Bernice L. McFadden is a celebrated, award-winning author who's storytelling deeply explores themes of memory, ancestry, and the African American experience. Over the course of her career, McFadden has written more than a dozen novels, beginning with her acclaimed debut Sugar (2000). Her works include The Book of Harlan (2016), which received the American Book Award and the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work, and Praise Song for the Butterflies (2018), longlisted for the prestigious 2019 Women’s Prize.

Veteran political strategist Donna Brazile is the former interim Chair of the Democratic National Committee (DNC). She is the author of the New York Times bestseller "Hacks: The Inside Story of the Break-Ins and Breakdowns That Put Donald Trump in the White House" and the 2004 best-selling memoir "Cooking with Grease: Stirring the Pots in American Politics." Additionally, she co-authored "For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Politics," which won the 2019 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work, Nonfiction.

Maureen Dowd, winner of the 1999 Pulitzer Prize for distinguished commentary and author of three New York Times best sellers, became an Op-Ed columnist in 1995. In August 2014, she also became a writer for The Times Magazine. 

Dr. Eddie S. Glaude Jr.

James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor

Jeff Duncan is a sports columnist for The Times-Picayune, where he has worked for more than two decades. He was a member of the team that won two Pulitzer Prizes for the paper’s coverage of Hurricane Katrina. Duncan is the author of three books on the Saints -- “Payton and Brees”; “Tales from the Saints Sideline”; and “From Bags to Riches” – and is currently collaborating with Steve Gleason on his memoir, which is scheduled for release in April 2024.

Louisiana First Lady Donna Hutto Edwards was born in  Mississippi and moved with her family to Amite, Louisiana, where she met her future husband, Governor John Bel Edwards.  She earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Southern Mississippi.

A native of Houma, Louisiana, Dr. Chris Yandle is a former college athletics administrator and an award- winning public relations professional at both the K-12 and higher ed levels. After spending more than a decade with five different NCAA Division I college athletics programs, he transitioned to K-12 communications in St. Tammany Parish in 2017. He returned to higher education at the state level in March 2021.

Jane Wolfe, a graduate of Tulane and Harvard Divinity School, is an adjunct professor at Tulane and the University of Holy Cross. Her focus is on World Religions and responsible social entrepreneurship. She is also an accomplished veteran entrepreneur, as the former co-founder and Chief Operating Officer of Wagners Meat Markets, ranked in the Inc. Inner City 100, and as co-founder and former marketing executive for Wolfman Construction, a Top 25 private contractor in New Orleans.

Thomas Chatterton Williams is the author of Losing My Cool and Self-Portrait in Black and White. He is a contributing writer at the Atlantic, a 2019 New America Fellow, a visiting fellow at AEI, and a visiting professor of humanities at Bard College, where he is a Senior Fellow at the Hannah Arendt Center. He was previously a contributing writer at the New York Times Magazine and a columnist at Harper’s.