Amir Ahmad Nasr is a sought-after cultural commentator, activist, and marketing strategist who regularly sheds light on one of the most important emerging trends of our time: how the Internet-driven Millennial revolution is redefining business, culture, and politics. He is the author of the inspirational book
Lawrence Chickering has worked for more than 30 years on designing and implementing reforms of government institutions and policies to empower disadvantaged people. EGG is the third policy institute he has either founded or co-founded. Lawrence has been associated with international organizations like Freedom House, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Pacific Council for International Policy, and Search for Common Ground.Lawrence has a long-time interest in conflict resolution and his 1993 book Beyond Left and Right is perhaps the leading philosophical call for a new U.S. political debate. He is currently working on two new books: one presenting a strategy for promoting girl's education, and a second, co-authored book on citizens and foreign policy. He is a graduate of Stanford University and the Yale Law School, and is currently a Research Fellow at the Hoover Institutions.
Suhail A. Khan serves as a Senior Fellow at the Institute for Global Engagement, a Christian think-tank dedicated to promoting religious freedom. He is a DC-based attorney, conservative activist and Chairman of the Conservative Inclusion Coalition (CIC), an organization dedicated to promoting the conservative message to Americans of all ethnic, racial and faith backgrounds. and has experience serving on Capitol Hill, the Executive Branch including the White House, political campaigns, and on the boards of various advocacy organizations. Suhail served as Policy Director and Press Secretary for U.S. Congressman Tom Campbell (R-CA), in both terms of the Bush Administration serving in the White House Office of Public Liaison and at the U.S. Department of Transportation where he was awarded the Secretary's Team Award in 2005 and the Secretary's Gold Medal for Outstanding Achievement in 2007. Suhail serves on the Board of Directors of the American Conservative Union. At the 2010 annual CPAC convention, Suhail was awarded the Young Conservative Coalition's Buckley Award for his leadership in establishing the CIC. In August 2010, Suhail led a delegation of major American faith leaders to Auschwitz and Dachau concentration camps. Upon returning to the U.S., the delegation issued a statement and testified before Congress condemning Holocaust-denial and anti-Semitism. Suhail led a second delegation of international leaders to visit the death camps in May 201
Matthew Hoh is a Senior Fellow at the Center for International Policy and is the former Director of the Afghanistan Study Group, a network of foreign and public policy experts and professionals advocating for a change in US strategy in Afghanistan. A former State Department official, Matthew resigned in protest from his post in Afghanistan over US strategic policy and goals in Afghanistan in September 2009. Prior to his assignment in Afghanistan, Matthew served in Iraq; first in 2004-5 in Salah ad Din Province with a State Department reconstruction and governance team and then in 2006-7 in Anbar Province as a Marine Corps company commander. When not deployed, Matthew worked on Afghanistan and Iraq policy and operations issues at the Pentagon and State Department from 2002-8. Matthew’s writings have appeared in the Atlanta Journal Constitution, Defense News, the Guardian, the Huffington Post, USA Today, the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post. The Council on Foreign Relations has cited Matthew’s resignation letter from his post in Afghanistan as an Essential Document. In 2010 Matthew was named the Ridenhour Prize Recipient for Truth Telling. Matthew is a member of the Board of Directors for Council for a Livable World and is the Executive Director of the Project High Hopes Veterans Speech Therapy Program.
Since 1993, Danielle Brian has been the Executive Director of the Project On Government Oversight (POGO). She frequently testifies before Congress and regularly meets with members of Congress, and officials at the White House and federal agencies to discuss how to achieve a more effective, accountable, open, and ethical federal government. Under Brian’s direction, POGO has conducted numerous investigations that have resulted in major public policy reforms. Brian was inducted into the Freedom of Information Act Hall of Fame, was ranked by Ethisphere magazine as one of the top 100 most influential people in business ethics, and received the Smith College Medal. Brian serves on the board of Taxpayers for Common Sense, and is the chair of the Steering Committee for Openthegovernment.org.
