Recently featured in a front-page story in The New York Times and in columnist Nicholas Kristof’s Times column, Dr. Hawa Abdi lives in Somalia where she provides a safehaven for 90,000 displaced people on her family’s 1000 acre farm. Dr. Abdi, a gynecologist, and her daughters Deqo and Amina, also doctors, have built a hospital, a school, and created a civil society just 20 miles from Mogadishu, considered one of the most dangerous cities on earth by the U.N.
Winner of the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for History and the 2010 FT/Goldman Sachs Business Book Award for his book LORDS OF FINANCE, Ahamed is a former economist at the World Bank and investment manager. LORDS OF FINANCE is a New York Times Bestseller and was chosen as one of The New Yorker's top 20 nonfiction books of 2009, and one of The New York Times' top 10 books of 2009.
Author of the column "Ask a Mexican," syndicated in more than 50 newspapers across the country, Arellano edits the OC Weekly, and contributes to NPR's Marketplace and The Los Angeles Times. He's appeared on The Today Show, NPR's On the Media, The Situation with Tucker Carlson, and The Colbert Report. He lectures widely and is represented by Verbatim.
Dr. Jane Aronson was born in Brooklyn in 1951 and grew up on Long Island. Since July 2000,she has been in private practice as Director of International Pediatric Health Services, in New York City. She is Clinical Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at the Weill Medical College of Cornell University. Since 1997, she has conducted research and provided education in orphanages abroad through her 501(3) (c) foundation, Worldwide Orphans Foundation (WWO).
Musician, activist, technology consultant, and author, Ashong hosts a weekly radio show, "The Derrick Ashong Experience" on Oprah Radio, and is represented for speaking engagements by The American Program Bureau.
The authors, both attorneys, run SEAK, Inc., a Massachusetts-based business training and consulting firm, a core specialty of which is teaching negotiation strategies.
Poet and novelist, and assistant professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Ball won the Plimpton Prize in 2008 for his novella, The Early Deaths of Lubeck, Brennan, Harp & Carr. The Way Through Doors was chosen as one of The New Yorker's top 20 fiction and poetry books of 2009.
News editor for Travel & Leisure, Barr was an editor and writer at Brill's Content.
Former ballet dancer and founder and former director of the Palm Springs Ballet Company, Beck currently lives in France.
Project Runway finalist, CBS Morning Show contributor, and frequent Bravo commentator, Bennett is a trained architect and mother of six.
Former reporter for WWD, Vogue editor, and editor in chief of Harper's Bazaar, Betts is a contributor to Time, Time.com, and thedailybeast.com.
Recent University of Massachusetts, Amherst grad and CNBC reporter, Bissonnette is also a regular contributor to AOL's DailyFinance.com and was co-founder and co-editor of AOL's WalletPop.com. He has appeared on The Suze Orman Show, CNN, The Today Show, Fox, and The Dave Ramesy Show, among others.
Boal is a journalist, screenwriter, and film producer who won two Academy Awards for The Hurt Locker in 2009: for Best Original Screenplay and, as the producer, for Best Picture. His 2004 Playboy article "Death and Dishonor," about the murder of veteran Richard T. David, inspired the screenplay for Paul Haggis's film In the Valley of Elah.
Borelli is a stand-up comedian, writer, and graphic designer, and Gorenstein is a studio photographer.
Now eighty-eight years old, Scotty Bowers still works as a bartender at private Hollywood functions.
An Italian journalist living in New York, Brey has contributed to Travel & Leisure, and many Italian cultural magazines.
Painter, playwright (Slab Boys, on the West End and on Broadway), television creator (Tutti Frutti), and album cover designer (The Beatles, Donovan, Gerry Rafferty and Billy Connolly). Several of his paintings hang in The Scottish National Portrait Gallery in Edinburgh.
Reporter and feature writer for the New York Post, Callahan has worked as a writer and editor at Spin and Sassy.
Covering the worlds of fashion, art, and film, Camhi writes regularly for T Magazine and Vogue.
Caracciolo Chia contributed to House & Garden, and writes regularly for W and World of Interiors.
