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2025-2026 Speakers
Vice President Kamala D. Harris
49th Vice President of the United States (2021–2025)
On January 20, 2021, Kamala Harris was sworn in as the 49th Vice President of the United States— the first woman, the first Black American, and the first South Asian American to be elected to this position.
As Vice President, she brought people together to advance opportunity, deliver for families, and protect fundamental freedoms. She led the fight for the freedom of women to make decisions about their own bodies, the freedom to live safe from gun violence, the freedom to vote, and the freedom to drink clean water and breathe clean air. She took particular focus on job creation through the investment in our nation’s small business and community banks. She also presided over the vote to confirm the first Black woman, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, to the Supreme Court...(See Full Bio)
Secretary Pete Buttigieg
U.S. Secretary of Transportation (2021–2025)
Pete Buttigieg served from 2021 to 2025 as U.S. Secretary of Transportation. During his tenure, he worked to launch over sixty thousand infrastructure projects across the country, improve transportation safety and technology, expand airline passenger protections, and resolve pandemic-related supply chain disruptions.
Previously, Buttigieg served two terms as mayor of South Bend, Indiana, where he was elected at the age of 29 and led the city to its strongest period of economic and population growth in decades. He also served for seven years as an officer in the U.S. Navy Reserve...(See Full Bio).
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Jane Pauley
Emmy Award-Winning Broadcast Journalist; Anchor of CBS Sunday Morning and Former Co-Host of The Today Show and Dateline NBC
Jane Pauley is the anchor of CBS NEWS SUNDAY MORNING.
A respected broadcast journalist for more than 50 years, Pauley is the recipient of numerous awards, including multiple Emmys, the Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism, the Edward R. Murrow Award for Outstanding Achievement and the Gracie Allen Award from the Foundation of American Women in Radio and Television. She is a member of the Broadcast and Cable Hall of Fame.
The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) honored Pauley with a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2024...(See Full Bio).
Adam Kinzinger
U.S. Congressman from Illinois (2011–2023), Member of the January 6th Committee (2021–2023), CNN Senior Political Commentator, and Author of Renegade
For Former Rep. Adam Kinzinger, service to country has been the guiding principle of his life and career — first as a member of the armed forces, and later as a lawmaker in the halls of Congress. When the strength of the nation was tested on January 6th, 2021 and in the months following, Kinzinger took his sworn oath further, boldly demonstrating an exceedingly rare loyalty to country over party.
As one of only two Republicans on the January 6th Committee, Rep. Kinzinger stood against his own party in pursuit of democracy and justice...(See Full Bio)
Dr. Amber Straughn
NASA Astrophysicist, Associate Director of NASA’s Astrophysics Science Division, Deputy Project Scientist for James Webb Space Telescope Science Communications, & Expert in Galaxy Formation
Dr. Amber Straughn is an astrophysicist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and is a member of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) science team. She also serves as the associate director of the Astrophysics Science Division.
Straughn is interested in how galaxies change over time. Specifically, how important are galaxy interactions in the overall picture of how galaxies grow? How do supermassive black holes, star formation, and gas inflows and outflows affect galaxy evolution over cosmic time? These questions are central to NASA’s long-term goal to discover how the universe works while exploring how it began and evolved...(See Full Bio)
Anthony Ray Hinton
Activist, Writer, and Author wrongfully convicted and sentenced to death, held on Alabama’s death row for 28 years before 2015 exoneration and release
Anthony Ray Hinton survived for 28 years on Alabama's death row. His story is a decades-long journey to exoneration and freedom. In 1985, Mr. Hinton was convicted of the unsolved murders of two fast-food restaurant managers based on the testimony of ballistics experts for the State who claimed that the crime bullets came from a dusty revolver found in Mr. Hinton's mother’s closet.
Without the benefit of a competent expert to challenge the State’s theory (Mr. Hinton’s lawyer hired a ballistics expert who was blind in one eye), an all-white jury convicted Mr. Hinton and he was sentenced to death. After years of petitioning to have the revolver re-analyzed, three independent experts concluded that the bullets could not have been fired from his mother’s revolver. With the assistance of the Equal Justice Initiative...(See Full Bio)
Platon
World-Renowned, Award-Winning Photographer and Founder, The People's Portfolio
Platon is one of the world’s most renowned portrait photographers, having photographed more world leaders than anyone else in history, including six American presidents.
Shooting portraits for a range of international publications including Rolling Stone, The New York Times Magazine, Vanity Fair, Esquire, GQ, and The Sunday Times Magazine, Platon developed a special relationship with TIME magazine, producing over 25 covers for them. In 2007, he photographed Russian Premier Vladimir Putin for TIME magazine's “Person of the Year” cover. This image was awarded 1st prize at the World Press Photo Contest...(See Full Bio)