Trained in general and internal medicine, psychiatry and clinical research, Stuart Brown first recognized the importance of play by discovering its absence in the life stories of murderers and felony drunken drivers. His years of clinical practice affirmed the importance and need for healthy play throughout the human life cycle, and his later evaluation of highly creative individuals revealed the centrality of playfulness to their success and well–being. His recent years of independent scholarship and exploration of the evolution of human and animal play have helped to focus a central commitment bringing the promises and stories of play into general cultural consciousness and to the establishment of the National Institute For Play. The Mission of the National Institute for Play (NIFP) is to bring the unrealized knowledge, practices and benefits of play into public life Dr. Brown was the instigator and Executive Producer of the three–part PBS series, “The Promise of Play.” His experience as medical administrator, producer, and scientific consultant or creator to numerous other productions on Joseph Campbell, Cosmology, Animal Play, plus his scientific and popular writings have identified him as the foremost “practical champion of the knowledge of play.”

Visit the Institute for Play Website

Neil Boothby is an internationally recognized expert and advocate for children affected by war and displacement. As a senior representative of UNICEF, UNHCR and Save the Children, he has worked for more than 20 years with children in crises in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Eastern Europe. As director of the Program on Forced Migration and Health and Professor of Clinical Population and Family Health at the Mailman School, his research focuses on the psychosocial consequences of organized violence on children. He is also the recipient of several awards for his fieldwork, including the Red Cross Humanitarian of the Year Award, for his work with child soldiers, the Mickey Leyland Award, for his work on behalf of uprooted people, the United Nation's Golden Achievement Award, for excellence in social sector activities, and Duke University's Humanitarian Service Award.

Doug Cameron is the Chief Scientific Officer of Khosla Ventures and acting Chief Executive Officer of LS9. From 1986 to 1998, Dr. Cameron was a professor of chemical engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he established a research program in the areas of metabolic engineering and fermentation technology and did pioneering work on the microbial production of 1,3–propanediol and 3–hydroxypropionic acid. In 1996, he was a guest professor at the Institute of Biotechnology at the ETH in Zurich, Switzerland. In 1998, Dr. Cameron moved to Cargill, Inc. in Minneapolis, MN where he built the Cargill Biotechnology Development Center and led biotechnology research until 2006. He is a fellow of the Society for Industrial Microbiology (SIM) and the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE). He is on the managing board of the Society for Biological Engineering (SBE), the board of directors of the Biobusiness Alliance of Minnesota and the outside advisory board of the Iowa Center for Biocatalysis and Bioprocessing. Dr. Cameron is on the editorial board of the journal, Metabolic Engineering. He is also a consulting professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Stanford University.

Dr. Cameron received his B.S.E. in biomedical engineering from Duke University and his Ph.D. in biochemical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Visit the Khosla Venture website

In the fall of 2004, photographer Linda Cullen traveled to Kabul, Afghanistan to cover the historic presidential elections. She spent most of her time in the foothills surrounding the city, meeting the Kabul's poorest residents, its widows. It didn't take long to see how their poverty and lack of electricity left them at a major disadvantage. Linda wondered how dramatically their lives could be changed if they only had light on those long autumn and winter evenings.

She returned from that trip with a vision: to go back to Afghanistan with enough money buy 50 solar lanterns for those struggling widows in the foothills of Kabul. When she returned home to Minnesota, Linda shared this idea with her friend, Martha Naegeli. Together they decided to form an organization that could raise funds for this and other projects benefiting communities torn by poverty, war and disaster.

A few weeks later they founded Fifty Lanterns International and begin raising money for the Kabul widows project. And over time, thanks to the generosity of hundreds of supporters, Fifty Lanterns evolved into a global nonprofit organization.

Linda Cullen has a personal and professional commitment to improving the living standards of the world’s most marginalized and forgotten people. As common threads in all of Fifty Lanterns’ projects, Linda has pledged to support the education, health and safety needs of vulnerable women and girls, and to give preference to sustainable technology and solar energy.

Visit 50Lanterns.org

Rafi Dajani is the executive director of the American Task Force on Palestine (ATFP), located in Washington, DC. ATFP is a Palestinian–American organization dedicated to articulating the national security interest to the United States of bringing about lasting peace and stability in the Middle East by establishing a Palestinian state living in peace and security alongside Israel.

