Renowned speaker Brené Brown is a research professor at the University of Houston, where she holds the Huffington Foundation Endowed Chair at the Graduate College of Social Work. She also holds the position of professor of practice in management at the University of Texas at Austin McCombs School of Business.

Brené is the author of six #1 New York Times bestsellers and the host of two award-winning podcasts. Brené spends most of her time working in organizations around the world, helping develop braver leaders and more courageous cultures. In 2024, she was named executive chair of the Center for Daring Leadership at BetterUp. She lives in Houston, Texas.

Emily Ramshaw is the co-founder and CEO of The 19th*, the nation’s first independent nonprofit newsroom at the intersection of gender, politics and policy. The 19th* aims to elevate the voices of women and LGBTQ+ people at the margins of American media with free-to-consume and free-to-republish daily journalism, newsletters and live events. 

Prior to The 19th, Ramshaw was editor-in-chief of The Texas Tribune, an award-winning local news startup and the largest statehouse news operation in the nation. She is the former board chair of the Pulitzer Prize, where she served for nine years. In 2020, Ramshaw was named to Fortune’s “40 Under 40” list. 

Ramshaw started her career at The Dallas Morning News, where she broke national stories about abuse inside Texas’ youth lock-ups, reported from inside a West Texas polygamist compound and uncovered “fight clubs” at state institutions for people with disabilities.

A native of Washington DC, Ramshaw graduated from Northwestern University in 2003 with dual degrees in journalism and American history. She lives in Austin with her filmmaker husband, their 10-year-old daughter and a puppy named Waffles.

Yola is a six-time GRAMMY-nominated artist, songwriter, and actor who has achieved critical acclaim, breakout success, and has been proclaimed as one of the most exciting and innovative artists in music today. She recently returned with her EP, My Way. Blending progressive R&B with haunting electronica co-produced by Yola, Sean Douglas, and Zach Skelton, the new single marks a shift in her sound while nodding to her UK Broken Beat roots. Her powerful vocals and genre-fluid approach has been championed by tastemakers including Rolling Stone, who proclaimed her as “one of contemporary pop’s greatest singers, who just so happens to also be one of its sharpest songwriters.”

Following the success of her acclaimed 2021 album Stand For Myself, Yola made her acting debut portraying the founder of rock and roll, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, in Baz Luhrmann’s ELVIS, and earned a NAACP Image Award nomination for Outstanding Breakthrough Performance in a Motion Picture. She made her awards show performance debut at the American Music Awards in November 2022 as their featured SONG OF THE SOUL performer. That same evening the ELVIS movie soundtrack won the “Favorite Soundtrack” award. Yola is a member of The Recording Academy’s Black Music Collective, and to celebrate Yola’s impact and influence on music, her guitar was included in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s Right Here, Right Now exhibit.

Her upcoming full length project will surely add another gem to her ever-expanding catalogue and career.

Lesley Hu is Pierce’s heartbroken mother and the unwilling founder of Pierce’s Pledge. She has the privilege of laughing and playing with Pierce through all his years he was able to be on this earth. She started Pierce’s Pledge so she can continue to write Pierce’s name everyday with a clear purpose and drive behind that action: building an incredible legacy for an incredible kid.

Her mission and passion is to push the message to keep kids safe through risk management and voluntary separation with weapons during contentious times. She encourages parents to think about custody from the child’s point of view as well as the parent.

Kimberly Mata-Rubio is the mother of Alexandria Aniyah “Lexi” Rubio, one of 21 victims who died in a mass shooting on May 24, 2022, at Robb Elementary in Uvalde. Kimberly is a graduate of St. Mary’s University, an award-winning journalist, and the president of Lives Robbed, a nonprofit formed to combat the gun violence epidemic in America. Kimberly is also a member of the GIFFORDS Latino Advisory Council.

Ruth Moonesinghe is Rajan’s mother and a fearless advocate for gun violence prevention.

David Greene is an award-winning broadcast journalist and New York Times best-selling author. He has spent more than two decades in public radio in the United States, anchoring NPR’s flagship morning news program, “Morning Edition,” and now hosting two weekly shows, “Left Right & Center” and “Sports in America.” David is also a filmmaker and advocate for public media, having recently created a new non-profit in Pennsylvania to help save his 232-year-old hometown newspaper.

David believes in the power of conversation to help bridge our differences. He has spent much of the past two years inviting people with different perspectives on gun violence and gun rights to look each other in the eyes and seek solutions together. Those conversations are featured in a new documentary film, “Louder Than Guns,” a collaboration with Emmy-winning director Doug Pray and Grammy-winning Nashville musician Ketch Secor. The film is distributed by PBS and has been screening in theaters in New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington, DC and elsewhere in the US. David is married to Rose Previte, a Michelin-starred restaurateur and David’s fellow adventurer and travel companion. They live mostly in Los Angeles but are always planning their next trip.