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  • **Eva A. Millona,** is Executive Director of the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition (MIRA), the state's largest organization representing the foreign born, and co-chair of the National Partnership for New Americans, the lead national organization focusing on immigrant integration. Ms. Millona directed the refugee resettlement program in Central Massachusetts. In her native Albania, she practiced civil and criminal law, serving on Tirana's District Court from 1989 - 1992, when she was the nation's youngest district judge ever appointed. Ms. Millona is the co-chair of the Governor's Advisory Council for Refugees and Immigrants and serves on the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. In 2010, she co-chaired the nation's largest immigrant integration conference, which MIRA hosted in Boston. She is the recipient of over a dozen major awards, including the prestigious 2009 USCIS Outstanding American by Choice Award, the 2010 Wainwright Bank Social Justice Award, and the 2011 and 2012 Powermeter Award, presented to the most influential people for Latinos in Massachusetts.
  • Dr. Albert F. Argenziano has over 40 years of experience as both a teacher and administrator in public and overseas education. His most recent position is with the Massachusetts Office of Educational Quality and Accountability. Prior to the EQA, Dr. Argenziano served as the Executive Director of International Campuses at Endicott College in Beverly, Massachusetts. Dr. Argenziano served as Superintendent of the Somerville Public Schools from 1993 to 2005. Dr. Argenziano has also served as a college professor at Radford University, Lesley University, Bridgewater State College, Endicott College and Christopher Newport College. He has been a member of the American Association of School Administrators and the Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents, Suffolk University Alumni Association and has received numerous building dedications in Massachusetts and overseas.
  • Jefferey Pokorak is Associate Professor and Director of Clinical Programs at Suffolk University Law School.
  • Jim Webb grew up on the move, attending more than a dozen different schools across the U.S. and in England. First attending the University of Southern California on an NROTC academic scholarship, he left for the Naval Academy after one year. Graduating in 1968 he chose a commission in the Marine Corps, and was one of 18 in his class of 841 to receive the Superintendent's Commendation for outstanding leadership contributions while a midshipman. First in his class of 243 at the Marine Corps Officer's Basic School in Quantico, Virginia, he then served with the Fifth Marine Regiment in Vietnam, where as a rifle platoon and company commander in the infamous An Hoa Basin west of Danang he was awarded the Navy Cross, the Silver Star Medal, two Bronze Star Medals, and two Purple Hearts. Mr. Webb has written six best-selling novels: *Fields of Fire* (1978), considered by many to be the classic novel of the Vietnam war, *A Sense of Honor* (1981), *A Country Such As This* (1983), *Something To Die For* (1991), *The Emperor's General* (1999) and *Lost Soldiers* (2001). He taught literature at the Naval Academy as their first visiting writer, has traveled worldwide as a journalist, and his PBS coverage of the U.S. Marines in Beirut earned him an Emmy Award from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. In government, Mr. Webb served in the U.S. Congress as counsel to the House Committee on Veterans Affairs from 1977 to 1981, becoming the first Vietnam veteran to serve as a full committee counsel in the Congress. During the Reagan Administration he was the first Assistant Secretary of Defense for Reserve Affairs from 1984 to 1987, where he directed considerable research and analysis of the U.S. military's mobilization capabilities and spent much time with our NATO allies. In 1987 he became the first Naval Academy graduate in history to serve in the military and then become Secretary of the Navy. Mr. Webb is currently the Senior U.S. Senator from Virginia, and during his first term in office his legislative priorities have been guided by three themes: reorienting America's national security posture, promoting economic fairness, and increasing government accountability.
  • Mameve Medwed is the author of five novels, Mail, Host Family, The End of an Error, How Elizabeth Barrett Browning Saved My Life (2007 Massachusetts Book Award Honors in Fiction), and Of Men and Their Mothers (pub date April 22, 2008). Her short stories, essays, and book reviews have appeared in, among others, Yankee, Redbook, Playgirl, The Boston Globe, Ascent, The Missouri Review, Confrontation, The Readerville Journal, Newsday and The Washington Post. She has taught fiction writing for many years at The Cambridge Center for Adult Education, has been a mentor in the writing program at Lesley University, read papers for the English Department at Simmons College and has taken part in writing festivals across the country, serving on panels and teaching seminars. She has been interviewed on Maine Public Radio, The Voice of America and other radio and TV programs and has been profiled in many newspapers.