A graduate of Xavier University, Morehouse School of Medicine, and the University of Alabama School of Medicine, Dr. Regina Benjamin chose to return to the region that she grew up in, starting a family practice in Bayou la Batre, Alabama (a small shrimping village along the gulf coast). After several years moonlighting in emergency rooms and nursing homes to keep her practice open, and with an MBA from Tulane under her belt, Dr. Benjamin converted her medical office into a small rural health clinic dedicated to serving the large indigent population in her community.

Her extraordinary dedication and self-sacrifice have already won Dr. Benjamin national recognition. In 1995, she became the first African-American woman, and the first person under 40, to be elected to the American Medical Association (AMA) Board of Trustees. Dr. Benjamin also serves on the Board of Physicians for Human Rights.

Dr. Benjamin is a 1998 Mandela Award Winner, a former Kellogg National Fellow, has been featured as ABC Television's Person of the Week, and in 1996 was chosen by CBS This Morning as Woman of the Year.

The Miami-based Cuban-American artist, attorney, and activist has worked collaboratively with diverse groups across the United States, Latin America, Europe and Africa to create pro-social community murals and participant-driven art projects. His web site (www.cortada.com) displays some of his artwork and contains information on the various projects in which he is involved. Among the topics he has explored through his work are community development, racism, violence, poverty, political freedom, AIDS, and Cuba.

Cortada has been the recipient of numerous awards including, the prestigious "Millennium International Volunteer Award" from the U.S. Department of State & USA Today, and the "Florida International Volunteer Corps 1999 Outstanding Achievement Award". In February 2000, invited by the Holy See, Cortada traveled to the Vatican to participate in the Jubilee Day for Artists and meet Pope John Paul II.

Cortada’s highly acclaimed mural, “In remembrance of stories untold and healing yet to come,” was commissioned by the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention for exhibition at the CDC National Sexual Violence Prevention Conference.

Ms. Dixon was previously affiliated with Lifetime Entertainment Services. Lifetime is dedicated to using the power if the media to make a positive difference in the lives of women and their families. Mary currently serves as director for Right To Play USA. Right To Play uses sport and play to promote opportunities for development, health and peace.

Barbara Hafer took office as Pennsylvania’s 74th Treasurer in January 1997, following eight years of public service as the state’s Auditor General. She was reelected Treasurer in November 2000. The first Republican woman in history to serve as both Treasurer and Auditor General, she has earned a reputation as a critic of government waste and advocate of fiscal openness and accountability.

A Registered Nurse, Hafer began her professional life as a public health nurse and health care administrator. After seeing tax dollars wasted rather than channeled to the public health programs that desperately needed them, she began speaking out on public policy issues. A concern for victims’ rights led her to found the Allegheny County Center for Victims of Violent Crime in 1973. She also served as executive director of the center, the state’s first federally funded agency for crime victims. Through her work in public health and with crime victims, Hafer saw that the real power to implement change lies with those who control the public purse strings. That insight led to a political career and an abiding interest in public finance.

Barbara continues to command the respect of her constituents and peers alike as she carries on her work as a public servant and watchdog.

Jackson Katz is one of America's leading anti-sexist male activists. He is the founder and director of MVP Strategies, an organization that specializes in providing gender violence prevention education and training for men and boys. Since 1996 he has been directing the first worldwide gender violence prevention program in the history of the United States Marine Corps. The United States Navy is currently piloting his program aboard the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson. He is a member of the U.S. Secretary of Defense's Task Force on Domestic Violence in the military.

Katz is the creator of an award-winning educational video for college and high school students, entitled "Tough Guise: Violence, Media, and the Crisis in Masculinity." He has published several academic articles on subjects including working with student-athletes in gender violence prevention, juvenile detention, violent white masculinity in advertising, and men's leadership in gender violence prevention education K-12.

