The President’s Commission on White House Fellowships

The 27 members of the President’s Commission on White House Fellowships are responsible for recommending a group of exceptional men and women to the President for selection as White House Fellows. This accomplished group of citizens represents a broad range of backgrounds, interests, and professions. The commission will be chaired by John Phillips, a partner at Phillips and Cohen Law Firm. Cheryl Dorsey, President of Echoing Green, will vice-chair the commission.

John Phillips (Chair) John Hockenberry
Cheryl Dorsey (Vice Chair) George Munoz
Tom Brokaw Lloyd Fig Newton
Wesley Clark Pierre Omidyar
Tom Daschle John Berry
Nelson Diaz Roger Porter
Helene Gayle Paul Sarbanes
Vartan Gregorian Ruth Simmons
Steve Gunderson George Thibault
Cynthia Hale Bryan Traubert
Debbie Harmon Larry Tribe
Keith Harper Kaye Wilson
Christy Haubegger Judy Wise
Peter Henry

John R. Phillips (Chair):
John R. Phillips is a partner in the Washington, DC Law Firm of Phillips & Cohen, LLP. Mr. Phillips has a long history of involvement in public interest law having founded the Center for Law in Public Interest in 1971 in Los Angeles, one of the first Ford Foundation funded "Public Interest Law Firms". He was its Co-director for seventeen years, focusing on the environment, civil rights, corporate fraud and other issues. From 1984 to 1986, Mr. Phillips successfully worked with Congress to amend and modernize the dormant Civil War era law –the Federal False Claims Act – to make it an effective tool to combat fraud against the government. After President Reagan signed the amendments into law in 1986, Mr. Phillips and his firm initiated law suits under the law against corporations that defrauded the government which has returned approximately $4 billion dollars to the government. For his efforts he has received numerous citations and life-time achievement awards. For the past decade, he has been included on the National Law Journals’ list of "100 Most Influential Lawyers in America". From 1988 to 1993, Mr. Phillips was an appointed member of the Ninth Circuit Judicial Conference. In 1997, he was appointed by President Clinton to the President’s Commission on White House Fellowships. He graduated in 1966 from the University of Notre Dame and in 1969 from the University of California School of Law in Berkeley (Boalt Hall) where he was an editor of the California Law Review.

Cheryl Dorsey (Vice Chair):
Cheryl Dorsey is President of Echoing Green, a pioneer in the social entrepreneurship movement. The mission of Echoing Green is to unleash next generation talent to solve the world’s biggest problems. Its signature program, the Echoing Green Fellowship, provides seed capital and support to the most promising social entrepreneurs with bold ideas for change. As a co-founder of The Family Van, a community-based mobile health unit that provides basic health care and outreach services to at-risk residents of inner-city Boston neighborhoods, Dorsey received an Echoing Green Fellowship in 1992 to help launch the program.  Cheryl has served as a White House Fellow and Special Assistant to the U.S. Secretary of Labor, Special Assistant to the Director of the Women's Bureau of the U.S. Labor Department, and Transition Team Member of the Innovation and Civil Society subgroup of the Technology, Innovation, and Government Reform Policy Working Group.  Dorsey currently serves on several boards and has received numerous public service awards and recognition for her work. Most recently, Dorsey was named one of "America's Best Leaders" by US News & World Report and the Center for Public Leadership at Harvard Kennedy School and one of The Nonprofit Times' "Power and Influence Top 50."  Dorsey received her Bachelor's degree in History and Science magna cum laude with highest honors from Harvard-Radcliffe Colleges, her medical degree from Harvard Medical School and her master's in public policy from Harvard Kennedy School. She completed her pediatric residency at Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, DC.

John Berry:
Mr. Berry is serving as the Director of the Office of Personnel Management. Hebegan his Federal career as a Legislative Director for U.S. Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD), a major leader on all issues affecting the Civil Service. Mr. Berry was responsible for overseeing Hoyer's work on Federal employees, and was the primary craftsman behind the locality pay reform, among many other issues affecting pay and benefits of employees and retirees. Mr. Berry began his management career at the Department of Treasury, where he served as Deputy Assistant Secretary and acting Assistant Secretary for Law Enforcement.   Later in the Clinton administration, Mr. Berry was appointed Assistant Secretary for Policy, Management and Budget, where he focused on employee partnerships, worklife issues for employees and reversing years of decline by achieving one of the largest budgetary increases in the Department's 150 year history. As Director of the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, Mr. Berry worked with Interior Inspector General, Earl Devaney, to reconcile 20 years of financial records, establish sound management practices, while also conserving over 3 million acres of wildlife habitat through innovative public-private partnerships. Most recently, Mr. Berry served as Director of the National Zoo.

