Laurence Klein, M.D. is a Primary Care provider and founding partner at Connecticut River Internists where he has practiced since 1988. He graduated from the Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI, did his Medical Internship and Residency at the Baystate Medical Center, and was board certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine in 1981. Dr. Klein also works part time at the Clean Slate Addiction Treatment Center and participates at the Bread of Life monthly community meal for shut-ins. He is a member at large on the Medical Executive Committee and the Hospital Quality Committee at the Baystate Franklin Medical Center, and a board member at the YMCA, where he is chair of the Exercise is Medicine Committee. He was the recipient of the Community Service Award, given by Senator John Kerry. Dr. Klein received the Community Clinician of the Year Award, given by the Franklin County Chapter of the Massachusetts Medical Society.

Sharon Lerner, a pioneer in children’s programming, was one of the first ten people hired by the Children’s Television Workshop to develop Sesame Street, focusing on translating educational concepts into entertaining television. She then became Vice President / Creative Director of the CTW Products Group. Lerner left CTW to join Random House where she was Vice-President and Publisher of the Random House Children’s Media Division. Here she developed award-winning audio, video and multimedia products that featured such classic authors and characters as Dr. Seuss, Sesame Street, Leo Lionni, Richard Scarry, The Berenstain Bears, and Arthur. After leaving Random House Lerner was tagged to become the Senior Vice President of Creative Development for Sirius Thinking, a television production company. Here she helped develop the concept for Between the Lions, an Emmy award-winning PBS children’s show designed to teach reading to 4-7-year-olds, and was nominated for 4 emmys—winning one for writing. Most recently Ms. Lerner has been a co-executive producer for a children’s video series: Auntie Panda’s Place, designed to teach Mandarin Chinese.

Harold G. Levine, M.D. a specialist in Gastroenterology and Hepatology currently practices medicine in Hyannis, MA and is affiliated with Cape Cod Hospital. He is Board Certified in Internal Medicine and Gastroenterology. A graduate of Rush Medical College, he did his residency in Internal Medicine at Northwestern University Medical Center. Dr. Levine then went on to complete a Gastroenterology Fellowship at Boston University Medical Center.

Terry Mollner, Ed.D. was one of the founders of the first family of socially responsible mutual funds, the Calvert Family of Socially Responsible Mutual Funds (currently with $6 billion under management). He also took the lead to create the Calvert Foundation that has raised and loaned over $800 million around the world to reduce poverty. Dr. Mollner negotiated a contract for Unilever to buy Ben & Jerry’s that had the board remain in existence with him on it and that obligates Unilever to maintain the same percent of the budget for social activism as of the date bought. He remains on all three boards and is also a founder and Chair of StakeHolders Capital, Inc., a socially responsible asset management firm in Amherst and Los Angeles. He is the founder and chair of Trusts for All Children, a private sector crowd funding charity with the goal of eventually creating at birth a $10,000 trust for every child on Earth.

Joseph Sklar, M.D. graduated from University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine. He is an orthopedic surgeon at New England Orthopedic Surgeons in Springfield, MA, specializing in knee surgery and sports medicine, where he cares for injuries to the muscles, bones, joints, ligaments, and tendons, also known as the musculoskeletal system. He is an inventor of surgical implants and instruments for knee surgery with 31 issued patents, which has generated many products used around the world. Dr. Sklar was formerly Assistant Professor in Pediatrics at Tufts Medical School, and Adjunct Professor at Springfield College in the Department of Athletic Training, and team physician for Springfield Falcons, several area colleges, and high schools.

Alec Newcomb was Chief Strategy Officer for MyWebGrocer, the largest provider of eCommerce and digital marketing solutions to the grocery and Consumer Packaged Goods industries in the U.S. He led the teams that developed solutions for 100+ CPG brands including Kellogg’s, McCormick, P&G, Unilver, Campbell’s, and Kraft. His other responsibilities included Product Development, Data & Insights Teams, Marketing, International, and Business Development. Prior to his 6 years at MyWebGrocer, Alec served as VP Sales & Marketing at HouseNeeds Inc, Director at Bosch, Director at Lycos, and Manager of Market Development at MTV Networks. As co-founder and CEO at Indri, Alec delivers innovations in productivity and ROI for digital marketing professionals.

David Sokol is a lifelong journalist, most recently with The Walt Disney Company. During his 15 years at TWDC, he served as editor and executive editor, respectively, for Disney Magazine and the tween publication Disney Adventures, both in the Disney Publishing Worldwide division. More recently, he held the post of features editor for Disney twenty-three magazine before retiring from the company in 2013. Prior to that, as editor in chief, David helped launch New Country magazine, an award-winning international music publication.

Jim Squires, Ph.D. conducts research on national early education policy and practices, focusing on prekindergarten through third grade with an emphasis on school readiness. His work at NIEER involves monitoring trends in early childhood policy and practices across several target states; serving as a researcher/author for the annual State Preschool Yearbook and providing technical assistance to state education agencies and national organizations. He also serves on the leadership team for the Center on Enhancing Early Learning Outcomes (CEELO) as Senior Technical Assistance Fellow, working closely with states located in the Northeast and Southeast. Dr. Squires was formerly the early childhood programs coordinator at the Vermont Department of Education and past president of the National Association of Early Childhood Specialists in State Departments of Education. He has taught and directed programs for young children in childcare, Head Start, public schools, migrant education, and university lab schools, as well as serving as adjunct faculty at the University of Vermont, Champlain College, and Community College of Vermont. Dr. Squires received his Ph.D. in child development and public policy from the Union Institute in Ohio.

Don C. Wukasch, M.D., MFA, Ph.D. (Hon), FACS, FACC, FACCP, is a retired Thoracic & Cardiovascular Surgeon. He graduated from Baylor College of Medicine, Houston. Following surgery internship at Baylor, he served as Lt. Commander, USPHS in Southeast Asia, following which he completed seven years general, thoracic and cardiovascular surgery residency at Baylor College of Medicine Affiliated Hospitals, Houston. He is Board Certified in both General and Thoracic & Cardiovascular Surgery. He spent his surgical career in the practice of cardiovascular surgery at the Texas Heart Institute as Clinical Assoc. Prof. of Surgery, Univ. of Texas Medical School, Houston, as Dir. of Clinical Research & Assoc. Dir. of Residency Training. He was co-founder and Medical Director of the Houstonian Preventive Medicine Center; Acting Chief of Surgery of the Klokkenberg Heart Center, Breda, Netherlands. Dr. Wukasch is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons (FACS), American College of Cardiology (FACC), American College of Chest Physicians (FACCP). He has published 125 scientific articles, poems and textbooks including Techniques in Vascular Surgery, co-authored with Denton A. Cooley, M.D. now translated into German, Italian, and Spanish.