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Dr. Andrew C. Kadak is a Professor of the Practice in the MIT Department of Nuclear Engineering. Dr. Kadak was the faculty advisor to the MIT Mars Nuclear Power Team convened jointly between the MIT Nuclear Engineering and Aeronautics & Astronautics Departments in the Spring of 2003. The team performed an extensive design study of requirements for nuclear power systems to support round-trip human missions to Mars, and provided recommendations for future development in this area. Dr. Kadak has spent his entire career in the nuclear energy field. He graduated from Union College in 1967 and received his masters and doctorate degrees in Nuclear Engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He also received a masters degree in Business Administration from Northeastern University in 1983. He was formerly the President and CEO of Yankee Atomic Electric Company. Dr. Kadak's current interests, in addition to nuclear space power, are the development of innovative new nuclear power plants such as the pebble bed reactor and improved management systems for existing and future nuclear power stations.

From 1989 to 2000, he was director of science communications at the Science Museum in London, one of the oldest and largest museums of science and technology in the world. Appointed in 1989 by Imperial College, London, to the first professorship of Public Understanding of Science, he devoted the next 11 years to galvanizing the new field nationally and internationally, and also founded the first peer-reviewed international academic journal devoted to research in the public dimensions of science and technology. Most recently, as chief executive officer of At-Bristol, he helped establish the independent, not-for-profit science and natural history center as the largest science-based visitor attraction in the U.K. outside London. As a member of the House of Lords Select Committee of Science and Technology from 1999-2000, Durant assisted in the drafting and editing of one of the most influential and widely cited policy documents on science and society in Europe.

Dorothy Stoneman is founder and president of YouthBuild USA, the national support center for 226 YouthBuild programs and a leader in advocating for youth engagement in civil society. She is chairman of the National YouthBuild Coalition, with more than 1,000 member organizations in 42 states, Washington D.C., and the Virgin Islands. After joining the Civil Rights movement in 1964, and prior to founding YouthBuild USA in 1990, Stoneman lived and worked for 24 years in Harlem. She was first a teacher and then director of a community-based day care center, elementary school, community development housing corporation, community service program, and a youth employment and leadership development program. Stoneman has a bachelor's degree in history and science from Harvard University and a master's degree in early childhood education and a doctorate of humane letters from Bank Street College of Education.

Robert Clark is the founding director of YouthBuild Newark. He is the first YouthBuild graduate to start up a YouthBuild program. After completing the YouthBuild Boston AmeriCorps program, Clark joined Public Allies, an AmeriCorps community service program for emerging community leaders. At Public Allies, Clark continued to develop his natural gifts as a leader and public speaker. Clark declared his intention to start and operate his own YouthBuild program in his application to Rutgers University in Newark, New Jersey, in 1993. He attended Rutgers and earned his bachelor's degree at UMass Boston. After working at a community organization in Boston, he became a leadership development advisor at YouthBuild USA, where he worked with young people from across the country. One of his last assignments at YouthBuild USA was to support the formation of YouthBuild Newark by training a cadre of young people to play an active role in its creation. The sponsoring agency, Episcopal Community Development, was so impressed with Clark that they hired him as the program's founding director. YouthBuild Newark opened its doors in 2002 and is now an independent nonprofit that continues to enjoy a close relationship and financial support from Episcopal Diocese of Newark. YouthBuild Newark currently serves 65 students, and has 820 young people on its waiting list. Under Clark's leadership, the program produces consistently high outcomes in terms of student retention, GED attainment, college placement, and job placement, as well as passionate graduates who call YouthBuild home.

Tim Werner is a Senior Research Scientist at the New England Aquarium, and Director of the Consortium for Wildlife Bycatch Reduction, a group of engineers, fishermen, and biologists engaged collaboratively in the research and development of alternative fishing techniques that reduce the bycatch of threatened marine species. Before joining the Aquarium in 2005, Tim served as a senior director at the environmental non-profit organization Conservation International, where he oversaw programs that supported the creation of marine and terrestrial protected areas in Latin America and the South Pacific, and developed eco-businesses with rural communities. With a long-standing interest in tropical marine environments, he has organized and led field expeditions involving wildlife biologists and fisheries scientists to document coral reef biodiversity in Indonesia, Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, and Brazil. In addition to his focus on bycatch reduction, Tim is part of an international team of scientists funded by the National Science Foundation to study the biology and management of sea cucumbers. Tim holds graduate degrees in Marine Zoology from University of Maryland, and in Business Management from Stanford University where he was a 2001 Sloan Fellow.

In March 2008, the Board of the National Immigration Forum selected Ali Noorani to be Executive Director. Prior to joining the Forum, Ali was Executive Director of the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition (MIRA), an organization he joined in 2003. Under his leadership, MIRA more than tripled its staff and programs, and greatly increased its capacity to advocate for the rights and opportunities of immigrants and refugees. Before taking helm at MIRA, Ali worked on a variety of community health and social justice issues. At the Health Services Partnership of Dorchester, Ali served as the Director of Public Health, managing efforts ranging from HIV/AIDS to youth development for two large community health centers in Dorchester, MA. Born in California, Noorani is the son of Pakistani immigrants and one of the few national leaders of Muslim heritage. Ali is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley and received his Masters in Public Health from Boston University. Recently, he received the Alfred L. Frechette Award from the Massachusetts Public Health Association for exceptional leadership in promoting social justice and received the 2007 Boston University Young Alumni Award.

Joanie Kleypas is a marine ecologist/geologist that focuses on how coral reefs and other marine ecosystems are affected by changes in the Earth's atmosphere and climate. She has worked on coral reefs for more than 30 years, including trying to understand how climate change and ocean acidification will shape the future state of coral reefs. She has worked for years with oceanographic modelers to look for “climate refugia” for coral populations. She continues to pursue that work, but the refugia are getting smaller and it’s clear that traditional ways to conserve coral reefs will not be enough. So she recently started an active reef restoration project on the Pacific coast of Costa Rica. Getting back in the water has been a positive and practical way to work on solutions for coral reefs. The project is also proving to be surprisingly effective in communicating about climate change with the public.