Terdema Ussery is President & CEO of the Dallas Mavericks. He has served as president of Nike Sports Management which was integral in the launch of Coca-Cola's POWERADE brand. He was also the original CEO of HDNet, responsible for negotiating the company's initial content and distribution deals.

Co-editor of Microphone Fiends: Youth Music and Youth Culture and author of Black Noise and The Hip Hop Wars, Tricia Rose is a leading expert on the emergence of hip hop culture. Professor Rose also covers a series of topics relating to American cultural politics, black culture and music and gender and is an expert commentator on NPR and other national and local radio outlets, and on television.

Civil rights and environmental advocate working to combine solutions to social inequality and environmental justice, Van Jones is the president and founder of Green For All and the Ella Barker Center. He is a Senior Fellow with Center for American Progress and a Fellow at IONS. His work is currently focused on green economic development.