Mr. Dajani has been active in promoting Israeli–Palestinian peace and coexistence since 1995. His analysis on Israeli–Palestinian affairs is frequently featured on radio and satellite, cable and T.V., including CNN International, PBS NewsHour, MSNBC, BBC TV and radio, Al Arabiyya television, Al Jazeera Arabic and International, and National Public Radio. In addition, Mr. Dajani is a featured speaker nationwide at a variety of venues including universities, churches, synagogues and think tanks.

Mr. Dajani is also a frequent contributor to the national and international print media, including the New York Times, Washington Post, Christian Science Monitor, Chicago Tribune, Baltimore Sun, Washington Times, Detroit News, Orlando Sentinel, Jewish Journal, Daily Star, Jordan Times, Gulf News, and Arab News.

Mr. Dajani was born and lived the first 19 years of his life in the Middle East. He received a B.A. in Political Science from the American University of Beirut (AUB) and an M.A. in International Relations from the University of Central Florida.

5 time winner of the Minnesota Music Award for Best Spoken Word Artist and this year also earned a nomination for Best Hip Hop Artist/Group for her collaboration as ‘Ill Chemistry’ with beatboxer Carnage the Executioner. Desdamona is the recipient of 2 MSAB Grants as well as a Verve Grant. Desdamona is co- founder and producer of the Twin Cities First Women in Hip Hop Summit ‘B Girl Be,’ as well as The Encyclopedia of Hip Hop Evolution, a quarterly series at Intermedia Arts in Minneapolis.

Desdamona is currently developing her third solo CD, featuring production from Sly & Robbie, Rich Crawford, France, and Darren Lockings. In addition to her solo performances, Desdamona has also performed with Faith Evans, Mint Condition, Wyclef Jean, the Mediations, Black Uhuru (Sly & Robbie), Lydia Lunch (punk), Carl Hancock Rux (spoken word), The Hopefuls, Medusa & Pam the Funkstress, The Liks, Jon B, GURU and RhymeSayers Artists.

Visit Desdamona's Website

Find Desdamona's CDs on Amazon.com

Katherine Fennelly is Professor of Public Affairs at the Hubert H. Humphrey Institute, University of Minnesota. Her research and outreach interests include leadership in the public sector, the human rights of immigrants and refugees in the United States, and the preparedness of communities and public institutions to adapt to demographic changes. Recent projects and publications focus on the integration of immigrants in rural, Midwestern communities in the United States.

Fennelly has been dean of the University of Minnesota Extension Service, a faculty member and department head at the Pennsylvania State University, and a faculty member at Columbia University School of Public Health. She is bilingual in Spanish and English, and has worked and traveled extensively throughout Latin America, where she has served as consultant to scores of organizations ranging from the Kellogg Foundation to the Ministry of Health of Chile. She holds a certificate of studies from the University of Madrid, a master’s of philosophy, a master’s of health education, and a doctorate in adult education from Columbia University in New York.

Amanda Jones is the founder and creative director of Potentia Media. For the past fifteen years she has worked as a freelance writer and photographer. Her work appears in books, magazines and newspapers worldwide, including Vogue, Travel & Leisure, Town & Country, CondÉ Nast Traveller, the London Sunday Times, the Los Angeles Times, Salon.com, and the San Francisco Chronicle. She has been published in many anthologies and has developed stories for National Geographic television. Her photographs were exhibited at the United Nations film festival and she is frequently invited to speak at literary conferences, workshops and festivals. Previously she worked for CondÉ Nast’s Vogue in Sydney, Australia. Amanda was born in Auckland, New Zealand, where she received her university degree. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Potentia Media is committed to delivering the facts about crucial social issues — in a hip, accessible way. By combining the very best from art, literature and technology, they generate awareness of what ails the planet, outline a path toward workable solutions, and encourage action.

Potentia Media works with corporate partners to support non–profit cause organizations. Using print, the Internet and art in public spaces, they tackle topics such as poverty, violence, education, the environment, and AIDS and other health concerns. Their method is to gather knowledge from experts, combine that information with fine art visuals and inspirational words, and entice the public into learning about critical issues. Their goal is to create awareness, reverse apathy, and inspire involvement.

www.potentiamedia.com

James Kakalios, a physics professor at the University of Minnesota, is known within the scientific community for his studies of amorphous semiconductors (seeking to imporve their materials properties for solar cell applications), granular materials, and 1/f noise. To the general public, however, Kakalios is known as the author of the book The Physics of Superheroes, which considers comic book superheroes from the standpoint of fundamental physics.

