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  • Christopher Lynn "Kit" Bakke is an U.S. activist. In the 1960s, she actively fought for women's rights and civil rights and she protested the Vietnam War. In college, she helped to establish a new chapter of the Students for a Democratic Society. Later, she became a member of the Weathermen, also called the Weather Underground, a militant leftist group. After leaving the Weather Underground, Bakke moved to Seattle, Washington. In Seattle, Bakke became a mother and worked as a nurse for many years. In 2006, her bio-memoir *Miss Alcott's E-mail *was published.
  • Mark Nepo is a poet and philosopher who has taught in the fields of poetry and spirituality for more than 30 years. Nominated for the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize, he has written several books. Of special note are The Exquisite Risk, which Spirituality & Health magazine cited as one of the Best Spiritual Books of 2005. Nepo is also editor of Deepening the American Dream: Reflections on the Inner Life and Spirit of Democracy. His books of poetry include Suite for the Living and Inhabiting Wonder.As a cancer survivor, Nepo is devoted to the life of inner transformation and relationship. For 18 years, he taught at the State University of New York at Albany. He now serves as a program officer for the Fetzer Institute in Kalamazoo, Michigan, a nonprofit foundation devoted to fostering awareness of the power of love and forgiveness in the emerging global community.
  • **Swanee Hunt’s** mission is to achieve gender parity, especially as a means to end war and rebuild societies, as well as to alleviate poverty and other human suffering. At Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, Hunt is the Eleanor Roosevelt Lecturer in Public Policy. In 1997, she founded the Women and Public Policy Program, a research center concerned with domestic and foreign policy, which she directed for more than a decade. She teaches “Inclusive Security,” exploring how women are systematically excluded from peace processes, the impact, and the policy steps needed to rectify the problem. From 1993 to 1997, Hunt served as ambassador to Austria, where she hosted negotiations and international symposia focused on stabilizing the neighboring Balkan states. Prior to that, she made her mark as a civic leader and philanthropist in Denver, where she led initiatives on public education, affordable housing, women’s empowerment, and mental health services for two mayors and the governor. In 2007, Ambassador Hunt was inducted into the** National Women’s Hall of Fame**. She is a widely published columnist and has authored three books: the award-winning \_This Was Not Our War: Bosnian Women Reclaiming the Peace\_, her memoir, \_Half-Life of a Zealot,\_ and \_Rwandan Women Rising\_.
  • Dennis L. Haarsager has led Washington State University's public broadcasting and educational telecommunications organization since 1978, serving as associate vice president and general manager, Educational Telecommunications and Technology since 1995. His organization includes 13 public radio stations operating as Northwest Public Radio, two public television stations, the country's busiest statewide distance learning network, and WSU's instructional support services. From 2001-2003, he took a half-time leave of absence to head up the Corporation for Public Broadcasting's Digital Distribution Implementation Initiative and has done consulting work for several other organizations. Currently, he is one of the principals behind the Public Service Publisher initiative and he edits a weblog at technology360.com. Prior to WSU, Haarsager served as state coordinator for Idaho Public Broadcasting and as director of administration for South Dakota Public Broadcasting. Haarsager has his master's degree in public administration and a bachelor degree in political theory, both from the University of South Dakota.
  • Ernest J. Moniz is the Cecil and Ida Green Professor of Physics and Engineering Systems, Director of the Energy Initiative, and Director of the Laboratory for Energy and the Environment at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he has served on the faculty since 1973. Professor Moniz served as Under Secretary of the Department of Energy from 1997 until January 2001 and, from 1995-97, as Associate Director for Science in the Office of Science and Technology Policy in the Executive Office of the President. At MIT, Prof. Moniz served as Head of the Department of Physics and as Director of the Bates Linear Accelerator Center. His principal research contributions have been in theoretical nuclear physics and in energy technology and policy studies. He currently serves on President Obama's Council of Advisors for Science and Technology (PCAST). Professor Moniz received a Bachelor of Science degree summa cum laude in physics from Boston College, a doctorate in theoretical physics from Stanford University, and honorary doctorates from the University of Athens, the University of Erlangen-Nurenburg, and Michigan State University. He was a National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow at Saclay, France, and at the University of Pennsylvania. Professor Moniz is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Humboldt Foundation, and the American Physical Society and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He received the 1998 Seymour Cray HPCC Industry Recognition Award for vision and leadership in advancing scientific simulation and, in 2008, the Grand Cross of the Order of Makarios III for contributions to development of research, technology and education in Cyprus and the wider region.
  • Nocera received a B.S. degree in Chemistry (magna cum laude) from Rutgers University in 1979. He received a Ph.D. degree in Chemistry from the California Institute of Technology in 1984, after working with Professor Harry B. Gray studying the spectroscopy, electrochemistry, and photochemistry of polynuclear metal-metal bonded complexes. He joined the faculty of Michigan State University in 1984 as assistant professor, and became a professor at MSU in 1990. He moved to Massachusetts Institute of Technology as a professor of chemistry in 1997. He is presently the Henry Dreyfus Professor of Energy and Professor of Chemistry at MIT. Nocera and his researchers received media attention beginning in 2007 when he declared that a better understanding of the photosynthesis process could lead to economical storage of solar energy as chemical fuel. He later announced that his group had developed a highly efficient anode electrocatalyst for use in electrolysis of water employing inexpensive materials. His work centers around the basic mechanisms of energy conversion in biology and chemistry, particularly in the theory of proton coupled electron transfer. He is also the director of the Solar Revolution Project at MIT which seeks to create innovations towards the use of solar energy in large scale, mainstream applications.
  • Professor of Political Science. Professor Ansolabehere studies elections, democracy, and the mass media. He is coauthor (with Shanto Iyengar) of *The Media Game* (Macmillan, 1993) and of *Going Negative: How Political Advertising Alienates and Polarizes the American Electorate* (The Free Press, 1996). His articles have appeared in *The American Political Science Review*, *The British Journal of Politics*, *The Journal of Politics*, *Legislative Studies Quarterly*, *Public Opinion Quarterly*, *The Quill*, and *Chance*. His current research projects include campaign finance, congressional elections, and party politics.
  • Rishi Reddi is an American author. She was born in Hyderabad, India and grew up in the United Kingdom and the United States. Along with her writing career, Reddi has been an enforcement attorney for the state and federal environmental protection agencies, as well as a lawyer for the Massachusetts Secretary of Environment. Her book Karma and Other Stories received the 2007 LL Winship PEN New England Award. Rishi Reddi's work was chosen for Best American Short Stories 2005, featured on NPR's Selected Shorts program, and received an honorable mention for 2004 Pushcart Prize. She has been a Fellow at the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference and the recipient of an Individual Artist's Grant from the Massachusetts Cultural Council. She serves on the board of directors of South Asian American Leaders of Tomorrow.