Tom Brokaw:
Tom Brokaw is a Special Correspondent for NBC News. During 2008, he was the Interim Moderator on Meet the Press. From 1982 to 2004, he served as the former White House correspondent, the Chief Correspondent for Today, and the NBC Nightly News anchor. He has reported on 23 NBC News documentaries and authored five books, including The Greatest Generation and Boom! Talking About the Sixties. Also, Mr. Brokaw has served as an overseer for the International Rescue committee, a public trustee for the Mayo Clinic, member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is a member of the Board of Directors for the Council on Foreign Relations and the American Museum of Natural History.

Wesley Clark:
General Clark serves as Chairman and CEO of Wesley K. Clark & Associates, a strategic consulting firm; Chairman of investment bank Rodman & Renshaw; Co-Chairman of Growth Energy; senior fellow at UCLA's Burkle Center for International Relations; Chairman of Clean Terra, Inc.; Director of International Crisis Group; Chairman of City Year Little Rock; as well as numerous corporate boards. General Clark has authored three books and serves as a member of the Clinton Global Initiative's Energy & Climate Change Advisory Board, and ACORE's Advisory Board.

Clark retired a four star general after 38 years in the United States Army. He graduated first in his class at West Point and completed degrees in Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Oxford University (B.A. and M.A.) as a Rhodes Scholar. While serving in Vietnam, he commanded an infantry company in combat, where he was severely wounded and evacuated home on a stretcher. He later commanded at the battalion, brigade and division level, and served in a number of significant staff positions, including service as the Director Strategic Plans and Policy (J-5). In his last assignment as Supreme Allied Commander Europe he led NATO forces to victory in Operation Allied Force, saving 1.5 million Albanians from ethnic cleansing.  

His awards include the Presidential Medal of Freedom, Defense Distinguished Service Medal (five awards), Silver star, bronze star, purple heart, honorary knighthoods from the British and Dutch governments, and numerous other awards from other governments, including award of Commander of the Legion of Honor (France).

Thomas Daschle:
Thomas Daschle is a senior policy advisor at DLA Piper and a Distinguished Fellow at the Center for American Progress. He is the only senator to have served twice as both Majority and Minority Leader. Senator Daschle served his home state, South Dakota, in the Senate from 1987 to 2005. In 1988, he became the first Co-Chairman of the Senate Democratic Policy Committee. He was a National Co-Chair of Barack Obama’s Presidential Campaign. In addition, Senator Daschle co-founded the Bipartisan Policy Center and is a Vice Chair of the National Democratic Institute.  He is the author of Like No Other Time: The 107th Congress and the Two Years That Changed America Forever   and co-author of Critical: What We Can Do About the Health-Care Crisis.   Senator Daschle continues to be a leading figure on health care and energy policy.

Nelson Diaz:
Mr. Diaz joined Cozen O'Connor Law Firm in May 2007 as Of Counsel in the Government Affairs and General Litigation Departments. Mr. Diaz served as a Judge for the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas from 1981 through 1993, the first Latino and youngest to serve. He was also appointed administrative judge by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. During his distinguished career, Mr. Diaz also served as City Solicitor of Philadelphia and a partner at Blank Rome Law Firm for 10 years and was appointed by President Clinton to be the General Counsel for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, where he focused on reforming public and mixed-use housing programs. Mr. Diaz is a member of the Board of Directors of Exelon Corporation, the Advisory Board of PNC, and the Board of Directors and Executive Committee of Temple University, where he also served on the University’s Presidential Search Committee. He is a former chair of the Democratic National Committee’s Hispanic Caucus.

Helene Gayle:
Helene D. Gayle is president and CEO of CARE USA, a leading international humanitarian organization with programs in nearly 70 countries to end poverty. An expert on health, global development and humanitarian issues, she spent 20 years with the Centers for Disease Control, working primarily on HIV/AIDS. Dr. Gayle then worked at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, directing programs on HIV/AIDS and other global health issues.

