Safir Ahmed has been an independent book editor and an editorial and media consultant working with various organizations and publishing companies. Among the books he has edited are "Crashing the Gate" by Markos Moulitsas and Jerome Armstrong, "How Would a Patriot Act?" by Glenn Greenwald, "Thinking Points" by George Lakoff, "Anatomy of Deceit" by Marcy Wheeler, and the soon-to-be-released "American Taliban" by Markos Moulitsas and "Rebooting the American Dream" by Thom Hartmann. Safir has also edited various articles and books by Hamza Yusuf, a leading American Muslim scholar and theologian, and served as editorial and media relations consultant for Muslim organizations in the U.S. Previously, Safir was Editor of AlterNet and spent two decades as a journalist, first as writer and editor at the Pulitzer-family owned St. Louis Post-Dispatch and then as Editor of The Riverfront Times. He also worked as Communications Director for the Senate Democratic Caucus in Missouri and for the U.S. Senate campaign of Nancy Farmer in 2004. Safir lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife and teenage daughter, and currently works as Editorial Director at CREDO Mobile.

Matthew Alexander (a pseudonym) is a former senior military interrogator and author of How to Break a Terrorist: The U.S. Interrogators Who Used Brains, Not Brutality, to Take Down the Deadliest Man in Iraq. He led the interrogation team in Iraq that located Abu Musab Al Zarqawi, the former Al Qaida leader, who was killed in a subsequent airstrike. He has conducted or supervised more than 1,300 interrogations. He appears frequently on television and radio as an expert on interrogations and counterterrorism and has published Op-Eds in The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, and The New York Times, as well as articles in The National Interest, The Daily Beast, Small Wars Journal, The Huffington Post, and The Guardian. He has been featured in Time Magazine as well as other U.S. and foreign publications. Alexander's television appearances include The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, CNN International, Countdown with Keith Olbermann, MSNBC News, Fox News, ABC’s Nightline, and the CBS Evening News. He has consulted/briefed the U.S. Secret Service, the United States Marines, the US Army, United States Military Academy, numerous universities, and private contractors who train the CIA and FBI. He is currently a Fellows for the Open Society Institute.

David Alpert is founder and editor of Greater Greater Washington, a Web site focusing on urban planning, transportation, and other policy areas that influence the form and function of cities in the Washington, DC metropolitan area. David is also the DC Vice-Chair for the WMATA Riders' Advisory Council and a member of the DC Pedestrian Advisory Council.

A native of Massachusetts, he lived in California and New York before settling in the Dupont Circle neighborhood of DC with his wife, Stefanie. David has a B.A. in Computer Science from Harvard and worked for Tellme Networks and Google before following his passion and writing about ways to make the Washington, DC area even greater than it is.

Nancy Altman is the Co-director of Social Security Works. She has a thirty-year background in the areas of Social Security and private pensions. She is the author of The Battle for Social Security: From FDR’s Vision to Bush’s Gamble (John Wiley & Sons, 2005). She is the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Pension Rights Center, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the protection of beneficiary rights. She is also on the Board of Directors of the Foundation of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, as well as the Board of the National Academy of Social Insurance, a membership organization of over 800 of the nation’s leading experts on social insurance.

Political organizer and technologist Dan Ancona builds and evangelizes tools that push power to the edges by creating spaces for individuals to better connect with organizations, democracy and each other. He was a software engineer for fifteen years at several startups and in academia (with a research focus on visualization), but since 2006 has been accelerating the shift from top-down, broadcast style politics to a more networked and person-to-person system at California VoterConnect. His other interests include urban design, economics, strategic communications, DJing and sailing. He lives in San Francisco with his wife and fellow organizer Jenifer Fernandez Ancona, their son Marco, and their extraordinarily large and friendly cat, Oscar.

Hon. Thomas H. Andrews is the National Director of Win Without War, a coalition of over 40 national progressive organizations created in 2003 to oppose the war in Iraq. He also serves as Executive Director of New Security Action, a 501c4 advocacy organization, and as Senior Advisor to the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs. Founder and president of New Economy Communications (NEC), Andrews orchestrated the National Labor Committee’s 1996 media campaign that exposed the sweatshop abuses by the manufacturers of Kathie Lee Gifford’s Wal-Mart clothing line. As a member of Congress, Andrews served as president of his freshmen class, a Deputy Majority Whip and member of the House Armed Services Committee. Andrews is a widely known and respected political strategist and organizer who has promoted progressive causes throughout his career.

A leading voice in public interest law for more than thirty years, Nan Aron is President and Founder of Alliance for Justice, a national association of over 100 public interest and civil rights organizations. Nan guides the organization in its mission to advance the cause of justice for all Americans, strengthen the public interest community's influence on national policy and foster the next generation of advocates.

