Jasneet Hora is a strategic communications consultant who helps business leaders advance their goals in an evolving Washington. He previously served as deputy director of speechwriting for Vice President Kamala Harris, as a speechwriter and advisor to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, as a communications strategist at West Wing Writers, and as a researcher at the immigration advocacy organization FWD.us. He holds a master’s degree from Columbia University and a bachelor’s degree from UC Berkeley, where he spent a happy summer living at the UC Washington Center.

Kyle T. Mays (he/him) is an Afro-Indigenous (Saginaw Chippewa) writer and scholar. He is a Professor of African American Studies and History at the University of California, Los Angeles. In 2023-2024, he was a Fulbright Distinguished Visiting Scholar at the University of Edinburgh.

Kojiro Umezaki (梅崎 康二郎) is a shakuhachi player, composer, and media artist whose work bridges tradition and technology. A longtime member of Yo-Yo Ma’s Silkroad Ensemble, he appears on multiple recordings including the Grammy Award–winning Sing Me Home and the documentary The Music of Strangers. His creative practice explores intercultural collaboration and real-time music systems, drawing inspiration from historic Silk Road traditions. Recent projects engage robotics, fabrication, and community work with youth on Northern Cheyenne lands.

Dr. James F. O'Brien is a Professor of Computer Science at the University of California, Berkeley. His research interests include computer graphics, computer animation, simulations of physical systems, human perception, rendering, image synthesis, machine learning, virtual reality, digital privacy, and the forensic analysis of images and video.

Dr. Dana Kornberg’s research investigates the cultural politics of environmental institutions in both the United States and urban India, examining how racial and caste inequalities are institutionalized, experienced, and resisted. Her work spans analyses of territorial stigma and infrastructure in Detroit, resistance during the Flint water crisis, and the postcolonial dimensions of urban development and waste management in Delhi. Her current book project, based on over 20 months of ethnographic research in India, explores how informal recycling systems persist amid privatization.

Dr. Amy Trang, Ph.D., M.Ed., is a social entrepreneur and founder of Social Capital Solutions, Inc., specializing in building public–private partnerships that strengthen nonprofit and community impact. Her career spans leadership roles in local government, public policy, and education, with recognized expertise in multicultural engagement and immigrant inclusion. She has chaired multiple diversity councils in Northern Virginia and contributed to policy and curriculum development for Fairfax County. Dr. Trang holds a Ph.D.

Timothy Kumfer is the Henry A. Wallace Fellowship Program Director at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, DC, where he supports emerging scholar-activists in building skills for public scholarship. From 2023-2024, he was a Mellon Sawyer Postdoctoral Fellow at Georgetown University affiliated with the “Creative Placemaking, Black Restorative Ecologies, and Black Spatial Futures” Seminar. A 2022-2023 Totman Fellow at the DC History Center, he received his PhD in American Studies from The University of Maryland in 2023.

Marcus Board Jr., Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of Political Science at Howard University in Washington D.C. and author of Invisible Weapons (Oxford 2022). His research engages social movements, radical Black feminist theories of power, and public opinion. Marcus’ community work has grown over the past twenty years, building politically and personally connected communities while advocating for youth empowerment, abolition, and systemic accountability.

Beth Baker is a cultural anthropologist and professor with over two decades of teaching experience at California State University, Los Angeles. Her research focuses on migration, social movements, and policy, with a particular interest in immigration law and community activism. Dr. Baker has taught a wide range of courses in anthropology, Latin American studies, and gender studies, bringing a passion for civic engagement and social justice to her work in the classroom.