Former chancellor of New York City public school system and former superintendent for Miami-Dade county public schools, Crew is an education consultant and frequent lecturer.
Emmy-award winning actor best known for his role as Sam Malone on the television series "Cheers," Danson appears regularly in the HBO series "Curb Your Enthusiasm" and "Bored to Death." He was the founder of the ocean activist group American Oceans Campaign, which eight years ago joined with other environmental groups to form Oceana, the world's largest non-profit devoted to marine issues. Danson is on the Board of Directors.
Soccer mom turned grass-roots organizer, Dees-Thomases co-founded the Million Mom March.
New Yorker magazine cartoonist, stand-up comedian, and humor lecturer, Diffee divides his time between New York, Texas, and Nova Scotia.
Long-time New Yorker magazine contributor, Donnelly teaches at Vassar College and is married to fellow New Yorker cartoonist Michael Maslin. She's also a frequent public speaker and lecturer, and gave a TED talk about using humor to change the world in December 2010.
Falanga, an interior designer and founder of the Heart Homes Initiative of Designs For Dignity, lives in Chicago with her husband and two children. She and her book were featured in People magazine and on The Today Show, CBS Sunday Morning, and Live with Regis and Kelly. The book is under option to Disney.
A Chicago-based corporate executive, Falanga has written for the Chicago Tribune and GQ.
Mark Felt was second in command in the FBI in the 1970s and in 2005 revealed himself to be the famous Woodward and Bernstein source “Deep Throat.” He died in 2008, and his daughter Joan Felt is the executor of his estate. His story is under option to Universal and Tom Hanks’ production company Playtone.
Lloyd is a radio host and voiceover artist and Finch works in advertising.
Sisters Forbes and Forbes Carlin run a lifestyle company, Inspired Everyday Living, and live in Los Angeles.
Chief business columnist and an associate editor of the Financial Times, Gapper makes regular appearances on the BBC, CNBC, and NPR.
Gardner Trulson is the founder of the Douglas B. Gardner Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to helping at-risk children in New York. She graduated from Tufts University and received a J.D. from Harvard. She lives with her husband and two children in Manhattan.
Longtime New Yorker cartoonist, Gerberg is the author of the classic how-to guide CARTOONING: THE ART AND THE BUSINESS, and illustrator of MORE SPAGHETTI, I SAY. Gerberg is a lecturer and creative consultant for American Express, John Hancock, Motorola, AT&T, and Fidelity.
Actress Gina Gershon is best known for her iconic roles in the films Showgirls, Cocktail, and Bound. Gina’s appeared regularly on Curb Your Enthusiasm and Dennis Leary’s Rescue Me, and next will be featured in HBO’s upcoming season of How to Make it in America. She will also star in the film adaptation of playwright Tracy Letts's Killer Joe, alongside Matthew McConaughey and Emile Hirsch, directed by William Friedkin.
Glamour magazine is one of the world's leading women's magazines. It is now published in over a dozen countries throughout the world, and the magazine just celebrated the 21st anniversary of its Women of the Year Awards.
Featured in T Magazine, Vogue, USA Today, Bon Appetit, W, and many other regional and national publications, Valerie Gordon’s Valerie Confections has a retail store in Los Angeles and sells its delicacies at Dean & Deluca and other specialty stores across the country.
Los Angeles based landscape architect and garden designer, Graham is also a PhD in American History, an environmental activist, and journalist.
Karl Taro Greenfeld is the author of four books, including Boy Alone, about his autistic brother Noah, Speed Tribes, Standard Deviations and China Syndrome. A long time writer and editor for The Nation, TIME and Sports Illustrated, he was the editor of TIME Asia and was among the founding editors of Sports Illustrated China. Karl was born in Kobe, Japan, and currently lives in Pacific Palisades with his wife, Silka, and two daughters, Esmee and Lola.
In 2007, novelist and journalist Griffin was elected a Term Member at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.
The most prolific New Yorker cartoonist in the magazine’s history, Gross is also known for being the cartoon editor of The National Lampoon and one of its most renowned cartoon contributors.
An executive at Rubenstein, Hayes was a reporter and editor at Entertainment Weekly and Variety.
