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H.W. (Bill) Brands
Jack S. Blanton Sr. Chair in History at The University of TexasBill Brands is an American historian. He holds the Jack S. Blanton Sr. Chair in History at The University of Texas at Austin, where he earned his PhD in history in 1985. He has authored more than thirty books on U.S. history. His works have twice been selected as finalists for the Pulitzer Prize. He takes a progressive view on the nation's founders and the United States Constitution, arguing that the founders were at heart radicals who were willing to challenge the status quo in search of a better future
Brett Hurt
CEO/ Co-Founder of Data.WorldBrett is the CEO and Co-founder of data.world, which is building the most meaningful, collaborative, and abundant data resource in the world as a Certified B Corp. He is also a seed-stage investor at Hurt Family Investments (HFI) in partnership with his wife, Debra. HFI are involved in 48 startups and 12 VC funds. HFI has directly made 37 startup investments, and Brett has also joined the Advisory Board of 11 additional companies. Prior to HFI, Brett founded Bazaarvoice (NASDAQ: BV) and served as CEO and President for 7½ years, leading the company from bootstrapped concept to almost 2,000 clients worldwide and through its successful IPO. He subsequently guided the company through a successful follow-on offering and two acquisitions, PowerReviews and Longboard Media. Prior to Bazaarvoice, Brett founded Coremetrics and helped grow the company into a global, leading marketing analytics solution for the eCommerce industry before its acquisition by IBM.
Brett holds an MBA in High-Tech Entrepreneurship from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and a BBA in Management Information Systems from the University of Texas at Austin. He serves as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at the Wharton School. Brett previously served as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at the McCombs School of Business and also served on the Board of Directors of Shop.org for six years. Brett established the Bazaarvoice Foundation and is very active in the philanthropic arena.
Chris Hyams
CEO of IndeedChris Hyams is the CEO of Indeed, a company dedicated to helping people find jobs. With 25 years of experience in various tech companies in Austin, Texas, he joined Indeed in 2010 as VP of Product, overseeing technology strategy and innovation. In 2019, he was appointed CEO. Before Indeed, Chris founded B-Side Entertainment, a technology platform for independent film discovery and distribution. With a decade of experience at Indeed, he is committed to leveraging technology to create equal opportunities in the job market.
Peneil Joseph
Associate Dean for Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion at The University of Texas at AustinPeniel E. Joseph is an American scholar, teacher, and public voice on race issues especially the history of the Black power movement. He holds a joint professorship appointment at the LBJ School of Public Affairs and the History Department in at The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin). Joseph joined UT Austin in 2015 from Tufts University in Massachusetts, where he had founded the school's Center for the Study of Race and Democracy (CSRD). He founded the second Center for the Study of Race and Democracy (CSRD) on the University of Texas campus in 2016, and is director of the center.
Joseph also serves as Vice President of the Board of Directors at the Bayard Rustin Center for Social Justice, an LGBTQIA safe-space, community activist center, and educational enclave dedicated to honoring Bayard Rustin through their mission and good works. At UT Austin, Joseph holds the Barbara Jordan Chair Professorship in ethics and political values.
Ben Lamm
CEO of Colossal BiosciencesBen Lamm is the co-founder and CEO of Colossal Biosciences. Ben is a serial technology entrepreneur driven to solve the most complex challenges facing our planet. For over a decade, Ben has built disruptive businesses that future-proof our world. In addition to leading and growing his own companies, he is passionate about emerging technology, science, space and climate change. Active in angel investing, incubators and startup communities, Ben invests in software and emerging tech, and is deeply engaged in the technology, defense and climate change communities.
Esther Melamed
Assistant Professor at Dell Medical SchoolEsther Melamed is a board-certified neurologist and Assistant Professor at Dell Medical School. She specializes in treating adults with conditions like multiple sclerosis (MS). Dr. Melamed leads research at The University of Texas at Austin, focusing on genetic, environmental, and sex differences in MS for personalized care. She also teaches courses on MS and autoimmune disorders. Before joining UT Health Austin, she founded the MS and Neuroimmunology Clinic at Dell Seton Medical Center in Austin. She holds degrees in neuroscience from UCLA, and she completed her medical training, internship, and neurology residency at top institutions. Dr. Melamed has been recognized for her excellence, receiving several prestigious awards, including Neurology Clerkship Medical Student Teaching Awards, the UCLA Chancellor's Humanitarian Award, Chancellor's Service Award, and Women 4 Change Leadership Award.