Dr. Gayle chairs the Obama Administration’s Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS, and serves on the President’s Commission on White House Fellowships. Named one of Foreign Policy magazine’s “Top 100 Global Thinkers,” Newsweek’s top 10 “Women in Leadership” and the Wall Street Journal’s “50 Women to Watch,” as well as one of the “100 Most Influential Atlantans” and the “100 Most Influential Georgians,” Dr. Gayle has published numerous scientific articles and been featured by media outlets like the New York Times, Washington Post, ForbesWoman, Glamour, O magazine, National Public Radio and CNN.

Dr. Gayle was born and raised in Buffalo, NY. She earned a B.A. in psychology at Barnard College, an M.D. from the University of Pennsylvania and an M.P.H. from Johns Hopkins University.
 
Dr. Gayle serves on several boards, including the Center for Strategic and International Studies, ONE, the Rockefeller Foundation, the American Museum of Natural History, Colgate-Palmolive Company and the Institute of Medicine. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Bretton Woods Committee and the American Public Health Association.

Vartan Gregorian:
Vartan Gregorian is President of Carnegie Corporation of New York, a position he assumed in June 1997. Previously, he served as President of Brown University from 1989-1997. From 1981-1989, he was President of The New York Public Library. Gregorian has taught European and Middle Eastern history at San Francisco State College, UCLA, and the University of Texas at Austin. In 1972 he joined the University of Pennsylvania faculty and was appointed Tarzian Professor of History and professor of South Asian history. In 1974, he became the founding dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania and four years later became its twenty-third provost. Gregorian is the author of The Road to Home: My Life and Times; Islam: A Mosaic, Not a Monolith; and The Emergence of Modern Afghanistan, 1880-1946. He is the recipient of numerous fellowships, including those from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, the American Council of Learned Societies, the Social Science Research Council, and the American Philosophical Society. Currently, he serves on several boards including Brandeis University, The Hunter Foundation, National September 11 Memorial Museum at the World Trade Center, The American Academy in Berlin, Qatar Foundation, National Constitution Center, Philadelphia, Central European University, Human Rights Watch, Museum of Modern Art, and The Institute for Advanced Studies, Princeton. Among the many awards and honors Gregorian has received are the American Academy of the Institute of Arts and Letters’ Gold Medal for Service to the Arts (1989), the National Humanities Medal (1998), and the Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civil award (2004). After majoring in history and the humanities, Gregorian graduated with honors from Stanford University in 1958 and was awarded a Ph.D. in history and humanities from Stanford in 1964.

Steve Gunderson
Steve Gunderson is President and CEO of the Council on Foundations, a Washington, DC-based nonprofit membership association of approximately 2,000 grantmaking foundations and corporations. After serving three terms in the Wisconsin State Legislature, Gunderson served 16 years in the U.S. Congress and was a recognized leader on agriculture, education, employment policy, health care and human rights issues. Following his career in public service, he was named the senior consultant and managing director of the Washington office of The Greystone Group, a strategic management and communications consulting firm. The lead author of The Jobs Revolution: Changing How America Works, Gunderson is recognized for his insight and analysis on the national political issues of the day, and has lectured widely from Harvard University to The Brookings Institution. A graduate from the University of Wisconsin – Madison, Gunderson today lives in Alexandria, Virginia, with his partner Jonathan Stevens.

Keith Harper
Keith Harper is a Partner and Chair of the Native American Practice Group at Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP and a Citizen of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma. Throughout his career, Harper has represented tribes and individual Indians including, since inception of the case, the plaintiff class of 500,000 individual Indians in the landmark Indian trust funds lawsuit, Cobell v. Salazar, which was recently settled for an unprecedented $3.4 billion. In 2008-2009, Harper was appointed as a member of the Obama-Biden Presidential Transition Team in the Energy & Environment Cluster.

Previously, Harper was a litigator at and head of the Washington, DC Office of the Native American Rights Fund (NARF). During his tenure there, he also taught Federal Indian Law as Adjunct Professor at Catholic University Columbus School of Law and at American University Washington College of Law. Harper has previously served as Appellate Justice on the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Court and has served on the Supreme Court of the Poarch Band of Creek Indians. He clerked for the Honorable Lawrence W. Pierce, United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

The National Law Journal selected Harper as one of 50 “Most Influential Minority Lawyers in America” in 2008. He was selected as one of the 500 top lawyers in the country in 2010 as a “LawDragon 500.” Harper has been consistently recognized in Chambers USA: America's Leading Lawyers for Business and in The Best Lawyers in America® as well as selected by SuperLawyers magazine. Harper is the recipient of the Skadden Fellowship, the Henry H. Fowler Fellowship, Indigenous Peoples Law Prgram Fellowship and the Rockefeller Foundation Next Generation Leadership Fellowship. He is a graduate of New York University School of Law, where he was a Root-Tilden-Snow Scholar, and received his Bachelor of Arts from University of California, Berkeley.

