Dr. Brené Brown is an educator, writer, activist and researcher. She is a member of the research faculty at the University of Houston Graduate College of Social Work where she has spent the past eight years studying shame, empathy and vulnerability and the affect these powerful emotions have on the way we live, love, parent, work and build relationships.

In 2007, Brené's book I Thought It Was Just Me: Women Reclaiming Power and Courage in a Culture of Shame was published by Gotham Books.   Brené writes, "We need our lives back. It’s time to reclaim the gifts of imperfection – the courage to be real, the compassion we need to love ourselves and others, and the connection that gives true purpose and meaning to life. These are the gifts that bring love, laughter, gratitude, empathy and joy into our lives."

In addition to teaching, she is very involved in community education, especially work centering on domestic violence prevention, media awareness and women and addiction. Brené has also developed, and is currently field-testing, a psycho-educational curriculum based on her theory of shame resilience.

Dr. Brown was recently appointed to the working board of the Nobel Women's Initiative (NWI).  NWI was established in 2006 by six sister Nobel Peace Laureates to address and prevent the root causes of violence against women by spotlighting and promoting the efforts of women’s rights activists, researchers and organizations working to advance peace with justice and equality.
www.brenebrown.com

Bonnie J. Campbell was elected Attorney General of Iowa in 1990 and served through 1994.  She is the only woman to have held that office in her state.  She focused on protecting Iowa’s consumers, strengthening Iowa’s domestic violence laws, and increasing funding for victim compensation programs and shelters.  She also wrote what became a model statute on anti-stalking for states around the country.

Selected by President Clinton in 1995 to head the Justice Department’s newly created Violence Against Women Office, Campbell emerged as a national leader for her work to bring victim-rights reform to the country’s criminal justice system.  Campbell’s effectiveness led Time magazine in 1997 to name her one of the 25 most influential people in America.  Praising her for bringing “rock-solid credibility” to her job, Time called Campbell the “force behind a grass-roots shift in the way Americans view the victims--and perhaps more important, the perpetrators--of crimes against women.”  As director of the Justice Department’s Violence Against Women Office, Campbell provided resources to communities for training judges, prosecutors, and police and to provide services and shelter to victims. 

In 1996, Campbell was chosen to serve on the President’s Interagency Council on Women, chaired by First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton.  She also headed the Justice Department’s Working Group on Trafficking and was instrumental in the creation of a U.S. treaty with Italy on ending trafficking in women and girls.  She subsequently was appointed by Secretary of State Madeleine Albright to represent the United States in international negotiations on the creation of an International Criminal Court.  She was a member of the U.S. Delegation to the United Nations’ Fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing in 1995 and has been a leading spokesperson on international human rights issues ever since. 

In her legal practice, Campbell represents clients before various regulatory bodies, including the state attorneys general.  Her practice generally focuses on providing both legal and crisis management counseling to businesses confronted with highly visible legal matters as they attempt to deal with the public, the media, and an array of government agencies. 

Meda Chesney-Lind, Ph.D. is Professor of Women’s Studies at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Nationally recognized for her work on women and crime, her books include Girls, Delinquency and Juvenile Justice, The Female Offender: Girls, Women and Crime, Female Gangs in America, Invisible Punishment, and Girls, Women and Crime, published in 2004.    She has just finished a book on trends in girls’ violence, entitled Beyond Bad Girls: Gender, Violence and Hype. She received the Bruce Smith, Sr. Award “for outstanding contributions to Criminal Justice” from the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences in April, 2001. She was named a fellow of the American Society of Criminology in 1996 and has also received the Herbert Block Award for service to the society and the profession from the American Society of Criminology.  She has also received the Donald Cressey Award from the National Council on Crime and Delinquency for “outstanding contributions to the field of criminology,” the Founders award of the Western Society of Criminology for "significant improvement of the quality of justice,” and the University of Hawaii Board of Regent's Medal for "Excellence in Research." 

Finally, Chesney-Lind has been included among the scholars working with the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention’s Girls Study Group.   The Group advises OJJDP in matters relating to gender responsive programming for girls in the juvenile justice system, and it will be producing a set of materials for national distribution on female delinquency in America.  Locally, she has worked with the Family Court, First Circuit advising them on the Family Drug Court as well as the recently formed Girls Court.

Gwendolyn C. Chunn is the 98th President of the American Correctional Association (ACA). Previous to becoming President of ACA, she served as Executive Director, Juvenile Justice Institute, Department of Criminal Justice at North Carolina Central University. Prior to that, she was director of the Division of Youth Services of the North Carolina Department of Human Resources from 1989 to 1999, serving under three governors. Ms. Chunn also served as an adjunct professor for the North Carolina Central University. She has spoken extensively, both nationally and internationally, on juvenile and adult issues, and is highly respected for her leadership and vision as a leader.