Joe Eldridge has spent more than twenty-five years working in the public policy arena as an advocate and analyst on international human rights and humanitarian issues. In 1991 he established the Washington Office of the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights; during the mid-1980s he worked in Honduras consulting on human rights and development issues; and after a three-year sojourn in Chile in the early 1970s he co-founded the Washington Office on Latin America and served as its first director. He has an MA in International Relations from American University, a MDiv from Perkins School of Theology at SMU, and a DMin from Wesley Theological Seminary.
Mark Gerzon is one of the key architects of the field of global leadership and an experienced facilitator in high-conflict zones. He has advised a wide variety of organizations including the US Congress, multinational corporations, and UNDP. The author of numerous books, including Leading Through Conflictand Global Citizens, he is currently serving as UN advisor on leadership in conflict-torn countries in Africa and Asia.
Ms. Aziz’s practice focuses on immigration, employment, and civil rights matters. She currently teaches a course on national security law and policy at the . Ms. Aziz served as a Senior Policy Advisor for the Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security where she worked on public policy at the intersection of national security and civil rights. She led various roundtables between government officials and community groups to foster constructive dialogue and mutual trust among stakeholders. Ms. Aziz has published numerous online commentaries on issues at the intersection of national security and civil rights, including a commentary published on CNN.com entitled “Ease Restrictions on International Charities.” She currently serves as a member of the board of directors of the ACLU of Maryland.
Mark retired from Navy with nearly 25 years of service in special operations and military medicine. During that time he served as Reconnaissance Marine, a Hospital Corpsman, a Navy SEAL and a Physician Assistant. Following retirement Mark has focused his efforts on issues supporting America's veterans and their families while he completed his memoir, Battle Ready, Memoir of a SEAL Warrior Medic, in which he openly discusses his personal battles with the lingering effects of combat. Mark departed the service on 1 January 2010 as one of the highest decorated Afghanistan and Iraqi war veterans and the most decorated Medical Service Corps officer in the history of the United States Navy. His personal awards include the Navy Cross, the highest medal that can be awarded by the Department of the Navy and the nations second highest award for valor, second only to the Medal of Honor. He is also a recipient of the Silver Star, the Bronze Star for Valor, the Purple Heart, the Honduran Medal of Merit and various other personal decorations and campaign medals. Currently Mark serves as the Executive Director for NSWKIDS a non-profit supporting the children of the special operations community and volunteers Director of the Member Life Assistance Program for the UDT-SEAL Association.
Jaime Poland is a 12 year veteran high school English teacher with a Master’s Degree of Arts in English and Education. She is known for her innovative teaching strategies that connect the content of lessons to lifelong learning skills for better individuals in a better society. She has conducted writing workshops for her school and has earned multiple awards for the integration of technology in her classroom. She was most recently named teacher of the month in her school district for her use of social media while teaching Powerful Peace. Her first article about education will be published in the debut edition of De Oppresso Liber, a private military industry magazine. More info on Jaimee's use of Powerful Peace in her classroom can be found
Craig Sawyer, AKA "Sawman," got his tactical start in the U.S. Marine Corps. He quickly transitioned to the U.S. Navy to pursue high-level Special Operations as a U.S. Navy SEAL. In the realm of "High-Threat, Mobile Security", Craig has run the specialized teams responsible for providing security to U.S. Senators, Hilary Clinton, John McCain, U.S. Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, as well as U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte and other U.S. Ambassadors and key U.S. leaders in the various war zones.