Cynthia Hale:
Cynthia Hale is the founding and Senior Pastor of the Ray of Hope Christian Church in Decatur, Georgia. Averaging 1,500 in worship each Sunday morning, Ray of Hope has been recognized as the Church of the Week by the 700 Club as well as in Excellent Protestant Congregations: The Guide to Best Places and Practice. She established Elah Pastoral Ministries, Inc., a mentorship program that assists in the development of pastors and para-church leaders, in 2004 and convened the first Women in Ministry Conference in 2005. She gave the opening invocation at the 2008 Democratic National Convention, and was also a participant at the National Prayer Service for President Barack Obama’s inauguration and served as Co-Chair for Women in Ministry for Obama. As a member of numerous boards, she serves on the Board of Trustees at Hollins University, Secretary of the Board of Beulah Heights University, Chairperson of City of Hope Ministries, Inc, Co-Chair of the Samuel DeWitt Proctor Conference, and Chair of the 21st Century Vision Team Christian Church. As a recipient of numerous awards and honors, Dr. Hale received the Trumpet Awards’ Spiritual Enlightenment Award in 2005, the Sisters of African Descent’s Religious Leadership Award in 2006, and the Pinnacle Leadership Award in 2007 from the Fortitude Educational and Cultural Development Foundation, Inc. She authored her first book entitled I’m A Piece of Work: Sisters Shaped by God. She is a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. Dr. Hale received her B.A. from Hollins College, M.Div from Duke University, and Doctorate of Ministry degree from United Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio.

Deborah Harmon:
Ms. Harmon is Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Artemis Real Estate Partners, LLC, a real estate investment firm that manages institutional, third party capital in a variety of real estate strategies. She is responsible for establishing, implementing and overseeing the company’s strategic direction. Ms. Harmon has over twenty-five years' experience in the real estate industry. Prior to co-founding Artemis, Ms. Harmon spent 17 years with the J.E. Robert Companies ("JER"), a real estate investment firm where she was last President and Chief Investment Officer. She spearheaded the acquisition of $27 billion in assets including a joint venture with Goldman Sachs which purchased more than $7 billion in non-performing loans and real estate.  Ms. Harmon was responsible for raising more than $4.5 billion in capital commitments across eight private equity funds. Her primary role was to build and manage the U.S. fund business, totaling more than $2.6 billion of investor capital commitments.  These commitments resulted in the acquisition and asset management of more than $10 billion of U.S. real estate assets.

Prior to JER, Harmon was a Managing Director at Bankers Trust Company in New York City.  From 1982 through 1990, she worked in both the corporate finance and real estate groups. In June 2009 Ms. Harmon was appointed by President Obama to serve as a Commissioner for the White House Fellows program. Ms. Harmon currently serves on the Boards of Forest City Enterprises, Inc, a New York Stock Exchange publicly traded national real estate development company.

Much of Ms. Harmon’s philanthropy is directed toward improving the lives of women and children. She currently serves on the board of Women for Women International, a non-profit organization that supports women and children in war-torn countries. Ms. Harmon also serves on the Advisory Board of the School of Advanced International Studies Advisory Council, The John Hopkins University. From 2002 through 2010, Ms. Harmon served on the Board of Trustees for Sidwell Friends School (SFS) in Washington, DC, and was chairperson of Sidwell’s Investment Committee. She is currently a member the SFS Investment Committee.   From 1999 to 2001 she served on the Board of Beauvoir, The National Cathedral Elementary School, and co-chaired the five-year Strategic Plan for Beauvoir in 2000-2001.  From 1995 to 1998 she sat on the board for the National Children’s Research Center.   She was also a member of the Young Presidents’ Organization from 1997 to 2002. Ms. Harmon is a member of Pension Real Estate Association, Urban Land Institute and Wharton Real Estate Center. Ms. Harmon earned a B.A. from Johns Hopkins University and an M.B.A. from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.

