Forum Network

Michael Korda is a novelist and the former editor-in-chief at Simon & Schuster. He has published numerous works by high-profile writers and personalities such as William L. Shirer, Will and Ariel Durant, Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan. From a commercial point of view, he is best noted for pioneering best-selling novels by authors such as Jacqueline Susann and Harold Robbins, that in the 1960s were considered very daring. Korda is also the *New York Times* bestselling author of *Horse People*, *Country Matters*, *Ulysses S. Grant*, *Cat People*, *Journey to a Revolution*, and *Ike*.

John Doar served as First Assistant and then Assistant Attorney General, Civil Rights Division, Department of Justice, from 1960 to 1962. He also served as Special Counsel to the House of Representatives during the impeachment of President Nixon.

Jennifer Jacquet is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Environmental Studies at NYU. She is an environmental scientist interested in human cooperation, with specific interests in overfishing and climate change. Her book about the evolution, function, and future of the use of social disapproval, Is Shame Necessary?, is due out in early 2015. She formerly wrote the guilty planet blog at Scientific American, and contributes to Edge.org.

Timothy F. Geithner became the ninth president and chief executive officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York on November 17, 2003. In that capacity, he serves as the vice chairman and a permanent member of the Federal Open Market Committee, the group responsible for formulating the nation's monetary policy. President Obama nominated Mr. Geithner to be the 75th Secretary of the Treasury and the U.S. Senate confirmed him to the position on January 26, 2009. Mr. Geithner joined the Department of Treasury in 1988 and worked in three administrations for five Secretaries of the Treasury in a variety of positions. He served as Under Secretary of the Treasury for International Affairs from 1999 to 2001 under Secretaries Robert Rubin and Lawrence Summers. He was director of the Policy Development and Review Department at the International Monetary Fund from 2001 until 2003. Before joining the Treasury, Mr. Geithner worked for Kissinger Associates, Inc. Mr. Geithner graduated from Dartmouth College with a bachelor’s degree in government and Asian studies in 1983 and from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies with a master’s in International Economics and East Asian Studies in 1985. He has studied Japanese and Chinese and has lived in East Africa, India, Thailand, China, and Japan. Mr. Geithner serves as chairman of the G-10’s Committee on Payment and Settlement Systems of the Bank for International Settlements. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Group of Thirty.

Keith G. Bentele is Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Massachusetts Boston. His research has examined the consequences of welfare reform, rising earnings inequality in the US, and the passage of multiple types of state legislation sought by the conservative Evangelical movement. His current research includes a project examining the performance of safety net programs in the 2007–2009 recession and the consequences of this recession for state poverty rates and racial inequality.

Alexander Hertel-Fernandez is a fourth year PhD student in Government and Social Policy. His research interests include social insurance, taxes, inequality, and the politics of business and labor organization in advanced democracies.

Jack Schneider is an assistant professor of education at the College of the Holy Cross in Massachusetts. With an MA in History and a PhD in Education (Stanford University), he conducts research on the influence of rhetoric, politics, history, and culture on educational policy. Specifically, his work looks at how and why key stakeholders in K-12 education - parents, teachers, and policymakers - come to think the things they do about schools. His scholarship has addressed phenomena like white flight, school choice, teacher licensure, curricular reform, standardized testing, and teacher evaluation.

Sam Kean spent years collecting mercury from broken thermometers as a kid, and now he’s a writer in Washington, D.C. His stories have appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Mental Floss, Slate, Psychology Today, and The New Scientist, among other places, and his work has been featured on “Radiolab” and NPR’s “All Things Considered,” among other shows. His books The Disappearing Spoon and The Violinist’s Thumb were national bestsellers, and both were named an Amazon “Top 5″ science books of the year. The Disappearing Spoon was nominated by the Royal Society for one of the top science books of 2010, while The Violinist’s Thumb was a finalist for PEN’s literary science writing award.

José-Marie Griffiths joined the leadership at Bryant University as vice president for academic affairs and university professor in 2010. An internationally acclaimed policy expert, researcher, and administrator with more than 35 years of experience in academic, corporate, and government settings, she has served in a number of U.S. Presidential appointments, two requiring U.S. Senate approval. She has also served on numerous blue ribbon panels covering every U.S. administration, including President Obama’s. Dr. Griffiths has been a high-level university administrator at four universities, including Vice Chancellor, University of Tennessee; Chief Information Officer, the University of Michigan; Director, Sara Fine Institute, University of Pittsburgh; and Dean, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She has simultaneously served as a professor at all of these institutions, in addition to previous teaching and research appointments at other major universities in the U.S. and abroad. Dr. Griffiths has conducted numerous contracts or grants with 16 federal agencies, including the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Energy, the National Institute of Science and Technology, and NASA, as well as 13 companies, including AT&T Bell labs, IBM, Eastman Kodak, Johnson & Johnson, DuPont, and Colgate-Palmolive; seven international organizations such as NATO, UNESCO, and the British Library Research and Development Division; and over 10 statewide studies on networking, including Massachusetts, Florida, Pennsylvania and New York. These studies led to numerous publications including authoring or co-authoring nine books (plus three under contract), over 100 articles, chapters in books, international conference proceedings, and over 200 technical reports. Her research has also led to numerous honors and awards such as Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science, the top two honors in her primary professional association (The American Society for Information Science and Technology), and she was recognized as one of the Top 25 Women on the Web.