Hemingway is a children’s book author and illustrator; Bailey a screenwriter and producer.
Formed editor in chief of WIRED and editor at The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, and The New York Times Magazine, Heron is a freelance editor, writer, editorial consultant, and is on the board of the Chez Panisse Foundation.
A journalist known for her work about Generation Y for Fortune and Fortune.com, Hira has appeared on CNN, MSNBC, CNBC, MTV News, and HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher,” lectures widely on management and leadership, and is represented for speaking engagements by the Leigh Bureau and for television by CAA.
A labor and civil rights lawyer and former Supreme Court litigator, Hirshman is a political columnist for Slate.com, Salon.com, and dailybeast.com, and former professor of philosophy and women's studies at Brandeis University.
A Cordon Bleu-trained chef and the former owner of The Patio By The River in Atlanta, Hitz’s “My Beverly Hills Kitchen” frozen food line is sold on HSN.
Hoffman hosts a cooking show as well as radio show and web site for Univision. Her show Delicioso ran on the Food Network for three seasons. She appears regularly on The Today Show and The Early Show.
Executive editor of New York magazine, Homans is a former writer and editor for Esquire, Harpers, and The New York Observer.
The co-authors have also written Baked Potatoes: A Pot Smoker’s Guide to Film + Video, and edited Voices of the X-iled, an anthology of Gen-X writing
Theater critic for The New York Times, formerly the chief theater critic for Variety, and recipient of the George Jean Nathan award for theater criticism.
Former architecture critic for New York magazine, former New York Times columnist, Jacobs is a contributing editor to Travel + Leisure.
The story of 13 women living in or near Ventura, California—mostly in their 50s and married with grown children—who each chipped in to buy Jewelia, a $37,000 necklace set with 118 diamonds with a total weight of 16.25 carats. They agreed that each would wear Jewelia for four weeks per year and get together when it was time to pass her on. THE NECKLACE, a story of friendship and community, was a New York Times Bestseller, and is under option to Fox.
Former NPR producer Johnson has written for Harper's, New York, Outside, and San Francisco magazines.
A Vanity Fair contributing editor, Kashner and wife Nancy Schoenberger’s FURIOUS LOVE was a New York Times and Los Angeles Times bestseller. He wrote VF’s Marilyn Monroe cover story in 2010.
A lawyer and human rights activist, Kennedy is the President of the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights, Chair of the Amnesty International USA Leadership Council, and serves on the boards of directors of Human Rights First, Inter-Press Service, and the United States Institute for Peace. BEING CATHOLIC NOW is a New York Times bestseller.
Former European editor for W and current Vogue contributor, Kerwin Jenkins lives in Maine. ENCYCLOPEDIA was selected as one of Barnes & Noble's Best 25 Books of 2010.
Ro Khanna was appointed by President Barack Obama in 2009 to serve as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Commerce. In this capacity, Ro managed 108 domestic commerce offices that helped bolster America's manufacturing prowess. In 2011, Ro left the administration to pursue a congressional bid in his home district of Fremont, California.
A former editor at The New Yorker and Radar, Knutsen is an editor at Vogue and co-edited an anthology about Brooklyn, New York.
Kohen is a former editor at Marie Claire, where she put together several oral histories, ran the magazine’s book club, and wrote about pop culture.
Krause regularly presides over High Holiday services at the 92nd Street Y in New York City and has written for O: The Oprah Magazine.
Former professor of history at Carthage College, Kuhn has written extensively about the British monarchy and Victorian high politics.
Creator and co-host of web-based cooking series Working Class Foodies.
Former Wired editor and editor of Billboard, Levine has also written for The New York Times, Fortune, Business 2.0, Conde Nast Portfolio, Rolling Stone, and Vanity Fair.
A contributor to Business Week, Fortune, Fast Company, Time, Wired, and Advertising Age, Lindsay was a reporter for Inside.com.
In his role as cartoon editor of The New Yorker for the past fifteen years, Bob Mankoff has expanded the tradition to include the annual “Cartoon Issue” and the incredibly popular “Caption Contest”. He also edited THE COMPLETE CARTOONS OF THE NEW YORKER.
