Barack Obama was the 44th president of the United States, elected in November 2008 and holding office for two terms.

He was born in Hawaiʻi on August 4, 1961, to a mother from Kansas and a father from Kenya, and raised with the help of his grandparents.

Soon after graduating from Columbia University in New York City, Obama moved to the South Side of Chicago, where he became a community organizer, coordinating with churches to improve housing conditions and set up job-training programs in a community hit hard by steel mill closures.

After nearly three years, he attended Harvard Law School, where he attracted national attention as the first African American president of the Harvard Law Review. Returning to Chicago, he became a civil rights attorney and married Michelle Robinson in 1992. Obama was elected to the Illinois Senate in 1996, and then to the United States Senate in 2004.

When he was elected president in 2008, he became the first African American to hold the office, and was inaugurated during the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. In office, he oversaw eight years of progress, taking action to rescue the American economy, grow the middle class, pass the Affordable Care Act, wind down two wars, and refocus American diplomatic leadership around the world. He left office having overseen the longest job stretch of American job creation ever and led the creation of the Paris Agreement, the most ambitious global climate agreement in history.  In 2009, Obama became the fourth president to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.

In his post-presidency, President Obama has dedicated his efforts to supporting the next generation of leaders. The Obama Foundation is bringing that vision to life through programs for emerging leaders across continents, and the Foundation’s mission to inspire, empower, and connect people to change their world. That legacy will carry on through the Obama Presidential Center, currently under construction on Chicago’s South Side. 

Fred Blackwell is the CEO of the San Francisco Foundation. Blackwell, an Oakland native, is a nationally recognized community leader with a longstanding career in the Bay Area. Prior to joining the Foundation, he served as interim city administrator for the City of Oakland where he previously served as the assistant city administrator. He was the executive director of the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency and director of the Mayor’s Office of Community Development in San Francisco; served as the director of the Making Connections Initiative for the Annie E. Casey Foundation in the Lower San Antonio neighborhood of Oakland; was a multicultural fellow in neighborhood and community development at the San Francisco Foundation; and subsequently managed a multi-year comprehensive community initiative for the San Francisco Foundation in West Oakland. Blackwell currently serves on the board of the San Francisco Bay Area Super Bowl 50 Legacy Fund, UC Berkeley’s College of Environment Dean’s Advisory Council, and as an advisor for Google Impact Challenge: Bay Area. He previously served on the boards of California Redevelopment Association, Urban Habitat Program, LeaderSpring, SPUR and Leadership Excellence. He holds a master’s degree in city planning from UC Berkeley and a bachelor’s degree in urban studies from Morehouse College.

Alexa Cortés Culwell is The Sobrato Organization’s inaugural Chief Impact Officer and President of Sobrato Philanthropies, where she is charged with overseeing a significant portfolio of grantmaking and social purpose real estate. In her role, she also oversees company-wide initiatives focused on the affordable housing gap and sustainability.

Early in her career, Alexa served as the first CEO of the Charles and Helen Schwab Foundation and as CEO of the Stupski Foundation. Later, she served as a visiting practitioner at Stanford University’s Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society before founding Open Impact, a philanthropy advisory firm serving some of the largest and most innovative philanthropists in the world.

Alexa is a co-author of the groundbreaking report, "The Giving Code: Silicon Valley Nonprofits and Philanthropy," which uncovered inadequate giving to community-based organizations and made the case that donors should give more locally. Her work has been cited in publications such as Harvard Business Review, Stanford Social Innovation Review, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, and The Economist.

Alexa has been involved with many leading organizations dedicated to the knowledge and practice of philanthropy. She served as a visiting practitioner at Stanford University’s Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society, and as an Instructor for Stanford Continuing Studies’ highly rated course on nonprofit governance. She has also served as a trustee for both Northern California Grantmakers and the Center for Effective Philanthropy. In 2018, she was the inaugural recipient of the University of San Francisco’s Michael O’Neill Nonprofit Management and Leadership Award. Ms. Culwell is also a longtime Senior Fellow of the American Leadership Forum Silicon Valley. 