Kakalios, who earned his PhD from the University of Chicago in 1985, resumed his comic book collection as a graduate student as a way to relieve stress while working on his dissertation. He later integrated these two disciplines when he taught a Freshman Seminar, “Everything I Need to Know about Physics I Learned from Comic Books.”

Dr. Kakalios will use the talent for making complex ideas fun and understandable that landed him on the pages of People magazine and other popular press, to explain the thorny issues regarding our energy future.

Judith Kipper is an internationally recognized Middle East expert. She is the adviser for Middle East Programs and director of the Energy Security Group at the Council on Foreign Relations and a longtime consultant on international affairs for ABC News. Her extensive expertise includes U.S.–Middle East policy, Arab–Israeli conflict, Gulf security and regional issues, Arab development, reform, democratization, and culture. Ms. Kipper has extraordinary access in all the countries of the Middle East—Israel, the Arab states, and Iran. She visits the area frequently to meet with monarchs, presidents, and ministers as well as other officials, academics, business leaders, clerics, opposition, and the press.

Ms. Kipper has testified before U.S. Senate and House committees on Middle East issues. She speaks frequently in the United States and abroad. She is often quoted in major news outlets, including BBC World Service and BBC World. Ms. Kipper was an assistant to Walter Cronkite at CBS News and was an adviser on Sadat’s Ancient Egypt, a CBS documentary with Mr. Cronkite. She worked for several years in France on international issues, the transatlantic relationship, and the Soviet Union. Subsequently, Ms. Kipper was a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, the Brookings Institution, and the Center for Strategic and International Studies. She was also a consultant to the RAND Corporation.

Ms. Kipper co–edited The Middle East in Global Perspective and commissioned several strategic studies on Middle East issues.

Professor Grzegorz W. Kolodko — a key architect of Polish reforms — is a renowned economist and a world expert on transition and development policy. While Deputy Premier and Minister of Finance (1994–97) he led Poland to the OECD. Holding the same positions again in 2002–03 he played an important role in Poland’s integration with the European Union. Altogether, while he had been in charge of economic policy, Poland’s GDP per capita increased by one third. In 1989 he was participating in the historical Polish Round Table, which led to the first post-communist government in East Central Europe. In 1989–91 he was the member of Economic Council of the Government.

A graduate and Ph.D. of Warsaw School of Economics (SGH), he is currently Director of TIGER – Transformation, Integration and Globalization Economic Research and professor at the Leon Kozminski Academy of Entrepreneurship and Management in Warsaw (WSPiZ). The United Nations, IMF and the World Bank have sought Professor Kolodko expertise. He has accepted invitations for visiting professorships at Yale, UCLA and the University of Rochester, New York, as well as research fellowships and lectures at academic institutions and organizations worldwide.

He is the author of 35 books and over 300 articles and research papers that are published in 23 languages around the globe, of which a majority is available in English.

Professor Kolodko is a marathon runner and world traveler who has explored 125 countries

Visit the TIGER website

Amy S. Mitchell is Deputy Director for the Project for Excellence in Journalism. She has been with the Project since its inception in 1997. Her primary focus is creating and managing the Project’s research, including the Annual Report on the State of the News Media as well as other more specific studies of the news media. She also works on the Project’s teaching instruments including editing a case study curriculum for journalism teaching, titled Thinking Clearly: Case Studies in Journalistic Decision Making. Prior to this occupation, Ms. Mitchell was a congressional research associate at the American Enterprise Institute where she researched public policy and its relationship with the press, the public and government. While at AEI, she co–authored several articles and contributed to books including Debt & Taxes and Vital Statistics on Congress. Ms. Mitchell also spent two years working in the publishing industry and is a graduate of Georgetown University. Originally from the mid–West, she now lives in Silver Spring, MD with her husband and three children.

Anne Elizabeth Moore is an author and coeditor of Punk Planet, The Best American Comics series editor (with Harvey Pekar), and the author of Hey Kidz! Buy This Book: A Radical Primer on Corporate and Governmental Propaganda and Artistic Activism for Short People. She is currently working on Unmarketable: Brandalism, Copyfighting, Mocketing, and the Erosion of Integrity (New Press, November 1, 2007), in which she investigates corporate America's inroads into—and alliances with—the cultural underground. In Unmarketable, Moore takes a look at the following:

“For years the do-it-yourself (DIY)/punk underground has worked against the logic of mass production and creative uniformity, disseminating radical ideas and directly making and trading goods and services. But what happens when the underground becomes just another market? What happens when the very tools that the artists and activists have used to build word of mouth are coopted by corporate America? What happens to cultural resistance when it becomes just another marketing platform?”

