As AAUW’s vice president of government relations, Lisa Maatz worked to advance AAUW’s priority issues on Capitol Hill, in the White House, and in coalition with other organizations. She is a sought-after speaker across the nation and in our nation’s capital and has a large and devoted following on Twitter. Maatz also provides leadership to several coalitions working to advance opportunities for women and girls, including the National Coalition for Women and Girls in Education and the Paycheck Fairness Act Coalition. In 2010, she was featured in the book “Secrets of Powerful Women.” Lisa has developed a reputation for her strategic approach to legislation and advocacy. Media includes: The Washington Post, Associated Press, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, MSNBC.

Suzanne E. Spaulding served as Under Secretary for the National Protection and Programs Directorate (NPPD) at the Department of Homeland Security. She oversaw the coordinated operational and policy functions of the Directorate’s subcomponents: office of Cybersecurity and Communications, Infrastructure Protection, Biometric Identity Management, Cyber and Infrastructure Analysis, and the Federal Protective Service. Media includes: The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Economist, The Guardian, CNN, NPR.

Elizabeth Dawes Gay, MPH is the founder of Sisu Consulting, where she works with clients to advance social, racial, and reproductive justice for women of color. Elizabeth is a strategist, advocate, communicator, and convener who turns research into social impact. She is passionate about solving social problems that specifically affect women of color. Dawes Gay’s lived experience as a Black woman in the United States drives her to fight injustice to create a more equitable world. Her life’s mission is to create a world where women of color have what they need to achieve their ideal well-being and leave their mark on the world. Media includes: The Nation, Rewire, The Root, EBONY.com, TIME Motto, Huffington Post, MSNBC.

Na'ilah Amaru has leveraged her nearly two decades serving as a public interest advocate and Democratic operative towards advancing progressive policies across five U.S. states and at every level of government. Starting her career as a grassroots organizer in Georgia, Amaru became a policy advisor to former Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed, legislative aide to U.S. Congressman John Lewis, and executive director of the New York City Council’s Black, Latino and Asian Caucus. Building Democratic governing power in a national capacity, Amaru now collaborates with state legislators and grassroots organizations across the country to advance progressive democracy reforms and fight voter suppression. Media includes: Forbes Magazine, NBC, NY1, WNYC.

Sayu Bhojwani is the President and Founder of The New American Leaders Project (NALP), which is working to build an inclusive democracy. For that work, she has been recognized by the Case Foundation as a Fearless Changemaker, honored by Citizens Union New York, and awarded the BMW Foundation’s Young Leaders Award in 2013. From 2002 to 2004, she was New York City’s first Commissioner of Immigrant Affairs, under Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, and in 1997 she founded South Asian Youth Action (SAYA!), the first and only organization working exclusively with South Asian youth. Media includes: The New York, The Chicago Tribune, The New York Times, Jezebel, The Hill, ABC, NBC, Fox News.

C. Nicole Mason, PhD is the President and CEO of the Institute for Women's Policy Research. Previously, Dr. Mason was the Executive Director of the Center for Research and Policy in the Public Interest (CR2PI) and an Ascend Fellow at the Aspen Institute in Washington, DC. For the last 15 years, Nicole’s work has focused on issues related economic security and poverty; women’s issues and entitlement reforms; policy formation and political participation among women, communities of color and youth; and racial equity. Media includes: The Huffington Post, Essence Magazine, POLITICO, RealClear Politics, The Wall Street Journal, CNN, MSNBC, NPR.

Robin Leeds is the founder and managing director of Winning Strategies LLC, a public affairs and political consulting firm based in Washington, DC. She has devoted her career to expanding access to economic, civil, and social opportunities for all Americans and is a powerful voice for women, people of color, the LGBTQ community, and other underrepresented groups. While serving at the Clinton White House Office on Women’s Initiatives and Outreach, Leeds coordinated domestic public policy and constituency engagement efforts and led numerous domestic and international women’s initiatives on behalf of the president and first lady. Media includes: Chicago Tribune, Politico, The New York Times, France 24.

Dr. Avis Jones-DeWeever, is an award-winning author, international speaker, political commentator, and race & gender empowerment expert. She formerly served as the youngest ever Executive Director of the National Council of Negro Women, a historic membership organization touching the lives of over four million women of African descent worldwide. As a prolific writer, Dr. Avis is the author or co-author of numerous publications, including her award-winning book, How Exceptional Black Women Lead along with The State of Black Women in the U.S. 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019; Beyond Broke: Why Closing the Racial Wealth Gap is a Priority for National Economic Security; Massive Resistance: A Way Forward for Black America in the Wake of Trump and You Mad? Black Women, Work, and the Normalcy of Disrespect, among many others. Media includes: The Washington Post, the Atlantic, Essence Magazine, Ebony Magazine, CNN, Fox News, PBS, C-Span, BET, BBC, NPR.

An international security and crisis management expert, and former FBI Executive, Lauren Anderson is the Founder and CEO of LC Anderson International, an international consulting business. Passionate about, and committed to, investing in women leaders and youth around the world to reduce conflict and to help address economic disparities, she is working on a program to grow the next generation of law enforcement in countries emerging from conflict. Anderson had a distinguished FBI career, with many “firsts”, including being one of the first women selected for an FBI SWAT team. Media includes: The Washington Post, The Huffington Post, Fox News.

Chandra Childers is a Senior Research Scientist at the Institute for Women's Policy Research. She is an expert on social stratification and social and economic inequality by race and sex, Childers examines issues related to women and girls of color and job quality. Some of Chandra's publications include the Status of Black Women in the United States, Status of Women in the South, and Black and Hispanic Women Lag in Recovering from the Recession. Media includes: The Nation, The Atlantic, Voice of America, Refinery29, Al Jazeera.

