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David Chudnovsky is a mathematician. David Chudnovsky works closely with and assists his brother Gregory, who suffers from Myasthenia Gravis, a disorder of neuromuscular transmission leading to fluctuating weakness and fatigue. The Chudnovsky Brothers are mathematicians known for their wide-ranging mathematical abilities, their home-built supercomputers, and their close working relationship. The Chudnovsky Brothers have held records, at different times, for computing Pi to over two billion digits a feat accomplished in the early 1990s on a supercomputer they built in their Brooklyn apartment.

When Howie Carr turns the microphone off, he is an award-winning front-page columnist for the *Boston Herald*. Known for his scathing exposes of local politicians, he has raised lots of eyebrows and voices over the years. He's famous for pushing the envelope and not regretting that he went too far. His opinion is valued by the TV stations he's regularly featured on: *NBC Today*; *MSNBC*; *C-SPAN*; *Court TV*; *Geraldo*; *CNN*; *Larry King Live*; *The Fox News Network*; *CBS This Morning*. New England tunes in to Howie Carr. Besides being heard on his flagship station *WRKO 680* in Boston, he is syndicated across New England. He has worked as a reporter/commentator for Channels 2 and 56. In 1980-81, Carr was Boston City Hall bureau chief of *The Boston Herald American*, and he later worked as the paper's State House bureau chief. As a political reporter for *WNEV*, Channel 7, his coverage of then Mayor Kevin White was so relentless that after the mayor announced he wasn't running again, he told the Boston Sunday Globe that one of the things he enjoyed most about his impending retirement was not having Carr chase him around the city. In 1985, he won the National Magazine Award, the magazine industry's equivalent of the Pulitzer Prize, for Essays and Criticism. In television, he has been nominated for an Emmy Award.

Gregory Chudnovsky is a mathematician with an interest in number theory. Gregory works closely with his brother, David Chudnovsky, who is also a mathematician. The Chudnovsky Brothers are mathematicians known for their wide-ranging mathematical abilities, their home-built supercomputers, and their close working relationship. A 1992 article in The New Yorker quoted several mathematicians' opinions that Gregory Chudnovsky has one of the top mathematical minds alive today. David Chudnovsky works closely with and assists his brother Gregory, who suffers from Myasthenia Gravis, a disorder of neuromuscular transmission leading to fluctuating weakness and fatigue. The Chudnovsky Brothers have held records, at different times, for computing Pi to over two billion digits a feat accomplished in the early 1990s on a supercomputer they built in their Brooklyn apartment.

Martha Burk is a political psychologist and women's issues expert who is co-founder of the Center for Advancement of Public Policy, a research and policy analysis organization in Washington, D.C. She is currently Director of the Corporate Accountability Project for the National Council of Women's Organizations (NCWO). She also serves as the Money Editor for *Ms. Magazine*, and she is a syndicated newspaper columnist. She holds a Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Texas at Arlington. Her background includes experience as a university research director, management professor, and advisor to political campaigns and organizations. Dr. Burk has long been active in public debate and political analysis. She has provided briefing papers for presidential candidates, including Bill Bradley, Wesley Clark, Howard Dean, and Bill Richardson, and has worked closely with members of the United States Congress on issues of importance to women. She is currently serving as a Senior Policy Adviser for Women's Issues to Governor Bill Richardson of New Mexico. Her latest book is *Your Money And Your Life: The High Stakes for Women Voters in '08 and Beyond*. Dr. Burk has served on the Commission for Responsive Democracy, the Advisory Committee of Americans for Workplace Fairness, the Sex Equity Caucus of the National Association for the Education of Young Children, and the board of directors of the National Committee on Pay Equity, where she headed the Legislative Task Force. She currently serves as an advisory board member to several other national organizations, including the Ford Foundation and Women for World Peace, a project of the Twenty First Century Foundation.

