Lee Bollinger
Lee C. Bollinger is President of Columbia University and a member of the faculty of the Law School. His teaching and scholarly interests are focused on free speech and First Amendment issues. For his national leadership in defending affirmative action in higher education, he received the National Humanitarian Award from the National Conference for Community and Justice and the National Equal Justice Award from the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. For his service to higher education, especially on matters of freedom of speech and diversity, he was given the Clark Kerr Award, the highest award conferred by the faculty of the University of California, Berkeley.
For more information, see: http://www.columbia.edu/cu/president/biography.htm

Eddie S. Glaude Jr.
Eddie Glaude teaches religion and African American Studies at Princeton University. Prior to this position, Dr. Glaude was on the faculty at Bowdoin College. His most recent book is In a Shade of Blue: Pragmatism and the Politics of Black America, published by University of Chicago Press. A graduate of Morehouse College, he earned his doctorate at Princeton University in 1997, working under mentor Cornel West.
For more information, see: http://www.princeton.edu/africanamericanstudies/people/

Cynthia Hedge-Morrell
Cynthia Hedge-Morell has served as a Councilwoman representing New Orleans District D since 2005. This District includes some neighborhoods most seriously damaged by the Levee failures related to Hurricane Katrina. Ms. Hedge-Morrell was one of the featured interviews in “When the Levees Broke.” She is a former teacher and school administrator. She holds a bachelor’s degree in elementary education from the University of New Orleans and a master’s degree from Loyola University of New Orleans.
For more information, see: http://www.nocitycouncil.com/cmd.asp

Bob Herbert
Bob Herbert joined The New York Times as an Op-Ed columnist in 1993. His twice a week column comments on politics, urban affairs and social trends. Before joining The Times, Mr. Herbert was a national correspondent for NBC from 1991 to 1993, and from 1976 until 1985, worked as reporter and editor at The Daily News. He has taught journalism at Brooklyn College and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
For more information, see: http://www.nytimes.com/ref/opinion/HERBERT-BIO.html

Gloria Ladson-Billings
Gloria Ladson-Billings is the Kellner Family Professor of Urban Education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She is past president of the American Educational Research Association and author of many critically acclaimed books. She is a member of the National Academy of Education and the National Society for the Study of Education.
For more information, see: http://www.education.wisc.edu/eps/faculty/ladson-billings.asp

Additional Bios of Speakers:

Susan Fuhrman became president of Teachers College on August 1, 2006. A former public school social studies teacher, Dr. Fuhrman served for 11 years as Dean of the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education (Penn GSE), where she also was the George and Diane Weiss Professor of Education. An expert on issues of teacher excellence, accountability for school performance, and the changing balance of power between the federal, state and local governments in setting school policy, Dr. Fuhrman earned her doctorate in political economy at Teachers College in the 1970s, mentored by future U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Donna Shalala.
For more information, see: http://www.tc.columbia.edu/faculty/index.htm?facid=shf2111

Darren Walker is Vice President of the Rockefeller Foundation. As vice president, Mr. Walker helps lead the Foundation’s work in the United States and internationally supporting innovations that build economic resilience and assets of poor and vulnerable people, crafting strategies that address increasing global urbanization and migration. He also oversees the development of the Foundation’s work in support of the rebuilding of New Orleans.
For more information, see: http://www.rockfound.org/about_us/bios/d_walker_bio.pdf

Jackie Glover is Vice President of HBO Documentary Films. She served as supervising producer of When the Levees Broke. A graduate of New York University’s Tisch School, Ms. Glover has worked at HBO since 1992. She also collaborated with Spike Lee on the Academy Award nominated documentary, Four Little Girls and produced the Emmy Award nominated documentary “Unchained Memories: Readings from the Slave Narratives,” aired on HBO in 2003.
For more information, see: http://www.hbo.com/docs/programs/whentheleveesbroke/synopsis.html

Sam Pollard‘s professional accomplishments as a feature film and television video editor, and documentary producer/director span almost thirty years.  His first assignment as a documentary producer came in 1989 for Henry Hampton’s Blackside production Eyes on the Prize II: America at the Racial Crosswords.  For one of his episodes in this series, he received an Emmy.  Eight years later, he returned to Blackside as Co-Executive Producer/Producer of Hampton’s last documentary series I’ll Make Me a World: Stories of African-American Artists and Community.  For the series, Mr. Pollard received The George Peabody Award.  Between 1990 and 2000, Mr. Pollard edited a number of Spike Lee’s films. Mr. Pollard and Mr. Lee have also co-produced documentary productions for the small and big screen, including Spike Lee Presents Mike Tyson, a biographical sketch for HBO for which Mr. Pollard received an Emmy, and Four Little Girls, a feature-length documentary about the 1965 church bombings in Birmingham, Alabama, which was nominated for an Academy Award. 
For more information, see: http://filmtv.tisch.nyu.edu/object/PollardS.html