Donna Crane is a lecturer in the Department of Political Science at San José State University. She spent 26 years as a legislative strategist and lobbyist in Washington, DC – most recently serving nearly 18 years at NARAL Pro-Choice America. During the course of her career she has lobbied hundreds of bills and votes in Congress – including the Affordable Care Act and several Supreme Court nominations – as well as thousands of pieces of state legislation. She and her team at NARAL published critical nationwide information each year about abortion, contraception, and political trends, serving as one of the nation’s top experts on reproductive rights and lobbying strategies. She also worked as part of a team on every federal election cycle for nearly two decades.

Kerry L. Haynie is Professor and Chair of Political Science, Professor of African and African American Studies and a former Chair of the Academic Council (Faculty Senate) at Duke University. He earned B.A. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and a Master’s degree from the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Pittsburgh. Before joining the faculty at Duke in 2003, he was a member of the faculty at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, and the University of Pennsylvania.

Dr. Haynie’s research examines how the underlying theory, structures, and practices of American political institutions affect African Americans’ and women’s efforts to organize and exert influence on the political system. In addition to articles in various academic journals, his publications include, New Race Politics in America: Understanding Minority and Immigrant Voting (co-edited with Jane Junn, Cambridge University Press), African American Legislators in the American States (Columbia University Press), The Encyclopedia of Minorities in American Politics, Volume I: African Americans and Asian Americans(Oryx Press); The Encyclopedia of Minorities in American Politics, Volume II: Hispanic Americans and Native Americans (Oryx Press), and Race, Gender, and Legislative Representation: Toward a More Intersectional Approach (with Beth Reingold and Kirsten Widner, Oxford University Press), winner of the 2021 Richard F. Fenno, Jr. Prize from the American Political Science Association for the best book in legislative studies. Haynie and Beth Reingold previously won the American Political Science Association’s Women and Politics Research Section’s Best Paper Award (2012). Professor Haynie is the founder and director of the Summer Institute on Tenure and Professional Advancement (SITPA), a national junior faculty mentoring initiative supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Robert K. Musil, PhD, MPH is the President and CEO of the Rachel Carson Council, the legacy organization envisioned by Rachel Carson and founded in 1965 by her closest friends and colleagues. Dr. Musil was named President and CEO in February, 2014 and is only the third head of this historic environmental group.

Dr. Musil is also a Senior Fellow and Adjunct Professor at the Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies, School of Public Affairs, American University, where he teaches about climate change and American environmental politics. He also has been a Visiting Scholar at the Churches’ Center for Theology and Public Policy, Wesley Theological Seminary, where he taught about religious responses to global warming and security threats.

From 1992-2006, Dr. Musil was the longest-serving Executive Director and CEO of Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR), winner of the 1985 Nobel Prize for Peace. During his tenure, he nearly tripled PSR’s membership, budget, and staff. He is a graduate of Yale and Northwestern Universities and the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health and has been a Visiting Honorary Fellow at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and of Pembroke College, Cambridge University. Dr. Musil received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters (LHD) from Mitchell College and joined their Board of Trustees in 2009. In spring 2011, Dr. Musil was also awarded an honorary Doctor of Science (Sc.D.) at Lincoln Memorial University. A Woodrow Wilson Foundation Visiting Fellow since 2006, he is widely sought as a campus and civic lecturer. Dr. Musil has also taught at Northwestern, Temple, St. Joseph’s and LaSalle Universities.

Dr. Musil specializes in contemporary global sustainability, security, and health issues, as well as Cold War history, culture, and policy. He is the author of numerous articles and Hope for a Heated Planet: How Americans are Fighting Global Warming and Building a Better Future (Rutgers University Press, 2009); Rachel Carson and Her Sisters: Extraordinary Women Who Have Shaped America’s Environment (Rutgers Press, 2014) and Washington in Spring: A Nature Journal for a Changing Planet (Bartleby Press, 2016).

Dr. Musil helped launch PSR’s environmental program in the early 1990’s and led PSR campaigns for safe and affordable drinking water, clean air, and to prevent toxic pollution and global climate change. Dr. Musil has met regularly and worked closely over the years with leading public figures including Presidents and Vice Presidents, numerous cabinet members, and Congressional leaders. He also initiated PSR’s U.S.-Mexico Border Project in El Paso and Juarez, Mexico and has represented PSR at international environment negotiations in Montreal, Kyoto, Johannesburg, Geneva, and elsewhere.

A long-time leader of the environmental and nuclear arms control movements, Dr. Musil has also been Executive Director of the Professionals’ Coalition for Nuclear Arms Control, the SANE Education Fund, the Center for National Security Studies Military Affairs Project, and CCCO: An Agency for Military and Draft Counseling. He is a former Army Captain who taught communications and policy at the Defense Information School, Ft. Benjamin Harrison, Indiana.

For fourteen years, Dr. Musil was also the Executive Producer and host of “Consider the Alternatives” a half-hour weekly radio program syndicated to over 150 stations with over 2,000,000 listeners. He has been the producer of numerous ground-breaking independent video documentaries and public radio documentary series including “One Blue Sky: Health and the Human Environment.” Dr. Musil is two-time winner of the Armstrong Award for Excellence in Radio Broadcasting.

Dara Purvis is a professor at Penn State Law, specializing in family law, feminist legal theory, masculinities, and sexuality and gender identity. She holds a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Southern California, an M.Phil. in Political Thought and Intellectual History from the University of Cambridge, and a J.D. from Yale Law School. Prior to her graduate studies, she was a summer intern at Population Connection. She lives in State College, Pennsylvania with her husband, daughter, and rescue dogs.