A former three-sport high school athlete and all-star football player, Katz was the first man at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst to earn a minor in women's studies. He holds a masters degree from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Since 1990, he has lectured at over 650 colleges, prep schools, high schools, middle schools, professional conferences and military installations in 41 states.

Ms. Kilbourne is internationally recognized for her pioneering work on alcohol and tobacco advertising and the image of women in advertising. A widely published writer and speaker who has twice been named Lecturer of the Year by the National Association of Campus Activities, she is best known for her award-winning documentaries Killing Us Softly, Slim Hopes, and Pack of Lies. This year she received a special recognition award from the Academy for Eating Disorders. She is a visiting scholar at Wellesley College, has served on the National Advisory Council on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, and been an adviser to two surgeons general. She lives in Boston, Massachusetts.

Reanae is an international performing artist, vocalist, motivational speaker, griottes (storyteller), and trainer. She is an award-winning playwright and the recipient of many community awards including the Afro-Heart Award, Women of A Stolen Legacy Award, and NAACP Appreciation Award.

Reanae has toured extensively across the United States, Russia, Hungary, and Italy. She has been a cultural ambassador in the performing arts in Russia under the special invitation of The Russian Ministry of Culture. She toured the many cities of Russia under the sponsorship of the International Arts Institute telling African-American stories and folktales.

She is an international treasure who has lived to tell a message of perseverance, faith, healing, and self-liberation. Though she has been described by many as so many things Reanae says, "I am simply a child of God ordained and purposed to help others to heal, acknowledge their divine purpose, and recognize the beauty and worth in each human being and whether that is through speaking, teaching, or my art, I will do that deep rooted purpose embedded on the DNA of my SPIRIT!"

A college athlete and former NFL quarterback, Don McPherson is the founder and executive director of the Sports Leadership Institute. He actively promotes the use of sports as an educational tool and works with community organizations to create innovative programs for high school and college students to address issues of self-esteem, substance abuse and violence prevention. Don has been featured on ABC’s Nightline, MSNBC and the Oprah Winfrey show and has contributed commentary to WNBC’s Today in New York.

Janice Mirikitani is Executive Director of San Francisco’s Glide Memorial United Methodist Church and President of the Glide Foundation has been a powerful force at Glide since 1965. The documentary video, The Healing Years, highlights Janice’s work with inner-city women addicts who, during counseling, revealed they were victims of incest, rape and child abuse. Janice herself is a survivor. As an author, Mirkitani has written and edited dozens of landmark books, journals, and anthologies, and her own three books of poetry. In 2000, her achievements as an author were recognized with the prestigious appointment as San Francisco's Poet Laureate. Janice Mirikitani is married to Reverend Cecil Williams. She has one daughter.

Ms. Oyabu currently resides in Omaha, Nebraska. She first came to the United States from Japan in 1990, and in 1995, earned a B.A. degree with specialization in photojournalism from Columbia College in Chicago, Illinois. Ms. Oyabu has received awards from the National Press Photographers Association, the Nebraska News Photographers Association, and the Illinois Press Photographers Association, and was named college photographer of the year by the University of Missouri. Her work has been widely published, and she serves as a lecturer on photojournalism.

Photography is Ms. Oyabu's way to communicate with others. After her own experience of being raped, she became thankful for the gift to understand pain, for it allows her to communicate with rape and sexual abuse survivors on a level she never imagined would be possible.

Ms. Randel is responsible for corporate, business and crisis media relations, as well as internal communications and the annual report. In addition, since 1995 Ms. Randel has been the director of the Company's award-winning domestic violence awareness, education and prevention program. She also serves on the Board of Directors of the Liz Claiborne Foundation; represents the company as Vice President of the Board of the Corporate Alliance to End Partner Violence and on the board of Safe@work; and is on the Advisory Board of The Empower Program, a youth program designed to prevent gender-based violence.