Amanda Clinton is the owner and principal of A.R. Clinton: Communications, Content and Strategies. She has more than 20 years of experience in the fields of media, public relations, marketing, community relations, television and film, public policy and political communications. For nearly 15 years, she oversaw external communications for the Cherokee Nation and its corporate arm, Cherokee Nation Businesses. Media includes: Native Business Magazine, Tulsa World, Tulsa People, HuffPost, CBS, ABC.

Stephanie Morain is an Assistant Professor in the Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy. Her research examines political and ethical issues concerning the scope of government authority in public health and the role of stakeholder opinion in shaping decision-making in public health policy. She has expertise in public opinion towards controversial public health laws including those targeting “lifestyle choices” like obesity, physical inactivity, and tobacco use. Media includes: The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal, ABC, NPR.

Donna R. Hoffman is an Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Northern Iowa. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Oklahoma, where her research focused on partisan changes in the American electorate. Her research focuses on both electoral politics and presidential rhetoric. She is the co-author of Addressing the State of the Union: The Evolution and Impact of the President’s Big Speech (Lynne Rienner Publishers 2006). Media includes: Time Magazine, Bloomberg News, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, NBC.

Michèle Flournoy is Co-Founder and Managing Partner of WestExec Advisors, and former Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of the Center for a New American Security (CNAS), where she currently serves on the board. She served as the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy from February 2009 to February 2012. She was the principal adviser to the Secretary of Defense in the formulation of national security and defense policy, oversight of military plans and operations, and in National Security Council deliberations. Extensive media experience.

Juliette Kayyem is currently the Robert and Renee Belfer Senior Lecturer in Public Policy at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, where she is Faculty Director of the Homeland Security Project and the Security and Global Health Project. She has spent over 15 years managing complex policy initiatives and organizing government responses to major crises in both state and federal government. She served for President Obama as Assistant Secretary for Intergovernmental Affairs at the Department of Homeland Security. Media includes:The Boston Globe, The New York Times, The International Herald Tribune, MSNBC, CNN, NPR.

Christina Greer is an Associate Professor of Political Science and American Studies at Fordham University (Lincoln Center Campus). She was the 2018 Fellow for the McSilver Institute for Poverty Policy and Research at New York University Silver School of Social Work. Her primary research and teaching interests are racial and ethnic politics, American urban centers, presidential politics, and campaigns and elections. Greer's book Black Ethnics: Race, Immigration, and the Pursuit of the American Dream (Oxford University Press, 2013 ) investigates the increasingly ethnically diverse black populations in the US from Africa and the Caribbean. She is currently writing her second manuscript and conducting research on the history of all African Americans who have run for the executive office in the U.S. Media includes: The New York Times, MSNBC, NY1, NPR.

Khalilah (Ka-Lie-La) L. Brown-Dean, Ph.D. is Associate Professor of Political Science at Quinnipiac University and former Faculty Co-Coordinator of the Health Policy and Advocacy concentration at the Frank H. Netter School of Medicine. She is the author of Identity Politics in the United States (Polity Press). The book moves beyond the headlines to show how conflicts over group identity are an inescapable feature of American political development. There’s no question that the United States is incredibly divided. Brown-Dean shows us how we got here, and more importantly, how we move forward. Media includes: The New York Times, The Hill, The Washington Post, Al Jazeera, Wall Street Journal, NPR.

Dr. Lavariega Monforti is Dean of the College of Arts & Sciences at California Lutheran University. Her research primarily focuses on the differential impact of public policy according to race, gender and ethnicity. She is specifically interested in the political incorporation and representation of Latino/as, immigrants and women. Media includes: The New York Times, La Opinión, NPR’s All Things Considered.

Dr. Rebecca Deen is Chair and Associate Professor and Distinguished Teaching Professor of Political Science at the University of Texas at Arlington. An expert in US politics, she has published research findings on women in the political process, the U.S. presidency, and effective pedagogy in journals such as Women & Politics, State and Local Government Review, Congress & the Presidency and Judicature. Media includes: The Washington Post, The Dallas Morning News, The Houston Chronicle, NPR.

Tia Sherèe Gaynor, Ph.D. is an assistant professor in the Department of Political Science and director of the Center for Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation. Her research focuses on the unjust experiences’ individuals at the intersection of race, gender identity and sexual orientation have when interacting with systemic racism and social hierarchy in public administration. Media includes: Christian Science Monitor, Huffington Post, PopSugar, NPR.

Claire B. Wofford, J.D., PhD. is an Associate Professor of Political Science at the College of Charleston in Charleston, South Carolina. Her teaching and research interests are in the field of American politics, with a particular emphasis on the U.S. legal system and the role of gender in structuring political power. She offers courses on American Government, the Judiciary, Constitutional Law, Civil Liberties, and Gender and the Law at the undergraduate level. Extensive media experience.

Marisa Franco is a Phoenix-based organizer, writer and strategist. She is the Director and co-founder of Mijente, a digital and grassroots organizing hub for Latina/o and Chicana/o people. In her over 15 years of work as an organizer and movement builder, Franco has helped lead key grassroots organizing campaigns rooted in low-income and communities of color, characterized by their innovation and effectiveness. Media includes: The Washington Post, Al Jazeera, Univision, Politico, MSNBC, CNN, Fox News.

Dr. Lessie Branch is Associate Professor in the School for Business at Metropolitan College of New York. She is a Racial Policy Scholar and a Fulbright Specialist in Race, Ethnicity, and Religion in Politics. Her research examines the gulf between Black optimism about group progress and the actual data on continuing disparities and potentially speaks to wider questions of social knowledge, social beliefs and relative group position; even to questions of “consciousness” and ontology. Media includes: The New York Times, City and State, The Center for Public Integrity, WERS, TEDx.