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  • Dr. Watson is Professor and Coordinator of American Studies at Lynn University. Prior to joining Lynn’s faculty in 2007 he taught for 15 years at four other universities and with the Junior Statesman Foundation at Yale, Stanford, and Georgetown. Watson is the author or editor of 30 books and two encyclopedia sets, and has published over 150 scholarly articles, book chapters, and essays on topics in American politics and history. A frequent media commentator, Watson has been interviewed by CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, USA Today, The New York Times, Time, U.S. News & World Report, and most other major outlets in the United States. His commentary has appeared on C-SPAN, Book TV, The Voice of America, and Hardball with Chris Matthews, to name a few, as well on the BBC and public television/radio in ten countries, and one of his lectures was the debut program for the launch of C-SPAN’s new American History TV channel. Watson also writes a Sunday column for the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, tapes a Sunday talk show for south Florida’s PBS affiliate and a Sunday morning news show for south Florida’s NBC affiliate, and serves as the political analyst for WPTV 5 and WFTL 850 AM. The co-convener of seven national conferences on the presidency, Watson has served on the boards of several scholarly journals, academic associations, and community foundations as well as with the Calvin Coolidge Foundation, Harry S. Truman Foundation, and George McGovern Center for Public Service. He regularly organizes town halls, civic education programs, and voter registration drives in the community and has delivered roughly 2,000 lectures for universities, libraries, historic sites, and community groups around the country. Watson also founded the non-profit think tank Think Act Lead, co-founded the Florida Election Reform Initiative, and was the founding editor of the scholarly journal White House Studies. For his work Watson has received a number of awards, including the International Abraham Lincoln Award for his contributions to the study of the presidency, the Children's Hero Award for the programs he offers area schools, the South Florida Business Journal’s “Heavy Hitter in Education,” the League of Women Voters’ Good Government Award, both the Professor of the Year and Faculty Service Awards multiple times while at Florida Atlantic University, and Lynn’s Teacher of the Year Award.
  • Michael Scheuer had a 22-year career with the CIA, in which he served in both the Directorate of Intelligence (DI) and the Directorate of Operations (DO). During his tenure at the CIA, Scheuer's positions included chief of the bin Laden tracking unit at the Counterterrorism Center (1996-1999), and special adviser to the chief of the bin Laden unit ( September 2001 to November 2004). Scheuer is currently an adjunct professor of security studies at Georgetown University's Center for Peace and Security Studies and a senior fellow at the Jamestown Foundation, writing regularly for its online publication, *Global Terrorism Analysis*. He is the author of *Osama bin Laden*. Scheuer is also now known to have been the anonymous author of both the 2004 book Imperial *Hubris: Why the West is Losing the War on Terror* and the earlier anonymous work, *Through Our Enemies' Eyes: Osama bin Laden, Radical Islam, and the Future of America*.
  • Sara Herwig holds a Master of Divinity from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. She transitioned from living in the male gender role to living in the female gender role in 1997. From 1999 to 2001 she was the Director of Operations at The International Foundation For Gender Education (IFGE) where she became involved in Educating others about transgender issues. She has given presentations and lead workshops for graduate classes at Harvard University, Boston University, Andover-Newton Theological School, the Human Resources Department of the University of New Hampshire, Planned Parenthood of Northern New England and various conferences. Most of her education and advocacy work has been done in the Presbyterian Church (USA). She is on the National Board of That All May Freely Serve (TAMFS) one of several organization in the PC(USA) working for full inclusion of all people in the life and ministry of the church. She is currently under care of the Presbytery of Boston and was certified ready to seek a call for ordination to the ministry of Word and Sacrament in August of 2006.