Collette Flanagan founded Mothers Against Police Brutality (MAPB) after her son, Clinton Allen, was shot to death by a Dallas police officer in March 2013. Clinton was unarmed, a 25-year-old Black father of twin boys; he was shot once in the arm, five times in the chest, and once in the back.

Mrs. Flanagan’s experiences in the aftermath of this official homicide – the indifference of Dallas City Hall, the lack of any assistance to the surviving family, the vilification of her son in the media, and finally the impunity enjoyed by the killer – turned her grief into anger and then into action.

A former IBM executive, Collette Flanagan has, in a very short time, built MAPB into an inter-generational, multi-ethnic, multicultural organization with both a local and national presence. Ms. Flanagan is the recipient of the 2021 Champion of Justice Award, by the Center for Justice and Accountability, an international human rights organization based in San Francisco. Her fellow recipient this year is Ben Ferencz, who was the chief prosecutor for the United States in The Einsatzgruppen Case at the Nuremburg Tribunal and a pioneer in the field of international justice. Previous awardees include U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes, Stephen Rapp; U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay; and Lydia Cacho, who has been described by Amnesty International as “perhaps Mexico’s most famous investigative journalist and women’s rights advocate.”

Jodie Ginsberg is the chief executive officer of the Committee to Protect Journalists. A journalist by profession, Ginsberg joined CPJ in 2022 from Internews Europe, where she was the chief executive officer. Ginsberg began her career as a graduate trainee with Reuters news agency, working as a commodities reporter before taking up a posting as a foreign correspondent in Johannesburg, South Africa, where she focused on the region’s financial sector. She subsequently worked as Reuters’ chief correspondent in Ireland, based in Dublin, and then bureau chief for the U.K. and Ireland. As bureau chief, Ginsberg managed coverage of the 2008 financial crisis, U.K. riots and 2010 general election, as well as overseeing the merger of the Thomson and Reuters U.K. newsrooms. In 2014, Ginsberg was appointed chief executive of London-based freedom of expression group Index on Censorship, which she led until 2020. An internationally respected campaigner on issues of media freedom and freedom of expression, Ginsberg is a regular speaker on journalist safety and issues involving access to information. From 2020 to 2022, she was chief executive of Internews Europe, a media development non-profit, and has served on the boards of the Global Network Initiative and The Trust for the Bureau of Investigative Journalism and as a Council member of IFEX, the international network for freedom of expression organizations. Ginsberg has a BA in English Literature from the University of Cambridge and a postgraduate diploma in newspaper journalism from City, University of London.

Alexandra Reeve Givens is the CEO of the Center for Democracy & Technology, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization fighting to protect civil rights and civil liberties in the digital age. She is a leading advocate for protecting people’s online privacy and access to information, and ensuring emerging technologies advance human rights and democracy. Alexandra Reeve Givens is the CEO of the Center for Democracy & Technology, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization fighting to protect civil rights and civil liberties in the digital age. She is a leading advocate for protecting people’s online privacy and access to information, and ensuring emerging technologies advance human rights and democracy. Alex began her career as a litigator at Cravath, Swaine & Moore in New York City, and taught for nine years as an adjunct professor at Columbia Law and Georgetown Law. She has appeared on CNN, MSNBC, and CNBC, and been quoted in outlets ranging from the New York Times and the Washington Post to The Atlantic and NPR. Alex serves on the board of the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation, the leading organization supporting research and resources for individuals and families impacted by paralysis, which is named for her late father, Christopher Reeve. She also serves on the Board of the Urban Institute; on advisory boards for the Aspen Institute, World Economic Forum, and Partnership on AI; and as a judge for the Webby Awards. 