Christy Haubegger:
Christy Haubegger is an executive at Creative Artists Agency where she provides insights and expertise on multicultural markets. In 1996, she founded Latina magazine, which showcases fashion, beauty, lifestyle, and empowerment for Hispanic women, serving as its publisher, president, and CEO until 2001. She continues to be a member on the board of Latina Media Ventures. In 2002, Ms. Haubegger expanded into the television and motion picture world, serving as the Associate Producer on Chasing Papi and Executive Producer of Spanglish. She is also the recipient of numerous awards including being one of Newsweek’s "Women of the New Century" in 2001 and Advertising Age’s "Women to Watch." In recognition of her advances made in raising the profile of the Hispanic market, Ms. Haubegger was the youngest inductee into the American Advertising Federation’s Advertising Hall of Achievement. Currently, she serves on the Board for Management Leadership for Tomorrow, which is dedicated to increasing the number of minority MBA candidates at the nation’s top business schools. Ms. Haubegger received a B.A. in Philosophy from the University of Texas at Austin and her law degree from Stanford Law School.

Peter Blair Henry:
Peter Blair Henry became dean of New York University Stern School of Business in January 2010. He joined NYU Stern from Stanford University Graduate School of Business where he was the Konosuke Matsushita Professor of International Economics, the John and Cynthia Fry Gunn Faculty Scholar, and Associate Director of the Center for Global Business and the Economy.   

The author of numerous articles and book chapters, Dean Henry is best known for a series of publications in the three flagship journals of the American Economic Association that overturn conventional wisdom on the topics of debt relief, international capital flows, and the role of institutions in economic growth.  He is currently writing a book for Oxford University Press.

Dean Henry received his PhD in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1997. While in graduate school, he served as consultant to the Governors of the Bank of Jamaica and the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB).   His research at the ECCB contributed to the intellectual foundation for establishing the first stock market in the Eastern Caribbean Currency Area.

Prior to attending MIT, Henry was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University where he received a BA in mathematics.   He also holds a BA in economics from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  

Born in Jamaica, Henry became a U.S. citizen in 1986. 

John Hockenberry:
John Hockenberry is the host of the PRI distributed public radio program The Takeaway. The recipient of four Peabody Awards for Broadcast journalism, he has conducted weekly public radio commentaries on The Infinite Mind for more than a decade. In his twelve year career in television for ABC and NBC, he won four Emmy awards. He is also the recipient of the Edward R. Murrow Award and Casey Medal. Mr. Hockenberry launched, Hockenberry, a news interview program and the format breaking Edgewise at MSNBC , Talk of the Nation on National Public Radio and was a longtime contributor to public radio programs. In addition, he is the author of A River Out of Eden and Moving Violations: War Zones, Wheelchairs and Declarations of Independence. He contributes articles to publications such as The New York Times, the New Yorker, Metropolis and The Washington Post.

 George Muñoz:
George Muñoz is a Principal and Co-founder of Muñoz Group Investment Banking, and a partner in the law firm of Tobin, Petkus & Muñoz. He has held Presidential Appointments before, including having served as the President and CEO of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) from 1997-2001. Mr. Muñoz was also an Assistant Secretary and the Chief Financial Officer of the U.S. Treasury Department from 1993 to 1997. Prior to moving to Washington, DC, Mr. Muñoz was a partner in Stevenson, Colling, & Muñoz (1990-1993), an investment banking firm in Chicago, IL; and an Associate and Partner at Mayer Brown and Platt, a Chicago law firm (1980-1989). Currently, he is on the Board of Directors of Marriott International, Altria Group, and the National Geographic Society. Mr. Muñoz is a former President of the Chicago Board of Education (1984-86), Executive Vice-Chair of the CFO Council of the Federal Government (1994-97), a member of the Governing Board of the Certified Financial Planners Board of Standards (2003-2005), and has been listed in Hispanic Business’ "Top 100 Influential". He is a Certified Public Accountant and received his B.A. in Accounting from the University of Texas at Austin. He holds a Master’s degree of Law in Taxation from DePaul University, a M.A. in Public Policy from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, and his JD from Harvard Law School.

