Sheryl WuDunn is co-author of Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide, a book about women in the developing world, published by Knopf in 2009. With her husband, Nicholas D. Kristof, she has co-authored two best-selling books about Asia: Thunder from the East and China Wakes. Ms. WuDunn, the first Asian-American to win a Pulitzer Prize, has worked at The New York Times, Goldman Sachs and Bankers Trust. She recently has been leading a multi-media endeavor for Half the Sky, including a web-based game, a documentary series and a TV special. She will soon return to the world of investing and philanthropy.

Nicholas D. Kristof, co-author of Half the Sky, is a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner who writes op-ed columns that appear twice a week in The New York Times. He won his first Pulitzer as a foreign correspondent based in China, and his second for his columns from Darfur. He also has been editor of Sunday editions of the Times, has co-written books about China and Asia with his wife, Sheryl WuDunn, and has been a pioneer in using on-line media. He has lived on four continents, traveled to about 150 countries, and survived unpleasant encounters with mobs, malaria and an African airplane crash.

Elizabeth Lyttleton Sturz attended the University of Texas and George Washington University Graduate School. She wrote about U.S. life and literature for the U.S. State Department and the BBC, lived four years abroad and published four books, one with Herb Sturz, her husband. Her poetry was published in the Saturday Review and elsewhere. She worked four years for an antipoverty agency and is founder and president of Argus Community in the South Bronx, which provides personal development, skills training and jobs for people left behind. Her book about Argus, Widening Circles, was published by Harper & Row.

Herbert Sturz is a Senior Adviser of the Open Society Institute. He serves as the Chairman of the Center for New York City Neighborhoods and is the Founding Chairman of The After-School Corporation. Mr. Sturz has created an enduring legacy of social and criminal justice reform as Founding Director of The Vera Institute of Justice; New York City Deputy Mayor for Criminal Justice; Chairman of the New York City Planning Commission; and was also a member of the editorial board of The New York Times. He currently serves on the boards of Single Stop USA, ReServe Elder Service, Inc. and as Board Chair of Center for New York City Neighborhoods, which responds to foreclosure crisis in New York City.

Mr. Sturz received a BA from the University of Wisconsin and an MA from Columbia University. He has received various honorary degrees and is the recipient of the Rockefeller Public Service Award; The Roscoe Pound Award, National Council on Crime and Delinquency; The August Vollmer Award, American Society of Criminology; and others.

Mary J. Blige is a nine–time Grammy Award–winning singer/songwriter, producer and actress who has sold more than 40 million albums worldwide since her career began in 1992. Mary has used that voice of reckoning to triumph many causes close to her heart in order to make an impact outside of the studio. She has been active with many community organizations and AIDS awareness programs such as Minority AIDS Project, and in 2001 was honored for community activism with Rock the Vote’s Patrick Lippert Award.

Her 8th and current studio album, “Growing Pains” reached platinum in three weeks and is continuing to grab the hearts of the critics and fans alike. Continuing her success, Mary began 2009 with a Grammy win for “Growing Pains” in the category Best Contemporary R&B Album. Mary is currently in the studio working on a new album and can also be seen playing a nightclub manager and singer in Tyler Perry’s next movie “I Can Do Bad All by Myself” which will be released September 11, 2009.