Tirana Hassan is the Executive Director of Human Rights Watch, a leading international human rights organization. She brings a wealth of experience and deep expertise in human rights and humanitarian work. With more than two decades in the field, Tirana has led critical investigations into some of the world’s most challenging crises, from conflict zones to humanitarian disasters. Before assuming her current role, she served as Human Rights Watch’s Chief Programs Officer, where she guided the organization’s global research and advocacy efforts across more than 100 countries. Her career includes significant leadership roles at Amnesty International and the United Nations, and she has worked on the frontlines of human rights protection, focusing on justice, accountability, and the defense of the world’s most marginalized populations around the world. Tirana’s extensive experience and commitment to human rights have made her a leading voice in the global fight for justice.

Caitlin Heising is vice chair of the Heising‐Simons Foundation, a family foundation based in Los Altos and San Francisco, California. She received a Master of Public Administration at the London School of Economics (LSE) with a focus on social impact, graduating with distinction in 2020. Previously, she worked with Article 3 Advisors, a human rights and strategic philanthropy consultancy based in San Francisco. In 2014, she joined the board of the Heising‐Simons Foundation, where she has developed a grantmaking program focused on human rights and criminal justice reform in the U.S.

Caitlin serves on the Board of Directors of Human Rights Watch and is the vice chair of HRW’s U.S. Program Advisory Committee. She sits on the Advisory Council of the Responsible Business Initiative for Justice based in London. She is also a founding member of Maverick Collective, a global community of strategic philanthropists and advocates working to end extreme poverty by improving the health and rights of women and girls around the world. She was a 2016 Research Fellow at Institute for the Future, where she collaborated on research projects exploring the future of philanthropy and social innovation. Caitlin holds a bachelor’s degree in international relations from Brown University.

Raj Jayadev is an American community organizer and criminal justice advocate. He is the founder of the Silicon Valley De-bug, a grassroots organization that supports people who have been impacted by the criminal justice system and their loved ones, advocating for criminal justice reform, economic justice, housing and immigrant rights. De-Bug is a multi-media platform that centers the stories of marginalized communities in California. In 2018, Jayadev received a MacArthur Fellow Award for his work with the organization. 

Alec is the Founder of Civil Rights Corps. Before founding Civil Rights Corps, Alec was a civil rights lawyer and public defender with the Special Litigation Division of the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia; a federal public defender in Alabama, representing impoverished people accused of federal crimes; and co-founder of the non-profit organization Equal Justice Under Law. Alec has recently been awarded the 2023 John F. Kennedy New Frontier Award. Other honors include the Trial Lawyer of the Year Award by Public Justice and the Stephen B. Bright Award for contributions to indigent defense in the South by Gideon’s Promise. His work at Civil Rights Corps challenging the money bail system in California was honored with the Champion of Public Defense Award by the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.  Alec graduated from Yale College in 2005 with a degree in Ethics, Politics, & Economics and Harvard Law School in 2008, where he was a Supreme Court Chair of the Harvard Law Review. Alec lectures widely about the failures of the criminal punishment bureaucracy, typically giving more than 100 lectures, speeches, training, interviews, and workshops per year.

Daniel Lurie is the mayor-elect of San Francisco and founder of Tipping Point Community, which since its inception has invested over $440 million across more than 200 organizations helping Bay Area residents on a path out over poverty. The organization focuses on housing, early childhood, education, and employment. Lurie previously worked for the Robin Hood Foundation. He earned his M.P.P from the Goldman School of Public Policy at University of California, Berkeley.  

Dr. Aimee Moulin is a Professor at UC Davis Medical Center in the Department of Emergency Medicine. She is Chief of the Division of Addiction Medicine. Dr. Moulin has a dual appointment in the Department of Emergency Medicine and Psychiatry. She has a master’s in applied science and completed a fellowship in Quality Safety and Comparative Effectiveness Research through the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality with a focus on acute care treatment for patients with behavioral health disorders. Dr. Moulin completed and established a Health Policy fellowship at UC Davis. She is Past President of the California Chapter of the American College of Emergency Physicians. She completed residency in Emergency Medicine at the Los Angeles County LAC + USC Medical Center.

