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.

I am a professor, scholar, and practitioner with subject area expertise in development, gender, youth, and communication. I taught at numerous universities in Morocco and the United States, including the American University's School of International Service (2003-2015) and the George Washington University's Elliott School of International Affairs. I am the author, coauthor and editor of numerous peer reviewed journal articles, book chapters and books. As a practitioner, I co-founded many women’s organizations and participated in the activities of a few others.

Marc Sandalow is a senior faculty member at the University of California’s Washington Program, where he has taught since 2008. He is the author of three books, including “Madam Speaker,” a biography of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. He has been a journalist for over 30 years, including 21 years at the San Francisco Chronicle where he covered California politics and spent more than a decade as the paper’s Washington Bureau Chief. He is currently a political analyst for KCBS radio in San Francisco and Hearst Television and writes a weekly column for the San Francisco Examiner.

Hi, I’m Jessica Gresko and for 20 years I have worked as a reporter, editor and manager for The Associated Press, first in Miami and now in Washington. I was a legal reporter for more than a decade and covered the Supreme Court for six years. My time covering the court was a time of great change and consequence and I look forward to talking about that with you. I earned my B.A. in history and political science from Columbia University in New York and a M.S.L. (Master’s in the Study of Law) from Georgetown University Law School.