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  • Linda Mason, chairman and founder, co-founded Bright Horizons in 1986 and served as president until becoming chairman of Bright Horizons Family Solutions in July 1998. Linda Mason is also the author of *The Working Mother's Guide to Life: Strategies, Secrets, and Solutions*, published in November 2002. Mason co-founded Horizons for Homeless Children, a nonprofit organization that serves the needs of homeless mothers and their children throughout the Boston area. Prior to founding Bright Horizons, Linda Mason managed large-scale relief operations overseas. She served as co-director of Save the Children's emergency program in Sudan, serving 400,000 famine and war victims, and directed a large feeding program for children in Cambodian refugee camps along the Thai border. Mason is a 1998 honoree in Redbook's "Mothers and Shakers" awards for her work to improve the quality of child care, and she was the 1996 recipients of the Ernst & Young/USA Today "Entrepreneur of the Year" award. Linda also was honored by *Working Mother magazine* as one of the "25 Most Influential Mothers in America." Linda Mason serves on the boards of Yale University and Horizons for Homeless Children. She is a graduate of the Yale School of Management, Cornell University, and the Sorbonne University in Paris, France.
  • Kevin Bales is President of Free the Slaves, the US sister organization of Anti-Slavery International (the world's oldest human rights organization), and Professor of Sociology at Roehampton University in London. He also serves on the Board of Directors of the International Cocoa Initiative. His book *Disposable People: New Slavery in the Global Economy*, published in 1999, was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize, and has now been published in 10 other languages. Archbishop Desmond Tutu called it a well researched, scholarly and deeply disturbing expose of modern slavery. A revised edition was published in 2005. In 2006, his work was named one of the top 100 World-Changing Discoveries by the association of British universities.
  • Roger Plant is an English rock singer and songwriter, famous for his membership in the former rock band Led Zeppelin as the lead vocalist and lyricist, as well as for his successful solo career. In 2007, he released an album, Raising Sand, produced by T-Bone Burnett with American bluegrass soprano Alison Krauss, which won the 2009 Grammy Award for Album of the Year.
  • Neal Pierce is an American writer and journalist specializing in metropolitan regions, their political and economic dynamics, and their emerging national and global roles.
  • 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. His contributions to scholarship in the history of art include many books and more than 40 catalogues for exhibitions he has curated. Prof. Driskell studied at Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine and received his undergraduate degree in art at Howard University (1955) and a Masters in Fine Arts degree from Catholic University (1962). He joined the faculty of the Department of Art at the University of Maryland in 1977 and served as its Chair from 1978-1983. Driskell curated the groundbreaking exhibit Two Centuries of Black American Art: 1750-1950 which laid the foundation for the field of African American Art History. Since 1977, Prof. Driskell has served as cultural advisor to Camille O. and William H. Cosby and as the curator of the Cosby Collection of Fine Arts. In 2000, in a White House Ceremony, Prof. Driskell received the National Humanities Medal from President Bill Clinton. In 2007, he was elected as a National Academician by the National Academy.
  • Judith B. Tankard is a landscape historian, author, and preservation consultant. She received an M.A. in art history from the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, and has taught at the Landscape Institute, Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University, since 1987. In 2000, she was awarded a Gold Medal by the Massachusetts Horticultural Society for her role in the advancement of historic New England gardens. She is the author or co-author of seven illustrated books on landscape history, including her most recent publications, *Beatrix Farrand: Private Gardens*, *Public Landscapes and Gardens of the Arts and Crafts Movement: Imagination and Reality.* *A Place of Beauty: The Artists and Gardens of the Cornish Colony* won a Quill and Trowel Award from the Garden Writers Association in 2001 and *The Gardens of Ellen Biddle Shipman* was recipient of a 1998 book award from the American Horticultural Society. Judith's articles and book reviews have been published in *Antiques*, *Apollo*, *Arnoldia*, *Country Life*, *Horticulture*, *Hortus*, *Landscape Architecture*, *Old-House Interiors*, *Old-House Journal*, *Pacific Horticulture*, and other publications, and for ten years she served as editor of *the Journal of the New England Garden History Society*. She is currently publications editor of *the Beatrix Farrand Society*.
  • Louise Rosen is a media executive with over 25 years experience in the international television and film business, project development, production and distribution. She has worked with a wide range of program genres and formats and set up major international co-productions. Her reputation as a talent-spotter has grown steadily, built upon her association with numerous award-winning projects. Louise was based in Europe for 8 years and has particular interest in the cross-cultural aspects of television/film. She has taken an active role in many productions; overseeing research, editorial and budgeting as well as location- and post-production. Her experience also includes management, operations, marketing and business affairs. She has been honored to have among her projects Oscar, Emmy, Sundance, Prix Italia, International Emmy and other award-winning films.