​​David A. Thomas, Ph.D., is the 12th president of Morehouse College. Since his installment in January 2018, he has led dynamic, purpose-driven advancement in Morehouse’s strategic and operational effectiveness, programmatic reach, and pedagogical innovation. Among other transformational successes, Dr. Thomas has overseen a fundraising acceleration which has generated approximately $190 million since his arrival—a giving total during his tenure that is higher than during any other presidential tenure in the history of the college. Under his leadership, Morehouse has extended its reach by launching its first online degree programs and has amplified its positioning as a center of intellectual discourse and social engagement in areas such as global leadership, professional equity, social justice, and innovation. Dr. Thomas is internationally recognized for his expertise in organizational management and higher education leadership. Before becoming president of Morehouse, he served as the H. Naylor Fitzhugh Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, as dean and William R. Berkley Chair at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business, and as an assistant professor at the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. While at McDonough, Dr. Thomas led a successful $130 million capital campaign, a redesign of the MBA curriculum, and the launch of the school’s first online degree program. He has consulted on issues relating to organizational change, diversity, and inclusion for 100 of the Fortune 500 companies. An award-winning author and contemporary thought leader in organizational management and executive development, Thomas co-wrote three books: "Race, Work, and Leadership: New Perspectives on the Black Experience;" "Breaking Through: The Making of Minority Executives in Corporate America;" and "Leading for Equity: The Pursuit of Excellence in Montgomery County." He has written or co-written almost eighty book chapters, cases, and teaching notes, along with more than two dozen scholarly articles, including Getting Serious About Diversity: Enough Already with the Business Case, which won the 2020 HBR McKinsey Award as the best Harvard Business Review article of the year. Atlanta Magazine named him one of “Atlanta’s 500 Most Powerful Leaders.” He is the recipient of Washington Business Journal’s “Minority Business Leader of the Year” award and the National Executive Forum’s 2020 Beacon Award, among other honors. He serves on the boards of DTE Energy, Commonfund, Vanguard, and Yale Corporation, where he is the alumni fellow. He is also a senior advisor for Grain Management. Dr. Thomas earned a Ph.D. in organizational behavior studies and a Master of Philosophy in organizational behavior, both from Yale University. He also earned a Master of Organizational Psychology from Columbia University and a Bachelor of Administrative Sciences from Yale College.

Tequilla Brownie, Ed.D., is CEO of TNTP, a national advocacy and consulting firm focused on disrupting inequities in public education so all students have opportunities and can achieve success. Prior to taking the helm, she served as the organization’s executive in charge of strategy and policy where she helped drive growth to $100 million in support of the mission. Dr. Brownie came to TNTP in 2013 after nearly a decade working with Memphis City Schools where she led its district-wide efforts to improve student outcomes by increasing teacher effectiveness, in partnership with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Raised in the Mississippi Delta from humble beginnings, Dr. Brownie is a proud graduate of a rural Arkansas public school system and earned an undergraduate degree from Yale University. She later received a Master’s degree in social work from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and a Doctorate of Education from the University of Memphis. Dr. Brownie serves on several national and local nonprofit boards including Stand for Children National Board, Forward Arkansas, The Mind Trust, KIPP Delta School District, and Memphis Seeding Success. She was also a founding member and currently serves on the Leadership Committee of Education Leaders of Color (EdLoC).

Kumar Garg is Senior Managing Director and Head of Partnerships at Schmidt Futures. In this role, Kumar works to help all major Schmidt Futures programs find successful leverage, as well as helping to run the Technology and Society portfolio. He previously helped shape science and technology policy for the Obama Administration for nearly eight years, serving in a variety of roles in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). Garg led the Obama Administration’s efforts to bolster science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education, including the Educate to Innovate campaign, with more than $1 billion in in-kind and philanthropic investment; development of major State of the Union initiatives to train 100,000 excellent STEM teachers and bring computer science to all K–12 students; and creation of iconic events such as the White House Science Fair. Working with the OSTP Deputy Director, he supervised a team of 20 staff with portfolios including broad innovation policy, advanced manufacturing, behavioral sciences, biotechnology, broadband, digital media, entrepreneurship, the maker movement, space, nanotechnology, and prizes. As a senior leader at OSTP, Garg was involved in policy development, implementation, and communication of a wide range of science and technology issues. Prior to his time in government, he worked on behalf of parents and children seeking educational reform as an education lawyer and advocate. He received a bachelor’s degree from Dartmouth College and a law degree from Yale Law School.

Emily Oster is a Professor of Economics at Brown University and the author of Expecting Better, Cribsheet and The Family Firm. She holds a PhD in Economics from Harvard. Prior to being at Brown she was on the faculty at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. Oster’s academic work focuses on health economics and statistical methods. She is interested in understanding why consumers do not always make “rational” health choices — why do people not eat a fully healthy diet, or pursue all recommended preventative health behaviors? Her work also concerns methods for learning causal effects from observational data. Oster’s books analyze the data behind choices in pregnancy and parenting. Expecting Better analyzes the data behind many common pregnancy rules, and aims to improve decision-making for pregnant women. Cribsheet does the same for early childhood — what does the evidence really say on breastfeeding, co-sleeping or potty training. Finally, The Family Firm takes this approach to parenting in the early school years, looking at data on school, extracurriculars, sleep and also providing a framework to make unexpected decisions and address the logistical challenges of this period of parenting. Oster lives in Providence, RI with her husband (also an economist) and two children.

Joel Bervell is a third year Ghanaian-American medical student at Washington State University, Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine. In 2017, Joel graduated from Yale University, where he earned a BA in Molecular Cellular Developmental Biology. There, Joel was as an elected member of Yale student government, and director of a longitudinal mentorship program. At Washington State University, Joel served as Medical Student Council President and the co-founder and president of a chapter of the Student National Medical Association. He is committed to fighting health disparities in medicine through education and regularly shares topics about racial disparities in healthcare and other industries on his TikTok and Instagram (@joelbervell) where his platforms have over 300,000+ combined followers and 20,000,000+ impressions. He has been invited to speak on panels at the National Institute of Health, U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Clinton Foundation, Open Society Foundations, and more. He has also spoken on national media outlets including NPR and WebMd and regularly produces digital media content for Aljazeera and Brut Media. He currently is working with the World Health Organization’s Digital Communications, a collection of health professionals combatting the spread of misinformation on social media about COVID-19, and on a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion project with the VA Hospital systems. Joel is the recipient of the National Medical Association Emerging Scholar Award, the highest academic honor presented to a student by the National Medical Association. He was selected as one of 100 inaugural TikTok for Black Creatives, and is the recipient of the TikTok AdColor Awards.

Tina Charles is an American professional basketball player for the Washington Mystics of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). Originally from Jamaica, Queens, New York City, Charles was drafted first overall in the 2010 WNBA draft by the Connecticut Sun. She has won three Olympic gold medals with Team USA, sit on the WNBA’s Social Justice Board, and is a member of the P&G | Queen Collective