A longtime New Yorker cartoonist, Maslin had his first cartoon published in the magazine in 1977. He's married to fellow New Yorker cartoonist Liza Donnelly.
Joyce Maynard is the author of fourteen books, including the novel To Die For and the best-selling memoir, At Home in the World—translated into twelve languages. Her novel, Labor Day, is currently being developed as a motion picture to be adapted and directed by Jason Reitman.
Actor, director, and travel writer, McCarthy is known for his roles in iconic movies such as Pretty in Pink, St. Elmo's Fire, Less Than Zero, and Weekend at Bernie's. His writing has appeared in Travel + Leisure, National Geographic Traveler, National Geographic Adventure, The Atlantic, Men's Journal, and Bon Appetit.
Merge Records founders (and Superchunk bandmates) McCaughan and Ballance are or have been the label for Arcade Fire, Spoon, Neutral Milk Hotel, Stephen Merritt, Conor Oberst, She & Him, and Buzzcocks, among others.
A former editor at Zeotrope magazine, McCoy is a screenwriter living in Los Angeles.
Fortune contributing editor and regular New York magazine contributor McDonald also writes for a variety of other publications, including Newsweek, Vanity Fair, and TheDailyBeast.com.
Former US Weekly editor in chief, and writer for People and In Style, Min is now the editor in chief of The Hollywood Reporter.
Monk lives in Pennsylvania and has written for The New York Times.
Four time Oscar nominated actress Moore is an Artist Ambassador for Save the Children. Her Freckleface Strawberry books are the basis for an Off Broadway show that opened in 2010 and have appeared on The New York Times bestseller list.
Longtime New Yorker articles editor, Morrison was the editor in chief of The New York Observer and a founding editor of Spy.
Maura Moynihan is the author of Yoga Hotel and is getting a Master’s in international development at The New School. She and her mother Elizabeth Moynihan oversee the estate of the late Senator from New York Daniel Patrick Moynihan. The book was chosen by The New York Times as one of the top 20 nonfiction books of 2010, and was a Washington Post bestseller.
Murray is a long time contributor to The Financial Times, first in London and now in the United States. Her work has also appeared in the Independent, the Observer, the Economist, the Times Higher Educational Supplement, the New Statesman and American Demographics.
Renowned soprano Jessye Norman has performed with the world’s most celebrated orchestras and symphonies, including the Orchestre de Paris, and the Philharmonics of Los Angeles, New York, Berlin and London. She is the youngest ever winner of a Kennedy Center Honor, has earned a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, and received the National Medal of the Arts from President Barack Obama.
Former editor and writer for The New Yorker and The Chicago Tribune, Emily Nunn is currently conducting a comfort food tour of the United States.
The youngest ever recipient of an Oscar, for Paper Moon, O’Neal’s first book, A PAPER LIFE, was a New York Times bestseller. She appears on Rescue Me and is a producer and star of the OWN show LOST AND FOUND, with her father Ryan O’Neal.
The founder of O pictures, Oreck produced hundreds of music videos, many iconic, including for Prince, Madonna, Janet Jackson, Mick Jagger, Chris Isaak, and Sheila E, among many others.
Ortved has written about pop culture, film, television, music and style for Vanity Fair, The New York Times, New York, W, Glamour, The Globe and Mail, and Vice. He's a dating columnist for Glamour.com, and a regular contributor to Coolhunting and Fashionista. He is also the editor of The Last Magazine.
A candidate for a Master’s Degree in Creative Writing at Columbia University, Parker is a former drug addict who spent many years in prison for crimes committed to support his habit.
Owner of Pasanella and Son, a wine shop in lower Manhattan, Pasanella wrote the "Room to Improve" column for The New York Times and has contributed to GQ and Esquire.
Nominated for an Oscar for her performance in Peter Weir’s Fearless, Perez started her career as a dancer on Soul Train and went on to choreograph for In Living Color, for which she was twice nominated for an Emmy, before starring in Spike Lee’s Do The Right Thing and in White Men Can’t Jump, among other studio and independent films. She has appeared on Broadway in Terrence McNally’s Frankie and Jonny in the Clair de Lune, and is the Artistic Chair of Urban Arts Partnership.
