Jim Northrup, Anishinaabe Poet, Newspaper Columnist, Performer, and Political Commentator from the Fond du Lac Indian Reservation in Minnesota. His Anishinaabe name is "Chibenashi" (from Chi-bineshiinh "Big little-bird").

Jim Northrup writes a syndicated newspaper column, Fond Du Lac Follies which is published in The Circle, The Native American Press, and the News From Indian Country. In his writings, he describes life on the reservation with candor and wry humor. Fond du Lac Follies was named Best Column at the 1999 Native American Journalists Association convention. In 1990-1992, Jim worked as a roster artist for the COMPAS Writer in the Schools Program. He has been a Mentor in the Loft Inroads Program, a Judge for the Lake Superior Contemporary Writers Series and The Jerome Fellowship, and a Member of the Minnesota State Arts Board Prose Panel. Jim also has given radio commentaries on the Superior Radio Network, National Public Radio, Fresh Air Radio, and the BBC-Scotland. 

Jim and his family live the traditional life of the Anishinaabe in northern Minnesota. Nonetheless, his traditional lifestyle does not deter him from participating in events like the Taos Film Festival and the Taos Poetry Circus. Jim was named Writer of the Year in syndicated columns for 2001 by the Wordcraft Circle of Native Writer's and Storytellers for his column The Fond du Lac Follies. Walking the Rez Road was awarded a Minnesota Book Award and a Northeast Minnesota Book Award. Jim was honored as writer of the Best Feature Story in 1987 by the Native American Press Association for the story "Jeremiah, Jesse and Dan". In 1987, he also was named winner of the Lake Superior Contemporary Writers Series for "Culture Clash." The film Jim Northrup: With Reservations received an award at the Dreamspeakers Native Film Festival 1997, and was named Best of Show at Red Earth 1997. It was named Best Short Film at the Native American Voices Showcase 2002 at the Fargo Film Festival. It was also shown at the 1997 Native American Film & Video Festival, National Museum of the American Indian, New York City. The Rez Road Follies has been nominated for a Minnesota Book Award, in the Creative Non-fiction category.

Rinku Sen, President and Executive Director of the Applied Research Center (ARC) and Publisher of ColorLines magazine—New York, New York

Rinku Sen started her organizing career as a student activist at Brown University, fighting race, gender and class discrimination on campuses. She received a B.A. in Women’s Studies from Brown University in 1988 and an M.S. in Journalism at Columbia University (2005). She has written extensively about immigration, community organizing and women’s lives for a wide variety of publications including Third Force, AlterNet, www.tompaine.com, Race, Poverty & the Environment, Amerasia Journal and Colorlines. She edited We are the Ones We Are Waiting For: Women of Color Organizing for Transformation, published by the Urban Rural Missions of the World Council of Churches (1995). She has been the principal investigator on research projects for the Ford and Ms. foundations.

Her book, Stir It Up: Lessons in Community Organizing (Jossey-Bass) was released in the fall of 2003. In 2004, Rinku was honored with the Asian American Journalists Association Dr. Suzanne J. Ahn Award for social justice coverage. Her forthcoming book, The Accidental American (Berrett-Koehler), will reveal the economic, racial and cultural conflicts embedded in the current immigration debate through the experiences of Windows on the World head waiter, union organizer, and Moroccan immigrant Fekkak Mamdouh.

From 1988-2000, Rinku was on the staff of the Center for Third World Organizing (CTWO), a national network of organizations of color. As a staff member, then Co-Director, she trained new organizers of color and crafted public policy campaigns around poverty, education, racial and gender equity, health care and immigration issues. She is a board member of the Schott Foundation for Public Education and on the advisory board of the Philanthropic Initiative for Racial Equity. She is formerly a member of the board of Independent Press Association, the Tides Center and the Center for Third World Organizing. She was recognized by Ms. Magazine as one of 21 feminists to watch in the 21st century in 1996, the same year that she received the Ms. Foundation for Women's Gloria Steinem Women of Vision award. She was a Gerbode Fellow in 1999, and was a 2004 Charles H. Revson Fellow on the Future of the City of New York.

Freeman A. Hrabowski III, Ph.D., President, University of Maryland, Baltimore County

Freeman A. Hrabowski III, has served as President of UMBC (The University of Maryland, Baltimore County) since May, 1992.  His research and publications focus on science and math education, with special emphasis on minority participation and performance. He serves as a consultant to the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, and universities and school systems nationally.  He also sits on several corporate and civic boards.  Examples include the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, Constellation Energy Group, the France-Merrick Foundation, Marguerite Casey Foundation (Chair), McCormick & Company, Inc., Mercantile Safe Deposit & Trust Company, and the Urban Institute.

Examples of recent awards or honors include election to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences and the American Philosophical Society; receiving the prestigious McGraw Prize in Education, the U.S. Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring, and the Columbia University Teachers College Medal for Distinguished Service; being named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and Marylander of the Year by the editors of the Baltimore Sun; and being listed among Fast Company magazine’s first “Fast 50 Champions of Innovation” in business and technology.

Dr. Hrabowski also holds a number of honorary degrees, including most recently from Haverford College, Princeton University, Duke University, the University of Illinois, the University of Alabama-Birmingham, Gallaudet University, Goucher College, the Medical University of South Carolina, and Binghamton University.  He has co-authored two books, Beating the Odds and Overcoming the Odds (Oxford University Press), focusing on parenting and high-achieving African American males and females in science.  Both books are used by universities, school systems, and community groups around the country. A child-leader in the Civil Rights Movement,

Dr. Hrabowski was prominently featured in Spike Lee’s 1997 documentary, Four Little Girls, on the racially motivated bombing in 1963 of Birmingham’s Sixteenth Street Baptist Church. Dr. Hrabowski graduated at 19 from Hampton Institute with highest honors in mathematics.  At the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, he received his M.A. (mathematics) and four years later his Ph.D. (higher education administration/statistics) at age 24.