Journalist, bestselling author, and award-winning college instructor, radio commentator, speaker, and former hockey coach

Emmy award-winning Journalist & News Producer (CNN, CBS Evening News, 48 Hours), Recipient of a Peabody and Edward R. Murrow awards

Emmy & Grammy Award-winning Actor (Roots, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Reading Rainbow)

President Emeritus and University Professor at the University of Richmond, Senior Fellow at the Aspen Institute, Former President of Wheaton College

Artist, Activist & Chair of Michigan Arts and Culture Council, Board Member of the National Council on the Arts, Cranbrook Academy of Art & Henry Ford Health Systems Foundation

Recipient of Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, Former Poet Laureate of United States and Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets, Recipient of the National Humanities Medal and National Medal of Arts

Manager of the Detroit Journalism Cooperative for Detroit Public Television, Former Assistant Managing Editor at The Detroit News, Executive Editor of Detroit Monthly magazine

VP & Artistic Director of Social Impact at The Kennedy Center, winner of the Herb Alpert Award in Theatre, Inaugural Recipient of the Doris Duke Performing Artist Award, 2017 TED Global Fellow

Journalist & Manager, Formerly: Group Publisher at Crain Communications (Crain’s Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit & New York); Chair of the Boards of the Skillman Foundation and Grand Valley State University; President of the Detroit Athletic Club

Composer, Conductor, Educator, Recipient of Pulitzer Prize in Music, Kennedy Center Honors & New York Governor’s Lifetime Achievement Award, London Philharmonic Orchestra’s Composer-in-Residence

Director of the Center for Social Solutions at the Univ of Michigan and Distinguished University Professor of History, Afroamerican and African Studies, and Public Policy; Former President of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, President of the Organization of American Historians; Secretary of the board of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Award-winning Writer & Producer (The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency), administers The Mma Pula Wahoo Charitable Trust

Pro Bono Director & Counsel at AmLaw 50 firm, Troutman Pepper, Formidable litigator and passionate advocate for underserved communities, Recipient of Howard A. Levine Award for excellence in juvenile justice and child welfare

Accomplished actor & stage director, (The Cosby Show, This Is Us, Empire, David Makes Man, The Good Fight), Inductee into the Theater Hall of Fame, Recipient of the 2016 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Leading Actress

International journalist with Reuters and strategic communications producer, manager and consultant, currently in Public Affairs at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, University of Michigan

Poet & Author of five books, (Dear Selection Committee, I Ate the Cosmos for Breakfast), featured on PBS, NPR, The New York Times, The Guardian & Ms. Magazine, Recipient of the Poetry Society of America's Lucille Medwick Award

Executive Partner & Managing Director of AlixPartners, former Executive Vice President of Booz, Allen & Hamilton, Board Member of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Chair of the Washington, DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities

Seasoned journalist & podcast host, Host of NPR’s 1A, Former local host of All Things Considered at Michigan Radio, Skilled public speaker and has moderated numerous gubernatorial and mayoral debates

CEO of Zingerman's Community of Businesses, named one of “The World's 10 Top CEOs” by Inc. Magazine, one of the “Who’s Who of Food & Beverage in America” by the James Beard Foundation and has awarded a Bon Appetit Lifetime Achievement Award