Moore has earned Harvey and Eisner Award nominations for her work on the Comics Journal and the first two Comics Journal Special Editions. She’s written for The Onion, the Journal of Popular Culture, and Bitch, and provided commentary on CNN and NPR. Moore has an M.A. from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where she still lives.

Peter O’Gorman is a composer, drummer/percussionist, author and teacher. He creates pieces that are emotional, physical, visceral, cerebral, and kinetic. His compositions have been performed by Steven Schick and the Bang on a Can All–Stars, Amy Knoles of the California Ear Unit, New York percussion quartet Ethos, and numerous other performers throughout the U.S. and abroad. Peter has performed nationally and internationally both as a soloist and with a multitude of very diverse ensembles. He has worked with such luminary composers as: Henry Brant, Irwin Bazalon, William Kraft, Libby Larsen, Frederic Rzewski, John Zorn, and many others. Currently, Peter is resident composer and percussionist with Joe Chvala and the Flying Foot Forum, and is also a featured performer in Mary Ellen Childs’ percussion troupe, CRASH. In addition to his compositions, Peter's publications include a variety of articles on drumming and the critically acclaimed drumset method book series, Drum Sessions. Peter is also the former president of the Minnesota Chapter of the Percussive Arts Society.

More about Peter.

Clyde Prestowitz, one of the shrewdest economic trend-spotters with a long history of predicting the important trends long before they become apparent to others, is Founder and President of the Economic Strategy Institute. ESI is a Washington think tank influential in the areas of international trade policy and specialized in how key sectors of the US and world economy adapt to change, in particular the effects of globalization. His most recent book, Three Billion New Capitalists: The Great Shift of Wealth and Power to the East, deals with the economic rise of Asia and the upcoming rebalancing of the world economic order, and its possible impact on the United States.

Prior to founding ESI, Clyde Prestowitz served as counselor to the Secretary of Commerce in the Reagan Administration. There, he led many U.S. trade and investment negotiations with Japan, China, Latin America, and Europe. Before joining the Commerce Department, he was a senior executive with American Can Company and Scott Paper Company in the United States, Europe, Japan, and throughout Asia and Latin America. He has served as vice chairman of the President’s Committee on Trade and Investment in the Pacific. He sits on the board of the US Member Committee of PBEC and is a member of the advisory board of Intel Corp.

Clyde Prestowitz regularly writes for leading publications, including the New York Times, Washington Post, and Foreign Affairs. He is the author of several best–selling books, including Trading Places on U.S.–Japan relations and Rogue Nation: American Unilateralism and the Failure of Good Intentions, addressing how American foreign policy is perceived by the rest of the world, and how America could repair its frayed relations with its allies and friends.

Mr. Prestowitz has a B.A. with honors from Swarthmore College; an M.A. in East–West Policies and Economics from the East–West Center of the University of Hawaii; and an M.B.A. from the Wharton Graduate School of Business. He also studied at Keio University in Tokyo. He is fluent in Japanese, Dutch, German, and French.

Visit Clyde's Website

Scott Rafer was CEO of blogger social site MyBloglog.com until its acquisition by Yahoo in January 2007. He is also a co–founder and director at Mashery and has been helping Internet publishers and users find What’s Right Now! since 1995. At Mashery and as chairman of Winksite, Rafer helps deliver services for media publishing and discovery. Both sites offer unique features: Mashery that the basics of great web services are available to all providers, while Winksite helps publishers assemble active mobile communities around their brands and content. Previously, Rafer was CEO of Feedster from 2001 to 2003 and co–founded WiFinder, an online tool for finding public wireless access; BookBroadband, the broadband hotel finder; Fresher Information, a real–time search engine using RSS back in 1999; and FotoNation, a creator of connected photography solutions. Before the 1995, Rafer headed–up the Internet products group at Kodak Hollywood, worked in investment banking at Needham & Company, and graduated from the management of technology program at the University of Pennsylvania.

One of Scott’s sites.

SALLY ROUSSE is a celebrated dancer whose performance and choreography has impressed audiences around the world. As a leading dancer with Ballet Chicago, the Royal Ballet of Flanders and James Sewell Ballet, Sally has been featured in classical and Balanchine repertoires, as well as more than 75 works that have been created expressly for her by noted contemporary choreographers, including Maurice Bejart, Jiri Kylian and James Sewell.