  • Swithin Munyantwali is the Executive Director and Co-Founder of the International Law Institute African Centre for Legal Excellence (ILI-ACLE) based in Kampala, Uganda. The ILI-ACLE is Africa’s premier legal infrastructure development institution serving a broad constituency of government, public sector and non-governmental organisations through technical assistance and training. Since its establishment 14 years ago, the ILI-ACLE has competitively bid and been engaged by major bi-lateral and multi-lateral donors and regional governments to implement a large portfolio including: court restructuring and upgrading, law drafting, parliamentary strengthening, and various capacity building activities benefitting in excess of 10,000 members of the bar and bench and other related professionals in over 35 countries in sub-Saharan Africa to mention but a few. The Centre which has an office in Lesotho, is currently implementing rule of law projects in 22 African countries and will soon open an office in Liberia towards strengthening the judiciary through the training of over 3,000 court officers and judicial staff. Mr. Munyantwali is also an advisor and Board member to international entities such as UNCTAD, the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, and the ABA-UNDP Advisory Board Centre in Washington, DC. He has also served as an advisor to major US entities on strategic investments in Africa. He is a Non-Executive Director to the Board of Barclays Bank Uganda, where he also serves as the Chairman of the Board Human Resources and Compensation Committee, and previously as the Chair of the Board Audit Committee. He was recently appointed by the Under-Secretary General of the UN Habitat to a special committee advising on special investment initiatives by UN Habitat. On the invitation of the Secretary General of Interpol, Mr. Munyantwali serves on the Informal Board of Experts Bioterrorism Prevention Program. Mr. Munyantwali has served as a Guest Professor at the Macau University of Science and Technology, as well as the City University of Hong Kong Law School. Mr. Munyantwali obtained his education at St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (B.Sc Criminal Justice, 1998); his Juris Doctor at Case Western Reserve Law School (1992); and his Masters in International Law (LLM) at Georgetown University Law Center, Washington, D.C. (1993). He is a licensed U.S. lawyer, admitted to practice before the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.
  • Stephen Key, general counsel for the Hoosier State Press Association, has been helping Indiana reporters obtain access to public records and meetings since 1993. He worked in journalism before earning his law degree.
  • David Cuillier is a former newspaper reporter and editor and currently an assistant professor in the University of Arizona School of Journalism and the Freedom of Information Committee chairman for the Society of Professional Journalism.
  • Toni Locy covered federal courts and law enforcement for 25 years with news organizations such as the Washington Post, USA Today and the Associated Press, and is now the Donald W. Reynolds Professor of Legal Reporting at Washington & Lee University.
  • Fred H. Cate is Distinguished Professor in the Maurer School of Law at Indiana University. He specializes in information privacy law issues. He is the author of many books and articles, including The Internet and the First Amendment, Privacy in the Information Age, and Privacy in Perspective. He appears frequently in the popular press.
  • Dennis R. Ryerson is the editor and vice president of The Indianapolis Star. He has more than three decades of journalism experience as a reporter, editorial writer, and editor in newspapers across the country.
  • William Gilcher is a writer/producer and divides his time between independent projects and work for the Goethe-Institut Washington. Prior to joining the Goethe-Institut, he worked on cultural policy issues for the incoming Clinton administration. As a film and video producer, he specializes in cultural and intercultural projects. He produced a film version of *Beckett Directs Beckett: Samuel Beckett’s Endgame* for the University of Maryland Visual Press and the Smithsonian Institution as well as many European-American projects for the Goethe-Institut. Most recently, he produced *For Tomorrow: Ich hoff’ auf morgen – The Story and Poetry of Hilda Stern Cohen*, a feature film shot in Germany, Poland, Austria, and the USA about Holocaust survivor and poet Hilda Stern Cohen. The film features performances of a number of his musical compositions. Bill also served as American producer for Georges Rouquier’s final feature film, *Biquefarre*, in the early 1980’s and continues to be in the leadership of the Association Georges Rouquier in Goutrens, France.
  • Francis Collins is a physician and geneticist, most widely noted for his discoveries of disease genes and his work leading the effort to sequence the human genome. Born in Virginia, Collins received his B.A. from the University of Virginia, his Ph.D. from Yale, and his M.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Among numerous awards and recognitions, Collins has been elected to the Institute of Medicine and the National Academy of Sciences. He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2007 and the National Medal of Science in 2008. Collins currently serves as Director of the National Institute of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. Collins is also widely known for his advocacy of the coherency of science and the Christian faith, rejecting Intelligent Design as a credible paradigm. He has debated Richard Dawkins, written on the subject in his book *The Language of God*, and founded the BioLogos Foundation to open discussion about the harmony of science and faith.