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Arne Duncan served as U.S. Secretary of Education from January 2009 through January 2016 as part of the Obama Administration. Prior to joining the Obama Administration, Duncan served as chief executive officer of Chicago Public Schools.

From 2001 to 2008, Duncan won praise for uniting the city’s stakeholders behind an education agenda that included opening 100 new schools; expanding after-school, summer learning, early childhood, and college access programs; dramatically boosting the caliber of teachers; and building public-private partnerships around a variety of education initiatives.

He currently leads Chicago CRED, a nonprofit trying to achieve a transformative reduction in gun violence in Chicago. Through partnerships with local business leaders, community organizers, and nonprofit groups, Duncan aims to provide outreach, therapeutic, educational, and employment opportunities for the young men most likely to be engaged in gun violence.

He is also the managing partner at Emerson Collective, an organization dedicated to removing barriers so people can live to their full potential. Secretary Duncan graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University in 1987, majoring in sociology. At Harvard, he served as co-captain of the basketball team and was named a first-team Academic All-American.

Nelson Dellis is a 6x USA Memory Champion and one of the leading memory experts in the world, traveling around the world as a competitive Memory Athlete, Memory Consultant, Published Author, and highly sought-after Keynote Speaker.

As a Memory Champion, Mountaineer, and Alzheimer’s Disease Activist, he preaches a lifestyle that combines fitness, both mental and physical, with proper diet and social involvement.

Barbara Oakley, PhD, PE is a Distinguished Professor of Engineering at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan; Michigan’s Distinguished Professor of the Year; and Coursera’s inaugural “Innovation Instructor.” Her work focuses on the complex relationship between neuroscience and social behavior.

Dr. Oakley’s research has been described as “revolutionary” in the Wall Street Journal. She is a New York Times best-selling author who has published in outlets as varied as the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the Wall Street Journal, and The New York Times. Her book A Mind for Numbers, on effective learning in STEM disciplines, has sold over a million copies worldwide; Uncommon Sense Teaching is a critically praised guide to teaching based on insights from neuroscience.

Dr. Oakley has won numerous teaching awards, including the American Society of Engineering Education’s Chester F. Carlson Award for technical innovation in engineering education and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers William E. Sayle II Award for Achievement in Education. Together with Terrence Sejnowski, the Francis Crick Professor at the Salk Institute, she co-teaches Coursera’s “Learning How to Learn,” one of the world’s most popular massive open online courses with some four million registered students, along with a number of other leading MOOCs.

Dr. Oakley has adventured widely through her lifetime. She rose from the ranks of Private to Captain in the U.S. Army, during which time she was recognized as a Distinguished Military Scholar. She also worked as a communications expert at the South Pole Station in Antarctica, and has served as a Russian translator on board Soviet trawlers on the Bering Sea. Dr. Oakley is an elected Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering and of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering.

Maryanne Miller is a retired 4-star General for the United States Air Force. Her last position before retirement in October of 2020 was Commander, Air Mobility Command. As the Air Component Commander for U.S. Transportation Command, General Miller was responsible for directing global air mobility operations in support of national objectives.

General Miller was commissioned in 1981 as a distinguished graduate of the ROTC program at The Ohio State University. She is a command pilot with more than 4,800 flying hours in numerous Air Force aircraft.

Maryanne spent 39 years serving as an officer and pilot in our Air Force, but now serves on the Boards of Bristow and Leaven Kids. And since 2013, has been a volunteer and co-worker for St. Teresa of Calcutta’s Missionaries of Charity, serving the poorest of the poor around the world.

Consuelo Vanderbilt is a seventh-generation descendant of Cornelius Vanderbilt and the great-great-niece of Consuelo Vanderbilt, Duchess of Marlborough. She is the founder of C&R Production and co-founder of SohoMuse, an exclusive network designed to connect and empower the global creative community.

Ms. Vanderbilt serves on the board of the Vanderbilt Museum and Planetarium and has been appointed as an Advisor to the Forbes Council, reflecting her commitment to fostering innovation and collaboration across various sectors.