Gretchen Dykstra, a consultant to US and international NGOs, is the former President of the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation, founding President of the Times Square Business Improvement District, and Consumer Affairs Commissioner of New York City. She also served as Director of Communications for the New York City Charter Revision Commission.

Larry Grossman, co-founder and co-Chairman of the Digital Promise Project, is the former President of NBC News (1984-1988) and served as President and CEO of PBS from 1976-1984. Mr. Grossman is the author of The Electronic Republic: Reshaping Democracy in the Information Age among many other books, and has written a column on Television News for the Columbia Journalism Review.

Polly Howells is a Brooklyn, NY-based psychotherapist and author. A Russian speaker who has worked extensively with the émigré community, Ms. Howells has served on several boards including the Barbara Myerhoff Foundation, and on the Advisory Board of the Esalen Institute Soviet American Exchange Program.

Al McFarlane is the publisher of Insight News, a Minneapolis weekly, co-sponsor of the Minnesota Public Policy Forum, an officer of the American Association of Black Publishers, and a pioneer in interactive media. He travels, speaks, and writes extensively about issues including the applicability of tribal justice to US criminal justice, and reparations for slavery.

Evelyn Messinger, President and Executive Director of InterAct, is a co-founder of Internews Network and has worked as a news and documentary producer/editor for PBS and CBS News, and as a program developer and producer for the BBC, French television and others. She worked in the emerging democracies of Eastern Europe as the first Electronic Media Director for the Soros Foundation, and with Internews, supported independent media in Bosnia, Russia and the former Soviet Union.

Patrice O’Neill a producer of national PBS programs since 1988, is co-founder of the nonprofit production company The Working Group. In 1995, Ms. O’Neill created the award-winning documentary about hate crimes, Not In Our Town, which launched a nation-wide anti-hate movement and  set a new standard for television impact. She launched NIOT.org, a recognized leader in community-driven journalism in 2009, and produced the third Not In Our Town program in 2011.