In 1985, Nan founded AFJ's Judicial Selection Project, now the country's premier voice for a fair and independent judiciary and a major player in the often-controversial judicial nominations process. Notable accomplishments include helping to defeat Robert Bork's nomination to the Supreme Court in 1987; supporting the nomination of Roger Gregory, the first African American judge in the Fourth Circuit, in 2001; and organizing the effort that helped support ten Senate filibusters against President George W. Bush's most extreme judicial nominees.

In addition to increasing judicial advocacy, Nan has led Alliance for Justice to expand its programs to support the participation of nonprofit and foundation staff in public life. AFJ’s workshops, technical assistance and publications encourage lobbying, involvement in ballot measures and election activities. Nan has also developed advocacy training for young people through the creation of programs that educate and inspire students to engage in social justice activism, including producing more than a dozen award-winning films on immigration, courageous judges, and gun violence.

Nan is the author of Liberty and Justice for All: Public Interest Law in the 1980s and Beyond and has appeared as an expert in such media outlets as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, USA Today, Los Angeles Times, The Nation, Vanity Fair and National Public Radio. She is a frequent guest speaker at universities, law schools, corporations, nonprofits and foundations.

Prior to founding AFJ, Nan was a staff attorney for the ACLU's National Prison Project, where she challenged conditions in state prison systems through lawsuits in federal and state courts. As a trial attorney for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, she litigated race and sex discrimination cases against companies and unions.

Veronica I. Arreola is a professional feminist, a mom and a writer. By day she is the assistant director for the Center for Research on Women and Gender at the University of Illinois at Chicago. By night she is a veteran blogger and freelance writer. Her writing has appeared in Bitch, Ms. and at NPR.org and RH Reality Check. A frequent speaker on all things feminist, she has been featured in the Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times, WGN-Radio and the Windsor Star. Her partner says he married an Emmy-award winning bitch thanks to Veronica being in a WGN-TV cover story, "The B-word," which won a Midwest Emmy. Veronica's honors include two awards from the Chicago Foundation for Women, being 2007 UIC Woman of the Year, Chicago Latino List (her partner was also named!) and a member of Leadership Illinois. And that mom thing? Veronica and her partner are proud parents of a school-aged daughter and a stubborn dachshund. She holds a bachelors degree in Biological Sciences and a masters in Public Administration, both with concentrations in Gender and Women’s Studies. She begins working on her Ph.D. in Public Administration this August.

Sarah Audelo is the Senior Manager of Domestic Policy at Advocates for Youth. She works sexual and reproductive health policy for young people including: comprehensive sex education, GLBTQ rights, HIV prevention, contraceptive access, and abortion rights. Previously she was the Manager of the Youth Activist Network where she worked with youth across the country to fight for sexual reproductive health and rights for young people. Before joining Advocates, Sarah was a high school special education teacher in La Joya, Texas as part of the Teach for America program. She was also the sponsor of the G-Force, a college preparation club, and advisor to the National Honor Society on her campus. In Texas, she was also a board member for the Valley AIDS Council, a HIV/AIDS service organization. While Sarah attended Georgetown University, she was a member of Advocates’ International Youth Leadership Council, working on international reproductive health and HIV and AIDS issues. She was also a member of MEChA (Movimiento Estudiantil Chican@s de Aztlan) and an Este Aztlan representative for the National MEChA Coordinating Committee. Sarah is originally from Bakersfield, California.

Carla Axtman is a veteran investigative blogger in Oregon. She has reported extensively on Oregon politics, campaigns and policy since 2004. Carla's beat has included researching and investigating candidates and public policy in the state.

In 2007-08, Carla worked as Netroots Outreach for the successful Jeff Merkley for U.S. Senate primary campaign. She then went on to become an editor at Blue Oregon where her 2009 work on Oregon land use policy is credited with helping to save a pristine area of the state known as the Metolius River Basin.

Carla is also Online Community Builder for Compassion & Choices (compassionandchoices.org), a national nonprofit that advocates for improving care and expanding choice at the end of life. Carla specializes in social media, blogging and building an online community of supporters.

Follow her on Twitter @carlaaxt
Follow Compassion & Choices @compandchoices

Matt recently took over as publisher of The Daily Kingfish, Louisiana's leading progressive political blog. A native of Jena, LA, he is a progressive leader and licensed attorney with professional experience handling policy and outreach for elected leaders at the federal and local levels.

An active social entrepreneur, Matt founded and continues to lead the Louisiana chapter of New Leaders Council (www.newleaderscouncil.org), a progressive leadership & political training nonprofit. He also founded the Louisiana Progress Initiative (www.LaProgress.org), the ongoing mission of which is to advance ideas and engage the public to move Louisiana forward through building and sustaining relationships within the progressive community. He is also an active Fellow with the Truman National Security Project. A former Louisiana National Guardsman, Matt earned a B.A. from Northwestern State University and a J.D. from the George Washington University Law School.