Jessica Nowlan is the founder and  President of ReImagine Freedom, co-founder of Sister Warriors, co-founder of Beloved Village, and former Executive Director of the Young Women's Freedom Center.  She is a social entrepreneur and movement leader with a focus on building the resources and structures required to realize liberation. 

During her seven-year tenure as Executive Director of Young Women’s Freedom Center, Jessica grew the organization from 1 to 5 locations and increased the annual budget by over 1700% and launched multiple new projects. As a co-founder of the Sister Warriors Freedom Coalition, Jessica spearheaded the creation of the Sister Warrior Freedom Charter with a base of over 400 formerly incarcerated women, girls, and gender-expansive people.

Jessica was the 2019 – 2021 Leading Edge Fellow. She is an experienced business leader with a 20-year track record building and scaling businesses and supporting organizations in strategizing to better serve women and girls at the intersections of violence, poverty, racial justice, incarceration/ re-entry, and workforce development. As the president of ReImagine Freedom, Jessica holds and nurtures the vision of economic freedom and mobilizes the resources necessary to fuel the work and ensure sustainability.

Jackie Rotman is the founder and CEO of Center for Intimacy Justice (CIJ), a women-led nonprofit changing Big Tech platforms’ discriminatory suppression of women’s sexual and reproductive health information online. Jackie led an investigation, released in The New York Times and over 100 media outlets, revealing that Meta systemically rejects women’s health information (misclassifying it as “adult”) – which was followed by Meta revising multiple global ads policies within months. CIJ is now preparing to release the largest public investigation into 4 major tech platforms' digital suppression of women's health information globally.

Jackie holds an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business, MPA from Harvard Kennedy School, and BA with University Distinction in Public Policy from Stanford. She founded her first nonprofit at age 14 (Everybody Dance Now!, now called Creative Network), which has provided free dance programs to more than 30,000 youth across the U.S. to build community and confidence. 

Center for Intimacy Justice's research has been cited in a US Senate hearing and multiple letters by Senate committees to the FTC and Meta, and led to 3 former US Presidential candidates (Hillary Clinton, Elizabeth Warren, Amy Klobuchar) calling on Meta to change. Jackie has written in New York Times Opinion, Boston Globe Magazine, and other outlets. She speaks globally on technology and gender justice and has briefed US Senators, state Attorneys General, and other tech and human rights leaders on CIJ's investigative findings.

Liz Simons is chair of the board of the Heising-Simons Foundation. A former teacher, Liz worked in Spanish-bilingual and English as a Second Language (ESL) classrooms, and subsequently founded Stretch to Kindergarten, a spring-summer early childhood education program. She currently serves as chair of the board of The Marshall Project, a nonpartisan, nonprofit news organization that seeks to create and sustain a sense of national urgency about the U.S criminal justice system. She also serves on the boards of The Foundation for a Just Society, Math for America, and the Learning Policy Institute. She is a founding pledger of One for Justice, and an advisory board member of Smart Justice California. Additionally, she volunteers at The Beat Within, a magazine by and for incarcerated youth.

In 2023, President Biden appointed Liz to serve as a member of the Coordinating Council on Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, an independent organization in the executive branch of the federal government that examines how federal programs serving systems-impacted youth and other federal programs and activities can be coordinated among federal, state, and local governments to better serve vulnerable children and youth.

Liz earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of California, Berkeley, and a master’s degree in education from Stanford University. Liz Simons and Mark Heising founded the Foundation in 2007 and joined the Giving Pledge in 2016, publicly committing the majority of their wealth to philanthropic causes.

Nabiha Syed — media executive, lawyer, and champion of public interest technology — is the executive director of The Mozilla Foundation, which empowers people to shape a healthier digital world.

