Dr. Weill is the former Director of the Center for Advanced Lung Disease and Lung and Heart-Lung Transplant Program at Stanford University Medical Center, where he provided oversight for the interstitial lung disease, cystic fibrosis, and transplant programs. He is currently the Principal of the Weill Consulting Group which focuses on improving the delivery of pulmonary, ICU, and transplant care.
Bakari Sellers made history in 2006 when, at just 22 years old, he defeated a 26-year incumbent State Representative to become the youngest member of the South Carolina state legislature and the youngest African American elected official in the nation. In 2014 he was the Democratic Nominee for Lt. Governor in the state of South Carolina.
Lawrence N. Powell taught history at Tulane University from 1978 until his retirement in June 2012 as the James H. Clark Endowed Chair in American Civilization. From 2000 to 2005 he was the Director of the Tulane/Xavier National Center for the Urban Community. From 2010 to 2012 he directed the New Orleans Center for the Gulf South at Tulane. His most recent book is The Accidental City: Improvising New Orleans (Harvard, 2012).
Jonathan Martin is the politics bureau chief and senior political columnist at POLITICO, where he writes a reported column. Prior to starting his column in 2022, Martin was the national political correspondent for The New York Times, where he served as the publication’s top political reporter for nearly a decade. He is the co-author of the New York Times best-seller This Will Not Pass: Trump, Biden, and the Battle for America’s Future, which gave readers in-the-room access to the extraordinary events of the 2020 election and i
Don Lemon spent three decades on local and national TV, a trusted voice after the Sandy Hook massacre, in war-torn Eastern Europe, and during the riots of 2020. Anchoring Don Lemon Tonight on CNN, he was known for hard-hitting interviews with public officials and compassionate dialogue with everyday people. The Don Lemon Show is now streaming on all platforms. His latest book, I Once Was Lost, is a deeply personal follow-up to his #1 bestseller This is the Fire: What I Say to My Friends about Racism.
John Grisham is the author of fifty-one consecutive #1 bestsellers, which have been translated into nearly fifty languages. His recent books include Camino Ghosts, The Exchange: After the Firm, and his third Jake Brigance novel, A Time for Mercy, which is being developed by HBO as a limited series. Grisham is a two-time winner of the Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction and was honored with the Library of Congress Creative Achievement Award for Fiction.
Cheryl Gerber is an award-winning documentary photographer and New Orleans native. She has been a regular contributor to the New York Times, the Associated Press, New Orleans Magazine,and Gambit for more than twenty-five years. She is the author of New Orleans: Life and Death in the Big Easy and Cherchez la Femme: New Orleans Women.
Jarvis DeBerry, editor of the Louisiana Illuminator, spent 22 years at The Times-Picayune (and later NOLA.com) as a crime and courts reporter, an editorial writer, columnist and deputy opinions editor. He was on the team of Times-Picayune journalists awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service after that team’s coverage of Hurricane Katrina and the deadly flood that followed.
Edgar “Dook” Chase, IV is a proud New Orleans native, and business owner. He is Owner/President of Chase Concessions, LLC, Executive Chef at Dooky Chase’s Restaurant, proprietor of Leah’s Kitchen and Dook’s Burgers and a partner in a number of other restaurants in the New Orleans International Airport. Chase holds a Masters of Business Administration, and a formal Culinary degree from Le Condon Bleu Paris, France. He received his undergraduate degree in Economics and Finance from Dillard University in 2004.
Charles M. Blow is an acclaimed journalist and op-ed columnist for the New York Times who appears frequently on CNN. He is the author of the New York Times bestselling memoir Fire Shut Up in My Bones and the New York Times bestseller The Devil You Know. He lives in Atlanta.