 Lloyd W Newton
General Retired, Lloyd W. "Fig" Newton is a former Executive Vice President, Pratt & Whitney Military Engines, East Hartford, Connecticut. He provided leadership and direction for all business development, aftermarket services and activities associated with integrated logistics and fleet management. Newton joined Pratt & Whitney in September 2000 and helped to grow the Military Engine business to an annual revenue of $1.3 Billion.In August 2000, He retired as a four-star General from the United States Air Force where he was Commander, Air Education and Training Command, which consisted of 13 bases, 43,000 active duty personnel, and 14,000 civilians. General Newton was appointed by the President in 2005 to serve as a Commissioner on the Defense Base Realignment and Closure Commission. Currently, he is a member of the Board of Directors of Goodrich Corporation, Sonoco Products Company and Torchmark Corporation; as well as the Boards of the National Air and Space Museum, the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force, and the Air Force Association. He received a B.S. in Aviation Education from Tennessee State University and a M.A. in Public Administration from George Washington University.

Pierre Omidyar:
Pierre Omidyar is the founder of eBay, which today enables more than 85 million buyers and sellers worldwide to connect and prosper. Starting from the premise that people are basically good, Pierre created a platform that gave people equal access to information, opportunity, and tools to pursue their goals. In 2004, Pierre and his wife Pam founded Omidyar Network to invest in nonprofit and for-profit efforts that enable people around the world to improve their lives and make powerful contributions to their communities. Omidyar Network has funded organizations in areas such as microfinance, social media, and government transparency. As an extension of Omidyar Network's work in microfinance, Pierre and Pam gave $100 million to Tufts University to create the Omidyar-Tufts Microfinance Fund, which aims to accelerate the growth of the microfinance industry. Today, Pierre serves as a trustee of Tufts University, Punahou School, and Santa Fe Institute, and as chairman of eBay.

Roger Porter:
Roger B. Porter is the IBM Professor of Business and Government and the Master of Dunster House at Harvard University. He is also the Director of Harvard’s Center for Business and Government and a Senior Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. Mr. Porter is a former White House Fellow (1974-75) and Commissioner. He has served in three White House administrations as Assistant to the President for Economic and Domestic Policy (1989-93), Deputy Assistant to the President and Director of the Office of Policy Development (1981-85), and Special Assistant to the President and Executive Secretary of the President’s Economic Policy Board (1974-77). He also served as Counselor to the Secretary of the Treasury (1981-85). Mr. Porter joined the Harvard faculty in 1978. His teaching, research and writing focus on economic policy, strategic decision making, the relationship of business and government, and the American Presidency. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the White House Historical Association and was a member on the President’s Commission on White House Fellowships (1976-81, 1982-93, 1994-2001, 2008-09). After graduating from Brigham Young University, Mr. Porter was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University, where he received his B.Phil. He received his M.A.and PhD degrees from Harvard University.

Paul Sarbanes:
Paul Sarbanes is the former United States Senator from Maryland. He was elected to three terms in the U.S. House of Representatives in 1970, and then served the U.S. Senate from 1976 to 2007, becoming the longest-serving senator in Maryland history. As senator, he served on several financial and economic committees and sponsored the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, which reformed federal securities laws after the 2002 corporate accounting scandals. Mr. Sarbanes was a Rhodes Scholar and earned degrees from Princeton University, Oxford University, and Harvard Law School.

Ruth J. Simmons:
Ruth J. Simmons is the President of Brown University and also a professor in the Department of Comparative Literature and the Department of Africana Studies. She has served in various administrative positions at the University of Southern California, Princeton University, and Spelman College prior to becoming President of Smith College in 1995. At Smith, she was responsible for various initiatives including the first women’s college engineering program. Dr. Simmons has received numerous awards and fellowships including the Fulbright Fellowship, the 2001 President’s Award from the United Negro College Fund, the 2002 Fulbright Lifetime Achievement Medal, and the 2004 Eleanor Roosevelt Val-Kill Medal. In addition, Dr. Simmons has been featured as a speaker at the White House, the World Economic Forum, the National Press Club, the Association of American Universities, and the American Council on Education. Currently, she resides on a number of boards, including the Howard University Board of Trustees, Texas Instruments, and the Goldman Sachs Group. Dr. Simmons graduated from Dillard University and received her PhD in Romance Languages and Literatures from Harvard University.