A former producer for 60 Minutes and contributing editor to Talk and Brill’s Content, Pogrebin has written for New York, The New York Times, Harper’s Bazaar, The Huffington Post, and Good Housekeeping, and hosts an interview series at the JCC where she has interviewed David Remnick, Jonathan Alter, Mario Batali, Nicholas Kristof, among many others.
Recently named editor in chief of Art in America, Pollock reported on the art world for The New York Sun and Bloomberg.
Los Angeles based documentary filmmaker and screenwriter, Rader wrote the screenplay for Waterworld.
A writer for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, Radosh worked at Spy and has written for The New Yorker, Playboy, and Esquire, among other publications.
Co-founder of The Atavist, a boutique digital publisher of non-fiction, and a co-writer of SAFE: The Race to Protect Ourselves in a Newly Dangerous World, Ratliff has written for Wired, The New Yorker, The New York Times magazine, and ReadyMade, among other publications.
James Beard nominated chef Reusing’s restaurant Lantern, in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, was named one of “The Top Fifty Restaurants in the United States” by Gourmet.
Since joining the New York Post in 1998, Michael Riedel has gained an international reputation of being Broadway’s harshest (and most hilarious) gumshoe: he’s been called a “comic villain” by New York magazine, and “the butcher of Broadway” by the New York Observer. Prior to joining the Post, he wrote for the New York Daily News, where he garnered attention for his no-holds-barred reporting about high-profile Broadway flops.
Former Fashion Editor of Vanity Fair and The New Yorker, Roberts is an artist, illustrator, photographer, and stylist whose work also appears in Tatler, Italian Vogue, and other international publications.
Mother of bestselling authors John Elder Robison and Augusten Burroughs, Robison is a poet who grew up in Georgia and now lives in Northampton, Massachusetts.
Multi-platinum, Grammy Award-winning music producer, songwriter, and Chic band-member, Rodgers has written songs for and produced for Madonna, David Bowie, Diana Ross, Duran Duran, Cyndi Lauper, Peter Gabriel, Sheena Easton, Jeff Beck, Mick Jagger, among many others.
Novelist, playwright, and screenwriter Paul Rudnick's plays have been produced both on and off Broadway and include "I Hate Hamlet" and "Jeffrey". He's written three books and is a frequent contributor to The New Yorker. His articles and essays have also appeared in The New York Times, Vogue, Esquire and Vanity Fair. His screenplays include "In&Out" and "Addams Family Values." Mr. Rudnick is rumored to be quite close to Premiere magazine's film critic, Libby Gelman-Waxner, whose collected columns have been published by St. Martin's Press under the title If You Ask Me. Ms. Gelman-Waxner will soon be returning to regular reviewing in the pages of Entertainment Weekly.
Occidental College professor with a Ph. D. in American history, Russell has taught at Columbia University and The New School.
Professor of English at West Point, Samet received her BA from Harvard and her PhD from Yale. Soldier's Heart won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Current Interest and was also named one of The New York Times’s 100 Notable Books in 2007.
Schneider lives on Martha’s Vineyard and has written for The New York Times, The New Yorker, Elle, and O: The Oprah Magazine.
Former pollster for President Bill Clinton, Schoen is a political commentator and consultant who has also worked for Ed Koch and Michael Bloomberg.
The co-author with Sam Kashner of HOLLYWOOD KRYPTONITE: The Bulldog, the Lady, and the Death of Superman, on which the movie starring Adrian Brody and Ben Affleck, "Hollywoodland," was based. Schoenberger is a professor of English and Creative Writing at the College of William and Mary.
Schwartz Hartley, former deputy editor of Art+Auction, is an art, architecture, and design writer and has contributed to Bookforum, Interior Design, Elle Decor, and the New York Times Book Review. She rediscovered and shepherded through to republication the out of print SPECIALITIES, which was first published in 1940.
Air Force First Lieutenant Josh Seefried is a cofounder and codirector of OutServe, a support network of LGBT military personnel with over 3,000 members. He graduated from the U.S. Air Force Academy in 2009 in a top cadet leadership position.