JB Milliken
Chancellor at The University of Texas at AustinJames B. (“J.B.”) Milliken is chancellor of The University of Texas System, where he also holds the Lee Hage and Joseph D. Jamail Regents Chair in Higher Education Leadership.
Milliken is a national leader in public higher education with more than 30 years of experience. As chancellor, he oversees one of the largest public university systems in the United States, comprised of 14 academic and health institutions, including seven medical schools and five Carnegie R1 research universities. UT institutions enroll more than 256,000 students and employ more than 122,000 faculty, health care professionals, researchers, support staff and student workers. Total annual research expenditures across the UT institutions exceeds $4.3 billion, and the UT System ranks No. 1 in Texas and No. 2 in the nation in federal research expenditures among public higher education systems.
At UT, Milliken has led efforts to meet the needs of a growing and diversifying state and nation, including a commitment to growing training, education and research programs in fields of economic and national security importance, like cybersecurity and advanced manufacturing.
As a sought-after voice in public higher education leadership, he is a member of the Taskforce on Higher Education and Opportunity, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Permian Strategic Partnership and the American Council on Education. Additionally, he serves on the executive committee of the Council on Competitiveness and the Texas Economic Development Corporation's CEO Council.
Prior to joining the UT System, Milliken served as the chancellor of The City University of New York (CUNY), the largest urban university system in the country. Earlier, he was the first Nebraskan and alumnus to serve as president of the University of Nebraska. He also served as senior vice president of the University of North Carolina, now 17 campuses.
Kumar Muthuraman
Faculty Director of Center for Research and Analytics at University of Texas at AustinKumar Muthuraman is the H. Timothy (Tim) Harkins Centennial Professor in the Department of Information, Risk and Operations Management and the Department of Finance. He received his Ph.D. from Stanford University. Dr. Muthuraman’s research focuses on decision making under uncertainty. Application areas of interest to him are quantitative finance, operations management and health care.
Charles Nemeroff
Matthew P. Nemeroff Endowed Chair at Dell Medical School Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral SciencesCharles B. Nemeroff, MD, PhD, is a board-certified psychiatrist in UT Health Austin’s Mulva Clinic for the Neurosciences. He specializes in diagnosis of complex patients and in management of treatment-resistant depression and anxiety disorders. Additionally, Dr. Nemeroff is a professor and serves as the Matthew P. Nemeroff Endowed Chair for the Dell Medical School Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. He also serves as the Director for the Dell Medical School Institute for Early Life Adversity Research.
Jeremi Suri
Distinguished Chair for Leadership in Global Affairs at University of Texas at AustinJeremi Suri holds the Mack Brown Distinguished Chair for Leadership in Global Affairs at The University of Texas at Austin, where he is a professor in the Department of History and the LBJ School of Public Affairs. He is a prolific author with eleven books on politics and foreign policy, including recent works like "Civil War By Other Means: America’s Long and Unfinished Fight for Democracy." His writings appear in the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, CNN.com, Atlantic, Newsweek, Time, Wired, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, and he is a frequent commentator on radio and television news. He has received multiple awards for his teaching and contributions to the liberal arts and hosts the podcast "This is Democracy."
Django Walker
Singer-SongwriterNamed after Belgian guitarist Django Reinhardt, Walker is the son of country music artist Jerry Jeff Walker and Susan Walker. He began learning to play guitar at age 15. After graduating from Austin High School in 1999, he attended the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts from 1999 to 2001, but did not graduate. He has said the experience made him "a better musician", but also says he learned much more traveling out on the road.
Larry Wright
Writer at The New Yorker and Texas MonthlyLarry Wright is a staff writer for The New Yorker and Texas Monthly. He also became a contributing editor to Rolling Stone. Wright is the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11, and one of the world's most highly respected investigative journalists. He is the author of eleven nonfiction books and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Society of American Historians, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In addition to his one-man productions, Wright has written five other plays that have enjoyed productions around the country.