Todd Breyfogle - @ToddBreyfogle
Todd Breyfogle is Director of Seminars for the Aspen Institute, overseeing a number of seminar offerings, including the Aspen Executive Seminar on leadership, values and the good society—since 1950 the heart of the Aspen Institute’s humanities-based executive leadership development programs. www.AspenInstitute.org

Abigail Golden-Vázquez - @abbeyny
As Executive Director of the Aspen Institute Latinos and Society Program, Abigail runs a policy program whose goal is to improve understanding of the growing Latino community and its critical importance to the future of the US. She also developed the Institute’s geographical and topical leadership initiatives that comprise the Aspen Global Leadership Network.  www.AspenInstitute.org

Joseph Kunkel - @jfkunkel
Joseph, a Northern Cheyenne Tribal Member, is the Executive Director of SNCC. A passionate community designer, planner, and educator, his work has encompassed several community housing projects, and 22 case studies and best practices highlighting exemplary Native housing processes He’s also delivered dozens of workshops and studios to build the design and technical capacity of students and practitioners in Indian Country. www.sustainablenativecommunities.org

Hanmin Liu - @HanminLiu
Hanmin Liu is president of Wildflowers Institute in San Francisco, a nonprofit organization dedicated to harnessing the will of the community for social good. He is the author of Sustaining Change in a Market Economy: Community, Creativity, and Transformation, Wildflowers Institute (2018); “In Search of the Informal Capital of Community,” Jossey-Bass (2011) www.wildflowers.org

Irfana Noorani - @DCBridgePark
Irfana is the Deputy Director of the 11th Street Bridge Park, a project of Building Bridges Across the River in Washington D.C. Along with fundraising, she works closely with locals to plan community-driven programs like the Anacostia River Festival and other placekeeping initiatives in the adjoining neighborhoods. www.bridgepark.org

Lori Severens - @AspenAscend
Lori Severens manages Ascend’s national and Colorado-focused fellowship programs for diverse leaders with big ideas to help children and families reach their full potential. Previously, she spent almost 15 years in international development in Southeast Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. She loves traveling, hiking, painting, and spending time with her family and dog. www.ascend.aspeninstitute.org
 

Steven Wickes 
Steven Wickes is an experienced moderator at the Aspen Institute in Aspen Colorado. Initially, serving as the director of the largest donor group at the Institute, he now continues his work there solely as a moderator. He has moderated seminars on "The Great Books", "The Great Conversation," and "Our Society Reimagined." www.aspeninstitute.org

Sarah Allan 
Sarah has worked at the intersection of arts and community for the last 22 years, first at Dwelling Place in Grand Rapids, MI, then New Kensington CDC in Philadelphia and now at The Center for Great Neighborhoods in Covington, KY. While she is deeply aware of how arts and culture can positively impact a neighborhood, she's also aware that layered financing is often a critical piece to making a creative placemaking project truly sustainable. www.greatneighborhoods.org

Jennifer Allen
Jennifer is a community planner who loves connecting people to the relationships and resources they need. At ioby (In Our Backyards), Jennifer works one-on-one with resident leaders across the country to support them in crowdfunding for projects to improve their communities. www.ioby.org

Christa Drew - @Christa_DAISA
Christa Drew is Senior Consultant with DAISA Enterprises, activating strategy, operations, and technology to realize equitable food systems and vibrant communities. Her work to advance health equity, opportunities, and arts and cultural expression includes clients such as The Kresge Foundation, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Foundation and others. With decades of leadership experience and degrees in conflict transformation and public policy and administration, Christa is passionate about justice and systems change. www.daisaenterprises.com

Eileen Flanagan - @EMFlan
Eileen Flanagan, Chief Innovator at Community Development Advisors LLC, has over 30 years of success in the community and economic development arena. Eileen’s work places her in a vanguard role in understanding community change and how to measure it. She supports change makers undertake outcome evaluation. She also farms. www.successmeasures.org