Ms. Randel joined Liz Claiborne Inc. in 1992 as a PR Associate concentrating in beauty and fashion. Previously, Ms. Randel worked at Hill and Knowlton Public Relations, specializing in beauty, fashion and consumer product accounts. Liz Claiborne Inc. designs and markets an extensive range of women's and men's fashion apparel and accessories appropriate to wearing occasions ranging from casual to dressy. The company also markets fragrances for women and men.

Angela started her career as a fashion model in Paris and New York before making her debut as an actress in the film Comfortably Numb. She co-wrote and produced the FineLine feature film Tumbleweeds and went on to receive outstanding reviews for her adaptation of Kaye Gibbon’s novel “Charms for the Easy Life” for Showtime. She has since adapted several novels for Showtime and Columbia Tri-Star.

Her latest project, Searching for Angela Shelton, is also her directorial debut. To make the film, Angela and her crew drove around the country and talked to as many other Angela Shelton’s as they could. Ultimately, she discovered that 16 out of the 32 Angela Shelton’s she spoke to, like herself, had been raped, beaten or molested.

Since making Searching for Angela Shelton, Angela has appeared on the “Oprah Winfrey Show,” CBS’s “48 Hours Investigates,” and Lifetime’s “The Division.” Angela recently spoke at a Congressional hearing in support of the Violence Against Women Act as part of Lifetime’s campaign to Stop Violence Against Women. She is currently starring as Safe Side Super Chick in a video series which teach children how to avoid being abducted or abused. She is working on another documentary about recovery and her next feature film, Fake, is a dark comedy about plastic surgery that she wrote and will also direct. When Angela is not at her computer, she is writing in her journal or hiking with her dog, Norma.

Dr. Snyderman is a member of drkoop.com's Board of Directors and is frequently seen on Good Morning America and 20/20. She also writes a monthly column for Good Housekeeping. Dr. Snyderman is a published author, Dr. Nancy Snyderman's Guide to Good Health: What Every Forty-Plus Woman Should Know About Her Changing Body (William Morrow & Company). She has received broadcasting awards from the California Medical Association, Radio and Television News Directors, the Associated Press, United Press International and the American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery. Dr. Snyderman is an associate clinical professor of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery at the California Pacific Medical Center and the University of California-San Francisco. She served as the director of the Division of the Head and Neck Surgery for the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences and received her Otolaryngology training at the Eye and Ear Hospital, University of Pittsburgh. She continues to publish in peer-review journals and has received grants from the Kellogg Foundation and the American Cancer Society.

A Denver native, Marilyn Van Derbur Atler has become synonymous with public speaking. Chosen as Miss America in 1958, Marilyn was acclaimed as one of the most popular women to hold the title. After serving in that capacity for a year, she returned to the University of Colorado and graduated with Phi Beta Kappa honors. After her graduation from CU, Atler was hired by AT&T as the only spokeswoman for their television commercial on the "Bell Telephone Hour." She has been the host of 23 network television specials on CBS and NBC, and is in great demand as a keynote speaker at conventions.

As a result of being sexually violated by her socially prominent father from age 5 to age 18, her life shut down at age 45, and for six long years Atler struggled to overcome the memories and feelings that overwhelmed her. In 1989 she asked the Kempe National Center in Denver to begin an adult survivor program to help other men and women who were just beginning their healing process. The Van Derbur family contributed $260,000 to establish the program which would also concentrate on research. Her work in the video, The Healing Years, is an inspiration to survivors everywhere.

During the past five years, Marilyn has spoken in 160 cities and personally answered over 7,000 letters from men and women whose adult lives have been traumatized by childhood sexual violations. In 1993 Marilyn co-founded two national not-for-profit organizations based in Washington, DC dedicated to public education and awareness to strengthen the laws protecting adult survivors and child victims, and to stopping the sexual violations of children.

Atler has received national awards from the Secretary of Health and Human Services for Exceptional Achievement in Public Service, the Distinguished Community Service Award from the Anti-Defamation League and the Individual Award from CHILDHELP. Atler has been named "Outstanding Woman Speaker in America."