for fiction in 2007. Pearl was a popular columnist with *The Atlanta Tribune* for ten years and has contributed as a freelance writer to *ESSENCE*, *Ms.*, *Rap Pages*, *VIBE* and *Ebony*. Pearl's work occupies a unique niche in contemporary African American fiction. She balances issues as challenging as AIDS, domestic violence and urban blight, but the distinguishing features of her books are her optimism, her commitment to positive change and transformation, and her unwavering faith in the possibility and power of romantic love.
  • John C. Knapp, PhD, is University Professor and Mann Family Professor of Ethics and Leadership. He serves as founding Director of the Frances Marlin Mann Center for Ethics and Leadership, established in the Brock School of Business to support teaching, research and service across the Samford University campus. Before joining Samford in 2008, he was Professor and Director of the Center for Ethics and Corporate Responsibility at Georgia State University's J. Mack Robinson College of Business, the fifth largest business school in the United States. The center was established under his leadership 1993 and grew to become one of the nation's leading resources for leaders seeking to strengthen ethics and integrity in organizations. Internationally known as a featured speaker and seminar leader for business and professional organizations, Dr. Knapp contributes to public understanding of ethics through frequent interviews with such media as *The New York Times*, *BusinessWeek*, *Sports Illustrated*, *Entrepreneur*, National Public Radio, *Financial Week* and Bloomberg News Service. His books include *For the Common Good: the Ethics of Leadership in the 21st Century* and *Leaders on Ethics: Real-World Perspectives on Today's Business Challenges*. He is co-editor of the forthcoming three-volume set, *The Business of Higher Education*. In 2009, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company will release his newest book, *World's Apart: How the Church Fails Businesspeople (and What Can Be Done about It)*. Dr. Knapp's scholarly work was recognized in 2007 with his induction into the Martin Luther King Jr. International Collegium of Scholars at Morehouse College, and in 2001 with the Georgia Governor's Award in the Humanities. He is an adjunct Professor of Ethics at Columbia Theological Seminary, teaching courses in the doctoral program, and previously was Senior Scholar and Professor of Ethical Leadership at Kennesaw State University.
  • Lea Donosky is an experienced manager of online interactivity and strategic planning. As The Atlanta Journal-Constitutions' first internet Interactivity Manager, she has been a frequently requested panelist and advisor on blogs, social networks and employee participation in social networking. In more than three years as liaison with and advocate for visitors of ajc.com, blog traffic increased more than 10 fold, to half a billion page views annually, which generated more than 15,000 comments/interactions a week online. She is responsible for developing strategy and content for several web channels. Prior to in her Internet career, she was a journalist for the The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Newsweek Magazine and The Chicago Tribune. A native Texan, reporting assignments have taken her to live in New York City, London, Chicago, and Washington D.C. Her coverage, and later editing of local, regional, national and international issues, inform her outlook on technology and business.
  • Jeremy C. Garlington is a leadership consultant who specializes in branding and transition issues facing executive-level business leaders. Garlington currently serves as managing partner of Point of View, LLC, a consultancy based in Atlanta. Clients include some of the nation's top business figures active in executive search, technology and financial services. A regular speaker and contributor, Garlington's perspectives have appeared in *The Wall Street Journal*, *USA Today*, *Fortune*, *Bloomberg Business News*, *BRANDWEEK*, *The Atlanta Journal & Constitution* and *Atlanta Business Chronicle*. He contributes frequently to the on-line coverage of *Business to Business* magazine, which covers news and issues impacting Atlanta-based companies.
  • Greg Lisby (PhD, University of Tennessee, 1988) is professor of communication, with specialization in journalism and mass communication research. Lisby has also earned a JD degree from Georgia State University and is a licensed attorney in the state of Georgia. Lisby's research interests include communication law (particularly first amendment law) and journalism history. He won the Book of the Year Award from the Journalism Historians Association for *Someone Had to be Hated: Julian LaRose Hassis-A Biography (Carolina Academic 2002, with W.F. Mugleston)*. In addition to his three other books or monographs, he has published his research in *Communication Law and Policy, Georgia Historical Quarterly, Communication and the Law, Journal of Communication Inquiry, Journalism Educator, Newspaper Research Journal, Media Law Notes*, and *Journalism Quarterly*. Dr. Lisby has received external funding from the United States Information Agency, the Defense Department, and the Georgia Humanities Council. He received the Award for Outstanding Achievement and Excellent Leadership from the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) after serving as Chair of the Council of Divisions, the Head of the Law Division, and the editor of the AEJMC Southeast Colloquium.
  • John Weatherford came to public broadcasting after working in commercial radio since 1966, commercial television since 1969 and running his own production companies (radio, TV, graphics and 3D animation) for 15 years. Much of the programming created in those 15 years ended up on public television; some of those series are still airing today. The majority of his more than 30 years in commercial broadcasting was spent in news and local programming. He has also served as vice president of the Georgia Radio Reading Service board for almost a decade.
  • Alice Hoffman attended Adelphi University, from which she received a BA, and then received a Mirrellees Fellowship to the Stanford University Creative Writing Center, receiving an MA in creative writing. Hoffman's first novel, *Property Of*, was written at the age of twenty-one, while she was studying at Stanford, and published shortly thereafter by Farrar Straus and Giroux. Her novels have received mention as notable books of the year by *The New York Times*, *Entertainment Weekly*, *The Los Angeles Times*, *Library Journal*, and *People Magazine*. She has also worked as a screenwriter and is the author of the original screenplay *Independence Day*. Her short fiction and non-fiction have appeared in *The New York Times*, *The Boston Globe Magazine*, *Kenyon Review*, *Redbook*, *Architectural Digest*, *Gourmet*, *Self*, and other magazines. Her teen novel *Aquamarine* was recently made into a film.
  • Lisa Daily can tell you why he didn't call, the color you should never wear on a first date, and even where to snoop for evidence if you think your guy's been fooling around. Millions read her dating advice column or tune in to see her every week on *Daytime*, and the early buzz on her debut novel,* Fifteen Minutes of Shame*, says it pops with the same signature quirky humor and fresh, irreverent voice that made her dating advice book, *Stop Getting Dumped!* a bestseller. Sarasota *MagazineWomen* from 16-60 flock to Lisa's popular Dream Girl Academy at the Learning Annex in New York City and events across the US. Lisa is a dating coach, speaker and popular media guest. She has done more than 2000 interviews on top radio and television shows, including *iVillage Live, MTV Live, Entertainment Tonight* and top UK national morning show, *This Morning*, and she appears as a real-life dating expert on the HITCH movie DVD starring Will Smith. A frequent source for reporters, Lisa has been quoted in hundreds of publications, from *the New York Times, Washington Post and Chicago Tribune to Cosmopolitan, Glamour, Men's Health, Christian Science Monitor and US Weekly Magazine. *