Award-winning writer, editor and author of Facebook Fairytales: Modern-Day Miracles to Inspire the Human Spirit, Liebert examines the positive power and untapped potential of the social networking revolution, beginning with 25 true stories of hope and triumph reaching across cultures — all resulting from Facebook connections.
Director of the multi-award-winning documentary “Darius Goes West,” which chronicles the epic cross-country road trip he and 10 others took with Darius Weems, a friend stricken with fatal Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, Smalley is a change agent for a new generation. He and Darius prove that idealism and creativity can result in tangible progress.
Author of Treasures of the Earth: Need, Greed and a Sustainable Future, Saleem H. Ali is professor of environmental planning and conflict resolution at the University of Vermont. Named one of eight “Revolutionary Minds in the World” by Seed magazine, Dr. Ali is a leading advocate for cross-cultural environmental pragmatism.
A Senior writer at Salon.com, Leonard writes the hybrid blog/column “How the World Works” – a venue for exploring the interconnections between globalization, energy policy, economics, the environment, technology and politics; and, particularly the extent to which these inextricably linked subjects are driven by, and affect, China, India and the U.S.
Co-founder of Maverick Farms, a center for sustainable-food education, and Food Editor at Grist.org, the country’s top environmental news site, Philpott’s biweekly “Victual Reality” column is the only regular food-politics column in the national media. Food & Wine named him one of “ten innovators” who will “continue to shape [America’s] culinary consciousness.”
Co-Author of Economic Gangsters: Corruption, Violence and the Poverty of Nations, and author of Africa’s Turn?, Miguel is the Director of the Center of Evaluations for Global Action at the University of California, Berkeley, where he is an associate professor in economics, with a research focus on African economic development.
Award-winning New York Times journalist and author of the bestseller Our Boys: A Perfect Season on the Plains with the Smith Center Redmen, Drape paints an inspiring portrait of a small town in Kansas that actually believes it takes a village to raise a child, and how its long-undefeated football team (79 games in a row) has embodied this ideal.
Author of the acclaimed memoir, The War I Always Wanted, Friedman is currently Director of New Media at the Department of Veterans Affairs. He served from ’07-’09 as Vice Chairman of VoteVets.org and as editor of the blog VetVoice, and has worked extensively across all media platforms to communicate progressive defense and foreign policy strategies
Author of the acclaimed book Inviting Disaster: Lessons from the Edge of Technology, Chiles, a renowned technology and history writer, helps organizations assess risk and avoid catastrophe by examining the repeating patterns of historical and contemporary disasters, and applying the lessons learned to each organization’s daily processes.
Award-winning New York Times columnist, bestselling author of Forty Million Dollar Slaves: The Rise, Fall and Redemption of the Black Athlete, and frequent guest on ESPN’s “The Sports Reporters,” Rhoden uses the metaphors of sports to address crucial issues and conflicts in contemporary American society.
Former Executive Director of GLAAD (Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation), Garry is widely recognized as one of the most vocal, passionate and effective civil rights leaders in America. She is a featured blogger at The Huffington Post, and frequently contributes commentary to major news publications and TV networks.
In his book Wired for Thought: How the Brain Is Shaping the Future of the Internet, Stibel, a brain scientist, entrepreneur and the President of Web.com, demonstrates how the Internet has effectively replicated the human brain, and how the future of business lies in leveraging the understanding of these similarly complex networks.
Author of the memoir Love My Rifle More Than You: Young and Female in the U.S. Army, Williams, a former sergeant and Arabic linguist in a military intelligence unit of the 101st Airborne in Iraq, addresses the shifting role of women in society, the changing demands on today’s military, and the treatment/reintegration of veterans.
Author of the bestselling book and nationally syndicated column ¡Ask a Mexican!, and Orange County: A Personal History, Arellano, also a contributing editor to the LA Times, addresses immigration, integration and the role of stereotypes in American society, and helps organizations to better connect with Latinos.
Award-winning New Yorker journalist and author of Pulitzer Prize nominee Nobodies: Modern American Slave Labor and the Dark Side of the New Global Economy, Bowe examines how outsourcing, subcontracting, immigration fraud, and the relentless pursuit of “everyday low prices” have created a frightening new market for slavery in America.
Co-Author of Economic Gangsters: Corruption, Violence and the Poverty of Nations, Fisman is the Lambert Family Professor of Social Enterprise and Director of the Social Enterprise Program at the Columbia Business School. He also writes a monthly column for Slate on economics and popular culture.
Author of Live From the Campaign Trail: The Greatest Presidential Campaign Speeches of the 20th Century and How They Shaped Modern America, Cohen, a Senior Fellow at the American Security Program, writes and lectures on wide-ranging political and national security issues, including the war in Afghanistan, the ongoing militarization of American foreign policy.
Author of Unquenchable: America’s Water Crisis and What To Do About It, Glennon, the Morris K. Udall Professor of Law and Public Policy at the University of Arizona, addresses America’s onrushing water shortage, and provides a provocative solution in the form of a market-based system that values water as both a commodity and a fundamental human right.
In Libertarianism, from A to Z, acclaimed Harvard economist Jeffrey Miron leads audiences beyond the superficial tenets of libertarian thought – “Keep your government out of my bedroom and out of my wallet,” – and examines the movement’s controversial stances on prostitution and drug use, while exploring broader issues ranging from abortion to the war on terror.
Award-winning former LA Times journalist, and author of the memoir Losing My Religion: How I Lost My Faith Reporting on Religion in America, Lobdell shares his spiritual journey investigating and reconciling the many oft-conflicting facets of faith in America, which took him from evangelical Christian to reluctant atheist.
When a commuter train took two of Jay’s limbs, he made ‘Limbonade’. After he awoke from the accident, Jay realized that he was no longer human…he had become “The 7 Million Dollar Man.” With new bionic limbs, and his sense of humor and imagination still intact, the former Ad industry legend (MasterCard “Priceless”) proves that anything is possible.
