Doug Hurley is an American engineer and former Marine Corps pilot and current NASA astronaut. He was born in Endicott, New York, and he graduated magna cum laude with honors from Tulane University where he earned his B.S.E. in civil engineering. He went on to graduate from Tulane’s Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps program and from USMC Officer Candidates School.... read full bio
Bob Behnken is an American NASA astronaut, engineer, and former Chief of the Astronaut Office. Behnken was born in St. Ann, Missouri, and he earned his bachelor of science degrees in mechanical engineering and physics from Washington University in St. Louis before going on to earn his master of science degree in mechanical engineering as well as his Ph.D. from... read full bio
Natan Sharansky is among the world's most consistent advocates of democratization as a basis for foreign policy. Born in Ukraine, he received a degree in mathematics from Moscow's Physical Technical Institute. A brilliant mathematician and chess master, he entered the limelight as a spokesman for the movement to emancipate Soviet Jewry. Arrested by the Soviet authorities for his refusenik activities,... read full bio
Mona Hanna-Attisha is a pediatrician, professor, and public health advocate who is known for researching and exposing the Flint water crisis, which revealed that children were exposed to dangerous levels of lead in Flint, Michigan. Mona was born in Sheffield, England, and she earned her B.S. and M.P.H. from University of Michigan before going on to earn her M.D. from... read full bio
Michele Tafoya is an American sportscaster who has been a reporter for NBC Sports. She is best known for being a sideline reporter for NBC Sunday Night Football. Tafoya has earned her B.A. in mass communications from the University of California, Berkeley and went on to earn her masters in business administration from the University of Southern California. Tafoya began... read full bio
Michael Moss is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author who is best known for his New York Times best-selling book ‘Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us.’ Moss began his career working as a fry cook for H. Salt Esquire before going on to work as a truck driver. He then worked as an office clerk and staff... read full bio
Maryellis Bunn is the founder and CEO of Museum of Ice Cream and 1and8 Inc. Bunn began the pop-up Museum of Ice Cream in New York City out of her love of ice cream. The pop-up museum features numerous bright colored art installations and is widely-known for it’s sprinkle pool. It immediately became an overnight sensation with celebrities such as... read full bio
Kim Ghattas is a Dutch-Lebanese journalist and author who has worked for the BBC and an author. Ghattas was born in raised in Beirut and was living there amidst the Lebanese civil war. Being in the middle of the chaos is what gave her the urge to be a journalist when Ghattas was a teenager. Ghattas went on to begin... read full bio
Katherine Eban is an investigative journalist and author based out of Brooklyn, New York. Over the course of her career, Eban has been a contributor to Vanity Fair, Fortune magazine, and several other national magazines. Eban’s work focuses on homeland security and public health issues such as gun trafficking, interrogations by the CIA and pharmaceutical counterfeiting. Eban has studied at... read full bio
Justin Simien is an American filmmaker, author, screenwriter, and actor from Houston, Texas. He is best known for his debut feature film, “Dear White People,” which earned him the U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Award for Breakthrough Talent at the Sundance Film Festival. Simien was born in Houston, Texas and while growing up he studied at the High School for the... read full bio
Joseph Telushkin is an American rabbi, writer, and lecturer who is a best-selling author that has published over 15 books on Jewish ethics and literacy. He is best known for his New York Times best-selling book ‘Rebbe.’ Telushkin was raised in Brooklyn, New York, and he began his studies at Yeshiva of Flatbush where he met Dennis Prager. Telushkin became... read full bio
Jonathan Safran Foer is an American novelist who is best known for his novels “Everything Is Illuminated,” “Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close,” and “Here I Am.” Foer was born in Washington, D.C. and while a teenager, he traveled to Israel on a Bronfman youth fellowship. Foer went on to study at Princeton University where he took a writing course with... read full bio
Jeffrey Robinson is an American best-selling author and speaker from Long Beach, New York. Robinson began his career selling articles and stories to magazines before he was even 15 years old. He went on to earn his B.A. from Temple University in Philadelphia and from there, began writing for television and radio before working as a staff writer at KYW-TV3.... read full bio
Hope Jahren is an American geochemist and geobiologist who works at the University of Oslo in Norway. She is known for her work using stable isotope analysis to analyze fossil forests dating to the Eocene, which has earned her several awards such as the James B. Macelwane Medal of the American Geophysical Union. Jahren was born in Austin, Minnesota, and... read full bio
Erica Keswin is a best-selling author, workplace strategist, and founder of The Spaghetti Project. Keswin has earned her B.A. in Political Science and Government from the University of Vermont and has gone on to earn her M.B.A. in Organizational Leadership from Kellogg Graduate School of Management. Upon graduating, Keswin went on to begin working as a consultant for Hay Group... read full bio
David Makovsky is a foreign policy scholar, author, and journalist, who is currently the Ziegler distinguished fellow and director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy Project on the Middle East Peace Process. He is also an adjunct professor at Johns Hopkins University’s Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies in the Middle Eastern studies program. Makovsky earned... read full bio
Daniel Markovits is currently the Guido Calabresi Professor of Law at Yale Law School as well as the Founding Director of the Center of the Study of Private Law. Markovits has earned his B.A. in Mathematics, summa cum laude from Yale University and went on to be awarded an M.Sc. in Econometrics and Mathematical Economics from the L.S.E. and a... read full bio
Daniel C. Kurtzer is an American former diplomat who has served as the United States Ambassador to Egypt under Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush and former U.S. Ambassador to Israel under President George W. Bush. Kurtzer was born in Elizabeth, New Jersey, and he earned his B.A. from Yeshiva University before going on to earn his Ph.D. from... read full bio
Dan Gillerman is an Israeli ambassador who has previously been the 13th Israel Ambassador to the United Nations and a Senior Advisor to Blackstone Israel as well as a member of Blackstone’s International Advisory Board. Gillerman was born in Tel Aviv, Israel, and he studied politics, economics and law at Tel Aviv University as well as the Hebrew University of... read full bio
Damien Chazelle is a French-American film director, producer, and screenwriter who is best known for his work on films such as “Whiplash,” “La La Land,” and “First Man.” Chazelle was born in Providence, Rhode Island, to a French father and Canadian-American mother. Chazelle was raised in Princeton, New Jersey, and although Chazelle always had a passion for filmmaking, he spent... read full bio