The Executive Director of the League of Young Voters, Rob "Biko" Baker is a nationally recognized young leader. In his home city of Milwaukee, he has organized town hall meetings and used the power and agency of art to inform, mobilize, and motivate young people to participate in civic life. Baker has served as the deputy publicity coordinator and young voter organizer for the Brown and Black Presidential Forum. He has appeared on C-SPAN, Fox News and CNN, has interviewed luminaries Cornell West, Russell Simmons, and Howard Dean, and has been on panels with many of the nation's strongest progressive voices. Baker is a Ph.D. candidate at UCLA, former political correspondent to The Source, serves on CIRCLE's research advisory board and is a board member of the New Organizing Institute.

Marge Baker has worked for nearly 35 years in various public service roles. She is currently Executive Vice President for Policy and Program at People For the American Way, a non-profit advocacy organization working to protect core constitutional values under attack from the far right. Prior to her current position she was the Staff Director for the late Senator Paul Wellstone on the Senate’s Employment, Safety and Training Subcommittee. Ms. Baker is a graduate of Yale Law School, has served as a law clerk in the federal judiciary, as a counsel on the Senate Judiciary Committee, and as head of consumer protection for a state regulatory agency. Ms. Baker is married, and has three children, ages 24, 26, and 29.

Joanne Bamberger is a recovering attorney, author and political/media analyst living in the shadow of the nation’s capital. She’s also known around the blogosphere as PunditMom!

PunditMom blog is the home of op-ed commentary by Joanne, who is also a freelance writer and former op-ed columnist for The Washington Examiner. Her work has appeared in a variety of publications including The Washington Post, various American Lawyer Media publications, Legal Times, Washingtonian Magazine, and many others.

A new media expert and authority on political involvement of women and mothers, Joanne is a regular contributor to The Huffington Post and a featured columnist at CafeMom’s The Stir where she writes a weekly feature called Speaker of the House. Joanne also writes at MomsRising and MOMocrats, and was a contributing editor for news and politics at BlogHer. Her political commentary has appeared on CNN, Fox News, ABC.com, BBC Radio, NPR, Al Jazeera English & XM Radio POTUS ‘08, among others.

Joanne speaks frequently at conferences and to private groups about the growing influence of women/mothers in politics and social media. She has presented and participated in panels at Netroots Nation 2009, the Feminist Majority Foundation, EMILY’s List, BlogHer, Fem 2.0, Type-A Mom Conference, WAM! 2009, the Women’s Media Center and others.

Joanne was in the inaugural class of the Progressive Women’s Voices fellowship program at the Women’s Media Center. Joanne’s book about how mothers and social media are revolutionizing political involvement will be published by Bright Sky Press this fall. Her work is also featured in Kirtsy Takes a Bow: A Celebration of Women’s Online Favorites and Courageous Parents, Confident Kids (chapter on parents and political activism). Joanne is an award-winning broadcast journalist who spent a decade as a radio and television reporter before attending law school. Joanne spent 15 years in private and government law practice, including a stint as Deputy Director of Public Affairs at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Joanne claims to have time for other things, but has given up sleep.

Wayne Barrett is an investigative reporter, senior editor and blogger at the Village Voice, where he's been covering politics for nearly 30 years. He is the author of, among others, Grand Illusion: The Untold Story of Rudy and 9/11and Trump: The Deals and the Downfall, and co-author with Jack Newfield of City for Sale: Ed Koch and the Betrayal of New York. He was awarded the 1990 Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism Alumni Award as well as numerous other journalism prizes.

Elisa Batista is a co-founder and moderator of the progressive parenting website MotherTalkers, which was named by Ms. magazine a “favorite mom blogger.” She also blogs and is an advocate for the family organization MomsRising.org, and as if she were not busy enough, she helped start an independent Spanish-immersion school in Oakland, California, called Escuela Bilingüe Internacional.

Batista is a journalist by training and profession who has been published in the Huffington Post, Wired News in San Francisco, the Boston Herald, and several Boston-area weeklies. A native of Miami who is of Cuban and Puerto Rican descent, she now lives in Berkeley, California, with her husband and founder of the Daily Kos, Markos Moulitsas, and their two children.

Beth Becker is a partner and co-founder of Progressive PST, a company that helps Democratic candidates across the country use social media as a part of their overall communication strategy. In her spare time Beth works on a variety of progressive related projects including as a co-founder of the Blog Workers Industrial Union, board member for PeanutButterPAC and netroots outreach assistant for several campaigns.