Founder and President

The police shooting of Keith Lamont Scott in Charlotte, North Carolina, has lead to days of protest in the city. To offer insight, we FEATURE Judy Lubin, PhD, MPH. Dr. Lubin is an adjunct professor in the Department of Sociology at Howard University and a researcher and lecturer on health policy and health disparities. She is also co-founder of Sociologists for Justice, an independent collective of nearly 2000 experts, researchers and distinguished scholars organized in response to the epidemic of police brutality in communities of color. Media includes: Huffington Post, theRoot.com, NBC News Washington, Wall Street Journal, PBS.org.

Strategic Geopolitical Analyst and Political Military Consultant

The Syrian government and their Russian ally are bombing Aleppo for the fourth day straight, killing hundreds of people, despite repeated denouncement from the United Nations. To discuss their indiscriminate use of weapons in a densely populated area, we FEATURE Patricia DeGennaro. DeGennaro is an adjunct professor at New York University’s Department of Politics where she teaches courses on international security, civilian and military relations and US foreign policy. She is also a Senior Fellow at the World Policy Institute and a subject matter expert on Afghanistan, the Middle East, the Arab Gulf States, Pakistan and Iran for the U.S. Army’s Training and Doctrine Command. She spends considerable time on field research in the Middle East, notably Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and the Occupied Territories. Media includes: CNN, MSNBC, Al Jazeera, Fox News, BBC, RT Television, Huffington Post.

Principal

With President Obama's consultations with tribal leaders over the Dakota Access Pipeline, a pipeline that has faced strong opposition from the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, we FEATURE Lael Echo-Hawk. Lael represents tribes and tribal organizations across the United States. After serving as in-house counsel for a tribe and its economic enterprises, Lael moved to Washington, D.C. to take a position as Legislative Director for the Native American Contractors Association and Counselor to the Chairwoman of the National Indian Gaming Commission. Lael provides advice on tribal internal governance issues and economic development activities and strategic policy analysis on national tribal legislative and regulatory proposals. Lael is a Past-President of both the National Native American Bar Association and the Northwest Indian Bar Association. Media includes: Boston Herald, Indian Country, GSB Law Blog.

Philosopher, Journalist, Writer

The signing of a peace agreement between Colombia and rebel group FARC will put an end to decades long fighting. To discuss what this would mean for Colombia, we FEATURE Catalina Ruiz-Navarro. Catalina is a Colombian-Caribbean feminist living in México City and a weekly op-ed columnist at El Espectador and El Heraldo in Colombia, and Sin Embargo in México. Catalina was a Professor of Opinion Journalism at the School of Communications at the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana and of Digital Journalism at Jorge Tadeo Lozano University, both in Bogotá. She is the executive director and founder of Hoja Blanca magazine-NGO (HojaBlanca.net) and co-creator of (e)stereotipas (Estereotipas.com) an online, feminist, Latin American project that uses pop aesthetics and social and online media for counter-speech. Media includes: El Espectador (Colombia), The Guardian (UK), El Heraldo (Colombia), Letras Libres (México), Sin Embargo (México).

Executive Director

With news that the poverty rate has declined by a 1.2 percentage point-- the lowest annual drop for over a decade-- we FEATURE Ejim Dike. Ms. Dike is Executive Director of the US Human Rights Network, a national network of over 250 organizations working to build a human rights movement and culture in the United States. Her human rights work focuses on addressing poverty and discrimination using a human rights framework. Ejim has contributed to articles published by the Center for American Progress and the Columbia Law School Human Rights Institute. Ms. Dike worked for several years on programs aimed at increasing access to employment in low-income neighborhoods. Media includes: MSNBC, The Root, Harpers Magazine, The Daily News, Gotham Gazette.