Before joining The Mozilla Foundation, Syed founded The Markup, an award-winning journalism non-profit that challenges technology to serve the public good.

Nabiha spent a decade as an acclaimed media lawyer focused on the intersection of frontier technology and newsgathering, including advising on issues around the Snowden revelations and the Steele Dossier, access litigation around police disciplinary records and privatized services, as well as privacy and free speech issues globally. Described by Forbes as “one of the best emerging free speech lawyers,” she has briefed two presidents on free speech in the digital age, delivered the Salant Lecture at Harvard, headlined SXSW to discuss data privacy after Roe v. Wade, and was awarded the NAACP/Archewell Digital Civil Rights award in 2023 for her work. 

A California native and daughter of Pakistani immigrants, Nabiha holds a J.D. from Yale Law School, where she co-founded one of the nation’s first media law clinics, a B.A. from Johns Hopkins University, and a law degree from Balliol College, Oxford, which she attended as a Marshall Scholar. She serves on the boards of the New York Civil Liberties Union, The New Press, and the Scott Trust, among others.

Anna Malaika Tubbs is a New York Times Bestselling storyteller who grew up in Dubai, Mexico, Sweden, Estonia, Azerbaijan, as well as the United States. Influenced by her exposure to all kinds of cultures and beliefs, Anna is inspired to bring people together through the celebration of difference. Motivated by her mother’s work advocating for women’s and children’s rights around the world, Anna uses an intersectional lens to advocate for women of color and educate others in all of her projects. Anna holds a Ph.D. in Sociology and a Masters in Multidisciplinary Gender Studies from the University of Cambridge in addition to a Bachelors in Medical Anthropology from Stanford University. She takes from her academic background and produces content that is easy for others to connect with and understand. Her focus is on addressing gender and race issues in the U.S., especially the pervasive erasure of Black women. Anna's writing has been featured in Time Magazine, New York Magazine, CNN, Motherly, the Huffington Post, For Harriet, The Guardian, Darling Magazine, and Blavity. Her first book, titled The Three Mothers: How the Mothers of Martin Luther King, Jr, Malcolm X, and James Baldwin Shaped a Nation, was published by Flatiron Books in February of 2021. A New York Times’ Bestseller, a New York Times Editors Choice, and an Amazon Editor’s choice, the book has achieved critical acclaim and has been featured in Oprah Daily, People Magazine, USA Today, The Skimm, Fortune Magazine, MSNBC, CBS, C-Span, NPR, Forbes, The 19th News, Yahoo News, The Washington Post, Southern Living Magazine, and more. 

At the age of 26, Michael D. Tubbs became the youngest Mayor of any major city in American history. As Mayor, Tubbs was lauded for his leadership and innovation. Under his stewardship, Stockton was named an “All-America City” in 2017 and 2018, saw a 40% drop in homicides in 2018 and 2019, led the state of California in the decline of officer involved shootings in 2019, was named the second most fiscally healthy city in California and one of the top most fiscally healthy cities in the nation and was featured in an HBO documentary film, Stockton on My Mind.

Tubbs raised over $20 million dollars to create the Stockton Scholars, a universal scholarship and mentorship program for Stockton students. He is the Founder and Chair of Mayors for a Guaranteed Income.

Tubbs has been named a fellow at the Harvard Institute of Politics and The MIT Media Lab, a member of Fortune’s Top 40 under 40, a Forbes 30 under 30 All-star Alumni, the “Most Valuable Mayor” by The Nation, the 2021 Civic Leadership Award winner from The King Center, and 2019 New Frontier Award Winner from the JFK Library. Before taking the helm as Mayor, Tubbs served as a Councilmember for the City of Stockton District 6, was a high school educator, and a fellow for the Stanford Design School and the Emerson Collective.

The author of the memoir The Deeper the Roots, Tubbs currently serves as the Special Advisor to California Governor Gavin Newsom for Economic Mobility, and is the founder of End Poverty in California (EPIC).