Gary Nash is professor emeritus of history at the University of California at Los Angeles and has been the director of the National Center for History in the Schools since 1994. As the director of the National Center for History in the Schools, Nash oversees the publication of over 60 teaching units on specific issues and dramatic events in US and world history, designed for grades 5 through 12. From 1992 to 1996, Professor Nash co-chaired the National History Standards Project, which landed him in the middle of ideological debates about how history should be taught to young people, whose history should be taught, and the merits of multiculturalism in the classroom. Some said the Standards were too multicultural; others said they were not multicultural enough. It is this type of eloquent and consistent defense of an expansive view of history and the teaching of history that characterizes the eleven books Nash has written during his career. His first book, *Quakers and Politics: Pennsylvania, 1681-1726*, published in 1968, won a prize from the American Historical Association, Pacific Coast Branch, for best book in American history. His 1979 book, *The Urban Crucible: Social Change, Political Consciousness and the Origins of the American Revolution*, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in history, and it won the Commonwealth Club of California's Silver Prize in literature. In 1988, his *Forging Freedom: the Formation of Philadelphia's Black Community, 1720-1840*, won the prize for best book from the Society for the History of the Early American Republic. Other titles include *Red, White, and Black: The Peoples of Early America* (1974; also published in Spanish); *The Private Side of American History: Readings in Everyday Life (1975); Race, Class, and Politics: Essays on American Colonial and Revolutionary Society* (1986); *American Odyssey: The United States in the Twentieth Century* (1991); and *First City: Philadelphia and the Forging of Historical Memory* (2001). Nash has co-authored or co-edited eight books and has written more than 20 book chapters, 35 articles, and over 80 reviews, article reviews, op-ed essays and commentaries. His latest book is *African American Lives: The Struggle for Freedom*.

Michael E. Porter is a leading authority on competitive strategy, the competitiveness and economic development of nations, states, and regions, and the application of competitive principles to social problems such as health care, the environment, and corporate responsibility. Professor Porter is generally recognized as the father of the modern strategy field and has been identified in a variety of rankings and surveys as the world’s most influential thinker on management and competitiveness. He is the Bishop William Lawrence University Professor at Harvard Business School. In 2001, Harvard Business School and Harvard University jointly created the Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness, dedicated to furthering Professor Porter’s work. He is the author of 18 books and more than 125 articles, including his latest work, Redefining Healthcare: Creating Value-Based Competition on Results and On Competition.

Willard Mitt Romney was governor of Massachusetts from 2003 until 2007, when he began an unsuccessful run for president of the United States. Romney is a successful businessman with a political pedigree: his father, George Romney, was the governor of Michigan from 1963-69 and ran for the Republican nomination for president in 1968. (He was defeated by Richard Nixon.) Mitt Romney graduated from Brigham Young University in 1971, and earned both a law degree and an MBA from Harvard in 1975. Romney worked for the management consulting firm Bain & Company before founding the investment firm Bain Capital in 1984. Romney became a national figure in 1999 when he took over as president of the Salt Lake Organizing Committee and helped rescue the 2002 Winter Olympics from money and ethical problems. The Salt Lake City Games went off on time and on budget in 2002, and later that year Romney was elected governor of Massachusetts. He served one term, then declined to run for reelection in 2006. In February 2007 he announced a run for the presidency; he ended his run in February 2008, after falling behind John McCain in early Republican primaries. Romney married the former Ann Davies in 1969; they have five sons. Ann Romney was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1998... Romney ran for the U.S. Senate in Massachusetts in 1994, losing to longtime incumbent Edward Kennedy. Romney is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Romney wrote the 2004 book *Turnaround : Crisis, Leadership, and the Olympic Games*.

As vice president in the O'Neill and Associates communications practice, Cosmo Macero Jr. offers insight on the worlds of media, business and government gleaned from his 17 years in the newspaper business as a reporter, columnist and editor. His strategic counsel helps position and prepare clients to make powerful and lasting impressions on community leaders, the media and the public at large. Prior to joining O'Neill and Associates, Cosmo led the *Boston Herald's Business Today* section to earn top national awards for breaking news coverage and general excellence from the Society of American Business Editors and Writers in 2006. In just under 18 months, as assistant managing editor for business, Cosmo turned the *Herald*'s business section into a daily must-read for the regions corporate leaders, entrepreneurs, investors and savvy consumers. A veteran political, financial and public policy journalist, Cosmo was named Bostons Best Business Columnist in 2002 and 2003 by the *Improper Bostonian* magazine. In 2003, *Boston* magazine recognized him for his unique insights into the states political scene as viewed through the prism of business and the economy. In 1999 *Boston* magazine named Cosmo the best print reporter in Boston. Prior to joining the *Herald* in 1997, he worked as a reporter for the *Union-News/Sunday Republican* and the *Daily Hampshire Gazette*. Cosmo is also a regular contributor to the *Fox 25 Morning News*.

Jennifer Baumgardner is the author of Look Both Ways: Bisexual Politics and the co-author of Manifesta: Young Women, Feminism and the Future and Grassroots: A Field Guide for Feminist Activism. She is also the producer of the film, I Had an Abortion, and the creator of a corresponding t-shirt, photo, and public education campaign. She has written for Harper's, The Nation, Glamour, Jane, and NPR's All Things Considered, among other venues, and her work has been featured in The New York Times and on The Oprah Winfrey Show.