Sasha Graham
Sasha Graham is a community organizer and activist from Richmond, California, and member of the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment. She was a Staying Power fellow in 2017, during which she carried out creative arts and participatory research to change the narrative around housing and displacement in her community. She is currently active in the campaign to repeal Costa Hawkins, a California state law that limits rent control. www.acceaction.org

Michelle D. Johnson - @mdjohnson1663
Michelle D. Johnson serves as a program officer with The Kresge Foundation’s Arts and Culture Program. Her responsibilities include reviewing grant requests from community- based nonprofit organizations, making recommendations for grant funding, and monitoring a portfolio of grants. Michelle joined Kresge in 2006, having previously worked as a financial resource development analyst for the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit. She earned a bachelor of arts degree in industrial/organizational psychology from Wayne State University and holds a master of science in management from Walsh College. www.kresge.org

Nancy Kopf
Since joining Success Measures in 2005, Nancy has overseen all aspects of its training and technical assistance services. She directs a team of evaluation, community development, and training professionals to support a wide range of community development organizations, foundations, intermediaries, and other nonprofits as they incorporate and use the Success Measures evaluation methods and tools. www.successmeasures.org

Eli Moore
Eli Moore is Program Manager for the Haas Institute’s strategic partnerships with grassroots community-based organizations in California. Eli facilitates processes that weave together research, advocacy, power building, and narrative change. Much of his recent work has focused on local strategies and solutions related to displacement, belonging, and fair and inclusive housing. www.haasinstitute.berkeley.edu

Soneela Nankani - @Soneela
Soneela Nankani is Managing Director for Center for Performance and Civic Practice and Sojourn Theatre. In addition, she works nationally as a facilitator, advocate and thought partner. She has over 25 years experience as a co-creator, performer and facilitator in community-engaged theater. Soneela is also prolific audiobook narrator with over 100 titles to date. www.thecpcp.org

Michael Rohd
Michael Rohd is founding artistic director of the 18 year old Sojourn Theatre. He is an Institute Professor at Arizona State University’s Herberger Insititute for Design & Art and author of the widely translated book Theatre for Community, Conflict, and Dialogue. He leads the Center for Performance and Civic Practice and was the 2013-2016 Doris Duke Artist-in-Residence at Lookingglass Theater Company in Chicago. www.thecpcp.org

Barbara Schaffer Bacon - @Bsbacon
Barbara Schaffer Bacon co-directs Animating Democracy, a program of Americans for the Arts that inspires, informs, promotes, and connects arts and culture as potent contributors to community, civic, and social change. Barbara is president of the Arts Extension Institute @ UMASS. She served on the Belchertown, MA School Committee and is a current member of the Massachusetts Cultural Council. www.animatingdemocracy.org

Margy Waller - @margyartgrrl
Margy Waller is an advocate for creating community through the arts and advisor to national initiatives on creative placemaking. She is a Senior Fellow at Topos Partnership, Serendipity Director at Art on the Streets, and former Vice-President of Research and Strategic Communications at ArtsWave. Previously she was Visiting Fellow at the Brookings Institution, with a joint appointment in the Economic Studies and Metropolitan Policy programs. Prior to Brookings, she was Senior Advisor on domestic policy in the Clinton-Gore White House. Before joining the Administration, Margy was Senior Fellow for Social Policy and Director of the Working Families Project at the Progressive Policy Institute. www.topospartnership.com

Faith Bartley - @villagephilly
Faith joined People’s Paper Co-op at The Village in 2014, a program designed by and for citizens returning from prison. Since then, she has been promoted to Lead Fellow; won a 2016 Leeway Grant; spoken across the US about re-entry; and co-designed anchor programs such as the women in re-entry internship; Ladies Night and community storefront programming. www.spaces.villagearts.org

Landee Bryant
The Executive Director of the Paducah Art House Alliance since 2008, Landee is elevating the 27-year old organization to a new status in Paducah Ky. A member of the Paducah Main Street Board, owner of Bricolage Art Collective and recently named a Duchess of Paducah, she contributes to the mission of the Art House Convergence group by serving on panels and aiding in the year round planning. www.maidenalleycinema.org