George Thibault:
George E. Thibault is the seventh president of the Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation. He has held several leadership and director positions at the Massachusetts General Hospital, Brockton/West Roxbury VA Medical Center, and Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Dr. Thibault was the Vice President of Clinical Affairs at Partners HealthCare System, Inc. from 1997 to 2007. He has served as the Daniel D. Federman Professor of Medicine and Medical Education at Harvard Medical School and was chosen as the first Director of The Academy for Harvard. In addition, he has served and chaired on the committees of national organizations including the Institute of Medicine, the Department of Veterans Affairs, the National Institutes of Health, and the American College of Physicians. Dr. Thibault is also the recipient of various awards from both Georgetown University (Ryan Prize in Philosophy, Alumni Prize, and Cohongaroton Speaker) and Harvard University (Alpha Omega Alpha, Henry Asbury Christian Award and Society of Fellows). He graduated from Georgetown University and received his M.D. from Harvard Medical School.

Bryan Traubert:
Bryan Traubert is the Founder and Partner of Eye Physicians and Surgeons of Chicago, which is a comprehensive ophthalmic group practice, since 1986. He received a Medical Ethics Fellowship in 2002 from the University of Chicago. Currently, he is the President of the Board of Marwen and resides on the Harvard School of Public Health Board of Visitors, the Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago Board, National Public Radio Foundation Board, Chicago Lighthouse for the Blind Board, and Chicago Public Radio Board. In addition, he served as the President of the Renaissance Society at University of Chicago Board from 1998-2001, as well as the Founder and Board Chair of Chicago Run. He is also a member of the American Academy of Ophthalmology, the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery, and the Illinois Association of Ophthalmology. Dr. Traubert received his B.S. in Biology from the Citadel and his M.D. from the University of Illinois.

Laurence Tribe:
Laurence Tribe is the Carl M. Loeb University Professor at Harvard University. Prior to this appointment, he was Harvard’s Ralph S. Tyler, Jr. Professor of Constitutional Law from 1982-2004 and has been a member of Harvard’s faculty since 1968. In March 2010, Mr. Tribe was selected by the President and Attorney General to serve as the first Senior Counselor for Access to Justice in the U.S. Justice Department. He has argued 35 U.S. Supreme Court cases including Bowers v. Hardwick and Bush v. Gore. He was a Fulbright Distinguished Lecturer and has authored over 115 scholarly articles and books including The Invisible Constitution and American Constitutional Law, the most frequently cited legal text since 1950. As the recipient of numerous honorary degrees and other awards, Mr. Tribe was appointed to deliver the Constitution Day Lecture for the National Archives of the United States in 2008 and the Constitution Day Lecture for the Justice Department in 2010 and received the American Bar Foundation’s Outstanding Scholar Award for 2009. He was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society in 2010, and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences since 1980. Mr. Tribe received his Bachelor’s degree in mathematics summa cum laude from Harvard College and his Law degree magna cum laude from Harvard Law School.

Eleanor Kaye Wilson:
For over 35 years, Kaye Wilson has worked in a variety of positions in education institutions, government agencies, foundations and nonprofit organizations. As one of the first staff members of DePaul University’s School for New Learning, Ms. Wilson served as the Director and Assistant Dean. She has served as Executive Director of Urban Programs at Chicago City-Wide College, where she developed Project Choice, a welfare-to-work education and training program for General Assistance participants; and as founder of the Wells Prep School, which was a juvenile delinquency prevention demonstration program designed in an elementary school setting for public housing children in Chicago, Illinois. For the past twelve years, Ms. Wilson has been a nonprofit consultant in the metropolitan Chicago area. She is an active volunteer on numerous boards, committees, and taskforces. She is currently Vice Chair of two boards: Community Assistance Programs and the Rich Township District 227 Foundation.

Judy Wise:
Judy Wise is the Senior Director of Facing History and Ourselves, an international non-profit professional development organization for educators reaching more than 2 million students every year. She was the founder of the organization’s first regional office in Chicago and served as its Executive Director until 2002 when she founded the UK office. She now works across the organization.  Ms. Wise also serves on Chicago’s Human Rights Watch committee and is a Board Member of Business and Professional People for the Public Interest, which recognized her as one of 40 Who Made a Difference in celebration of the organization’s 40th Anniversary.   Previously, she served as Executive Director of the Committee on Illinois Government and worked in the news department at both NBC TV and CBS TV in Chicago. During Barack Obama’s campaign, she was on the National Finance Committee. Ms. Wise received her B.A. from Washington University and M.A. in psychiatric social work from the University of Chicago. She is married to Sheldon Baskin and has two grown children.

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