Sally’s work as a choreographer has been supported by the National Endowment for the Arts, the McKnight Foundation, the Jerome Foundation, Nickolodeon, Walker Art Center and James Sewell Ballet, among others. Her work mixes classical ballet vocabulary with new idioms, often in collaboration with musicians, improvisation artists, actors, aerial performers and directors. One of her most successful collaborations has been with aerial virtuoso, Chelsea Bacon, with whom she’s created “Trickpony.” Their 2002 program headed that year’s list of top 10 dance events in Minneapolis/ St. Paul, and the duo is now creating new work for the Fall 2007 season.

With her husband, James Sewell, Sally is a co–founder of the James Sewell Ballet. The company started in NYC where Rousse and Sewell were dancers with Feld Ballet/NY and New York City Ballet, in 1990. Since moving the company to Minneapolis in 1993, James Sewell Ballet has garnered critical acclaim for its unique mix of classical and post-modern sensibilities, and has established itself as a jewel on the national dance scene.

Matthew Sanford is a visionary, philosopher, yoga teacher, speaker, author of WAKING and expert of mind–body integration. Sanford’s life’s work began at age thirteen when he survived a car accident that took the lives of his father and sister and left him paralyzed from the chest down. For the last twenty–eight years, he has been on a practical exploration of the mind–body relationship.

Matthew graduated with a BA in philosophy from the University of Minnesota Phi Beta Kappa, summa cum laude, and received a Master of Arts from the University of Santa Barbara in philosophy, then shifted his primary focus to explore how the principles of Iyengar yoga travel through a paralyzed body. After years of trying to overcome his paralysis, he instead began to embrace it by re–establishing connection with his dramatically altered body. He believes that lack of mind–body integration is one of the critical problems facing our long–term survival. Sanford is committed to helping individuals and our society at large, realize the practical notion that minds and bodies work better together.

Visit Matthew's Website
Find Matthew's Book on Amazon.com

Mark Seddon is the Diplomatic Correspondent for Al Jazeera English as well as Vice President of the UN Correspondents Association. After years of reporting for the BBC and others, from countries such as pre–war Iraq, Yemen, Jordan, China, Israel and North Korea, Mark brings a unique insight into both West and East, Christian and Islamic, Capitalist and Communist. He offers a fresh perspective into what motivates the developed and the developing world, with a special emphasis on the latest conflicts and some candid advice on what to do about them.

Mark is a former Editor of Tribune and member of the UK Labour Party’s ruling National Executive Committee, which brought him into close contact with many key players such as UK Prime Minister Tony Blair and leading political/diplomatic figures both West & East, over many years. Mark has never been afraid of controversy or challenging accepted wisdom. He will argue that it is the failure of all too many politicians and journalists to do just that which is polarizing our planet in new and ever more dangerous ways.

At the age of fifteen, Mark turned his back on his Conservative background, and joined the UK Labour Party. That move would eventually lead him to become the youngest ever Editor of the Labour supporting Tribune, formerly edited by amongst others, George Orwell. Mark’s experiences give him an inside knowledge of the UK Government’s key players, how the UK media works — and how it differs from the US media. He will reveal why he gave up an established journalistic career in Britain and came to work in America for Al Jazeera International.

Visit Mark's Blog

Cecily Sommers is a futures researcher, strategist, and author who helps
organizations find proprietary advantage amidst certain, but unpredictable, cultural and business change. Through her consulting firm, Unit 1, Inc. she works with multinational companies, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and others to design next–generation solutions, including positioning, products, and experiences.

Her annual PUSH conference, held under the aegis of the non–profit Push Institute which she founded in 2002, has become known for its bold look into the future, intellectual rigor and multi–disciplinary focus. With luminaries and thought leaders from around the world, the PUSH conference explores recent discoveries in culture, art, science, technology, economics, marketing and politics for clues about what’s next, and their implications for business leaders.

A sought–after speaker, Sommers is often featured at conferences, business schools, workshops, seminars and board retreats across the country. In 2005, Sommers was honored by the Business Journal as one of twenty–five Women to Watch. She has also been featured on Minnesota Public Radio and her popular “What’s Up With That?” trend segment can be regularly heard on WCCO’s Pat Miles Show. She recently completed Revolution by Degrees and is currently at work on a book The Next America.

Sommers has been described as “one of those rare people who is destined
to make a mark, who has that special blend of heart, foresight and leadership” (Andrew Zolli, Founder, Z + Partners, New York City). In the words of Merle Minda, President of Merle Minda Plus and former SVP, Fleishman–Hillard, “she is catalytic and brilliant.”