Jane Chu - @NEAJaneChu
Jane Chu is the eleventh chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts. With a background in arts administration and philanthropy, Chairman Chu is also an accomplished artist and musician. During her tenure she has awarded more than $490 million in grants to nonprofit organizations and artists; issued new research reports on arts participation and the impact of the arts and cultural industries on the nation's gross domestic product. www.arts.gov

James Fallows - @JamesFallows
James Fallows has been a national correspondent for The Atlantic for more than thirty-five years, reporting from China, Japan, Southeast Asia, Europe, and across the United States. He is the author of eleven previous books. His work has also appeared in many other magazines and as public-radio commentaries since the 1980s. He has won a National Book Award and a National Magazine Award. For two years he was President Jimmy Carter’s chief speechwriter.

Deborah Fallows
Deborah Fallows is a linguist and writer who holds a PhD in theoretical linguistics and is the author of two previous books. She has written for The Atlantic, National Geographic, Slate, The New York Times, and The Washington Monthly, and has worked at the Pew Research Center, Oxygen Media, and Georgetown University. She and her husband have two sons and four grandchildren.

Robert Gipe - @robert_gipe
Robert Gipe directs the Appalachian Program at Southeast Kentucky Community & Technical College in Harlan, Kentucky. He produces the Higher Ground community performance series. Gipe won the 2015 Weatherford Award for outstanding Appalachian novel for Trampoline. Gipe formerly worked at Appalshop, an arts center in Whitesburg, Kentucky. www.highergroundinharlan.com

Shelton McElroy - @SheltonMcElroy
Shelton is a Parent Advocate with personal experience of the foster and incarceration systems, and helps parents navigate the reunification process all while wielding the power of creative writing and storytelling to empower all throughout the process. He is a JustLeadershipUSA 2016 Fellow, a recipient of 2018 BMe Genius $10,000 award, a writer, actor, artist, photographer, poet, and playwright. www.bailproject.org/about-us/

Oscar Perez
Oscar Perez is a Major with the Providence Police Department and the Commanding Officer of the Community Relations Bureau. During the past 24 years he has served in many divisions, and currently serves on the RI Commission for Prejudice in Bias, The RI State Parole Board, the RI College Inclusive Excellence Commission and the Board for the Institute for the Study and Practice of Nonviolence (ISPN). www.providenceri.gov/police-department

Rip Rapson - @RipRapson
Rip Rapson has served as president and CEO of The Kresge Foundation since 2006, transforming it from a foundation that funded building projects to one that seeks to improve opportunities for people living in America’s cities, including its hometown of Detroit. He previously served as president of the McKnight Foundation in Minneapolis, where he led early childhood development efforts, created a regional public-private-philanthropic economic development organization, and enhanced environmental protections along the Mississippi River. He earlier served as the deputy mayor of Minneapolis, with responsibility for designing a $400 million neighborhood revitalization program, revamping the municipal budgeting process, and elevating the city’s commitment to children and families. www.kresge.org

DeBraun Thomas - @debraunthomas
DeBraun Thomas is a native of the San Francisco Bay Area and moved to Lexington in 2008. After graduating from the University of Kentucky in 2012, he began working as an intern at Lexington's NPR station WUKY and was brought on staff in 2013. History and storytelling are big passions of his and he was able to do both in producing The Unghosting of Medgar Evers (2012) and a documentary on the March on Frankfort (2013) for WUKY. DeBraun is also the host of the Crunkadelic Funk Show which airs Saturdays at 9pm on WUKY. www.takebackcheapside.com

F. Javier Torres
F. Javier Torres is the Director of the Thriving Cultures Program at Surdna. Prior to joining Surdna, Javier served as the Director of National Grantmaking at ArtPlace, Senior Program Officer for the arts at the Boston Foundation, and as the Director of Villa Victoria Center for the Arts. www.surdna.org