Josh Rushing, an award-winning journalist, presents Fault Lines, AlJazeera English's flagship current affairs program about the Americas. As an international correspondent, Rushing has reported from dozens of countries and across America No stranger to Blackhawks and evasive maneuvers, Rushing has spent years reporting from America's battlefields in Iraq and Afghanistan. A former U.S. Marine captain with 14 years of service, Rushing served as a spokesperson at Central Command in Doha, Qatar, during Operation Iraqi Freedom. Unbeknownst to him, an independent film, Control Room, captured his efforts to communicate the American message
Lynnette Bukowski is the Founder/Director of LZ-Grace Veterans Retreat Foundation, an Author, Artist and Ghostwriter, and recently retired from a 28 year career as a Paralegal, specializing in Capital Crimes, Family Law and Estate Administration. She is the recent widow of a 32 year veteran Navy SEAL, Master Chief Steve S. Bukowski (Ret), the mother of three, and a therapeutic foster mother to 15 special needs children (now grown). For more information about LZ-Grace Veterans Retreat, please visit www.lz-grace.com and the Facebook wall of the same name.
Prior to joining the ACLU, Mr. German served sixteen-years as a Special Agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, where he specialized in domestic terrorism and covert operations. He authored, "Thinking Like a Terrorist: Insights of a Former FBI Undercover Agent"
Eric Wolterstorff is an expert on societal and individual responses to traumatic events. He has founded three businesses and spent over 25 years helping leaders manage crises, including post-Katrina New Orleans, Germany, and Indonesia; and has been conducting social trauma analyses on the US, Germany, Israel, Japan, and Rwanda. He is current focusing on governance relationships between wealthy countries and developing countries responding to impending threats, current crises, or large-scale traumas.
Michael Ross, a pseudonym, is the author of "The Volunteer" and an expert on intelligence and terrorism. Ross served in Canadian special forces and is a former deep cover Mossad operations officer who served in the Near East, Africa and Asia for eleven years under non-official cover (NOC) and was the Mossad's counter-terrorism liaison officer to the CIA and FBI for two-and-a-half years. Ross is a graduate of Political Studies from Bar Ilan University and the Begin-Sadat (BESA) Center for Strategic Studies and studied economics and international trade at the London School of Economics.
Ben King returned from Iraq in 2007. For six months he was flying high. Then the euphoria of returning home wore off and he was left with sleepless nights and a surprising amount of stress and physical discomfort. The Armor Down Blog represents 2 years worth of trial and error trying to figure out how to use mindfulness and exercise to calm one's mind and realign one's body for a civilian lifestyle. The Army taught Ben how to up armor my mind and body for War. He taught myself how to Armor Down.
Jaime Poland is a 12 year veteran high school English teacher with a Master’s Degree of Arts in English and Education. She is known for her innovative teaching strategies that connect the content of lessons to lifelong learning skills for better individuals in a better society. She has conducted writing workshops for her school and has earned multiple awards for the integration of technology in her classroom. She was most recently named teacher of the month in her school district for her use of social media while teaching Powerful Peace. Her first article about education will be published in the debut edition of De Oppresso Liber
Peter O’Brien has more than 30 years of successful leadership, management and planning experience in leading organizations from a handful to several thousand, from a single site to orchestrating simultaneous operations at three-dozen locations on four separate continents. Mr. O’Brien’s Navy career included ten years at sea, more than a dozen years stationed overseas and multiple deployments, providing the opportunity to study, practice and execute the widest possible range of leadership and planning skills. He has particpated in planning and execution of military operations from the tactical to the strategic level in the Middle East, North Africa and East Asia. He is a recognized SME in strategic planning, intelligence, the Middle East and the Far East.
Derek Leebaert, who has taught foreign policy at Georgetown University for fifteen years, is a partner in the Swiss management consulting firm, MAP AG. His previous books include The Fifty-Year Wound: How America's Cold War Victory Shapes Our World (2002) and To Dare and to Conquer: Special Operations and the Destiny of Nations from Achilles to Al Qaeda (2006). He is also a coauthor of the MIT Press trilogy on the information technology revolution, and a founding editor of International Security and The International Economy, as well as editorial board member of European Security. He served in the US Marine Corps Reserve and is a director of the U.S. Army Historical Foundation, Providence Hospital in Washington, D.C., and of other public service institutions.