SELF is one of Condé Nast’s premier magazine for women. The leading source in America for relevant information on health and wellness, SELF covers nutrition, diet, beauty, fitness, fashion, and happiness with sophistication and intelligence.
An amateur boxer, MMA fighter, and student of Muay Thai and Jujitsu, Sheridan has also worked as a Wildland firefighter, Merchant Marine, and has written for Newsweek, Rolling Stone, and Men’s Journal.
Former member of the Maryland House of Delegates, Shriver is the current Senior Vice President of US Programs for Save the Children.
Sinclair first heard about Japanese sex clubs while working as an English teacher in Tokyo and returned years later to document them. She now lives in San Francisco.
Someecards.com co-founders Brook Lundy and Duncan Mitchell both worked in advertising before launching their business.
A Philadelphia-based writer and independent curator who specializes in postwar American art. Stein is a former arts reviewer for NPR's "Fresh Air" and "Morning Edition," and she writes regularly for Art in America. Her writing has also appeared in The New York Times Book Review and other publications, and her work on Richard Hu Bellamy earned a Warhol Foundation/Creative Capital Arts Writers Grant.
An executive in the travel industry, Stolowitsky was taken to Israel from Poland as a small child on the SS Exodus by his Catholic nanny who raised him as her own child after his parents perished in the Holocaust. His story is the subject of Ram Oren's book GERTRUDA'S OATH.
A PhD ethnographer and arts journalist, Thornton has contributed to Artforum, The New Yorker, and The Economist, among other publications.
Turner is a freelance writer based in western Canada who has written two national bestsellers and features for Fast Company, Time, The Independent (UK), The Globe and Mail, Utne Reader, Azure and The Walrus. His book, The Geography of Hope, was a Globe & Mail Best Book of 2007.
Philadelphia-based writer and historian who has written for PlanPhilly.com and PhillyHistory.com. He is also on the board of the SS United States Conservancy, a national nonprofit dedicated to saving the greatest ocean liner ever built. Ujifusa received his undergraduate degree in history from Harvard University and has an M.S. in historic preservation/real estate development from the University of Pennsylvania.
A former investment banker at JP Morgan, Vachon has written for The New York Times, Slate.com, and Marie Claire, and is finishing his second television pilot script for HBO. He appears regularly on "Red Eye" on Fox News.
An investment fund manager and former economist at the World Bank, van Agtmael coined the term “emerging markets.”
Master Baker and member of the prestigious, centuries-old guild Les Compagnons du Devoir, Lionel is the co-owner of La Farm Bakery in Cary, North Carolina with his wife, Missy.
Writer and filmmaker Peter von Ziegesar has contributed to The New York Times, The New York Times Magazine, Art in America, Outside, and Out, among others, and lives in Brooklyn with his wife and three children.
Current managing editor of Reason magazine, Jesse Walker's articles have also appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Salon, The New Republic, L.A. Weekly, and National Review.
Dara-Lynn Weiss's career has spanned print, television, and new media, including development and content production for Time Inc., Warner Brothers, Conde Nast, and AOL.
A West Coast contributor to W, West writes about culture, food, lifestyle, and design and was the magazine’s European editor based in Paris.
Co-founder and executive director of Survivor Corps, White shared in a Nobel Prize for Peace in 1997 for his involvement in the International Campaign to Ban Landmines.
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) attended Yale and the University of Virginia School of Law, served as a policy advisor and counsel to the Governor of Rhode Island and as the state's Director of Business Regulation before being nominated by President Bill Clinton to be Rhode Island's US Attorney in 1994. He then served as State Attorney General for four years before being elected to the Senate.
A former reporter for Time, Wilentz has written for The New Yorker, Travel & Leisure, and The New York Times, among other publications.
Winder has a Master's degree in Creative Writing from George Mason University and her first book of poems will be published by Emergency Press in 2011.
A regular contributor to Travel & Leisure and Outside, Wise writes a column for Popular Mechanics.
Zalneraitis graduated from the University of San Francisco with an English/Writing degree. While there, she was a Hearst Scholarship recipient and a member of the Honors Humanities Program. In 2007, she started her own online company, GiftGenius.com, which was voted Best of the Web by InStyle Magazine.