Halperin is editor-at-large and senior political analyst at Time. In addition to his appointment at Time, Halperin co-authored the New York Times #1 best-seller Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, Palin and McCain, and the Race of a Lifetime (Harper, 2010); now an acclaimed film from HBO. Halperin is a senior political analyst for MSNBC, where he appears regularly on “Morning Joe” and other programs. Prior to joining Time in 2007, Halperin worked at ABC News for nearly 20 years. At ABC News, he covered five presidential elections and served as political director. In that role, Halperin was responsible for political reporting and planning for the network’s television, radio and internet political coverage. He also appeared regularly on ABC News as a correspondent and analyst, contributing commentary and reporting during election night coverage, presidential inaugurations and State of the Union speeches. Halperin received a BA degree from Harvard and resides in New York.

Steele served as Republican National Committee chairman from 2009 to 2011. Steele grew up in a solidly Democratic household, but later changed his political views due to the influence of his mother, who refused to go on welfare following the death of his father, and President Ronald Reagan, who reflected the same “pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps” message. Steele earned a B.A. degree from Johns Hopkins University and attended the Augustinian Friars Seminary at Villanova University prior to earning a law degree at Georgetown University. A career in law followed as he practiced as a corporate securities attorney and later started his own consulting firm. He served as chairman of the Maryland Republican Party from 2000 to 2003, when he would become the Maryland Lieutenant Governor. Following a successful speaking engagement at the 2004 Republican National Convention, he was urged to run for a Maryland Senate seat, which lost to his Democratic challenger, Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.). Steele then became the chairman of GOPAC, a political action committee originally founded by former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.), aimed at "preparing a new generation of Americans to lead our country." In 2008 he announced his candidacy for the RNC chairmanship, which he would win by a final vote of 91 to 77 over Katon Dawson.

Media consultant and frequent CNN contributor Goldie Taylor will also present during the morning session. Taylor is managing director of Goldie Taylor Brand Communications, a New York based media consultancy. A veteran journalist, political strategist and author, Taylor started her career over 24 years ago as an active duty Marine. While enlisted, she trained as a military affairs spokesperson and broadcast journalist. Following her enlistment, she became a staff writer at the Atlanta Journal Constitution. Taylor is a former producer and general assignment reporter at WAGA CBS (Now Fox5) Atlanta and political analyst at WXIA 11 Alive/NBC News. Taylor has also led public affairs, government relations and communications for companies such as The Home Depot, Procter & Gamble and Sara Lee Foods. Taylor studied political science and international affairs at Emory University and is well versed in key issues surrounding national public policy and politics, including cultural and racial issues.

Gill, based in Nashville, Tenn., is currently serving as a political commentator on Nashville television station News 2 WKRN, and his radio show, The Steve Gill Show, is broadcast from his flagship station 1510 am WLAC to stations across the state of Tennessee and on approximately 40 stations around the country via syndication through Radio America. Business Tennessee magazine has repeatedly ranked him among the 50 most powerful people in Tennessee and Talkers Magazine regularly recognizes hIm as one of the most influential talk show hosts in the country. Gill is a former White House Fellow, U.S. international trade official, attorney, college professor and international businessman. He played basketball at the University of Tennessee, where he earned an undergraduate degree and his law degree. Gill has received numerous Achievement in Radio Awards and has twice received recognition as a Hero of the Taxpayer for Americans for Tex Reform for his leadership in opposing a state income tax in Tennessee. He makes frequent appearances as a political commentator on Fox News, CNN, MSNBC and other media outlets around the world.

Hubbard serves as professor of history , Lincoln historian and director of the Abraham Lincoln Institute for the Study of Leadership and Public Policy at Lincoln Memorial University. Hubbard has previously served as director of the Abraham Lincoln Library and Museum and vice president for Lincoln studies at LMU. A noted Lincoln expert, Hubbard was awarded a special Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial edition of The Order of Lincoln, the highest honor bestowed by the State of Illinois, in 2009. He was honored for his lifetime of work in the field of Lincolniana which includes five books. Hubbard has also been awarded LMU’s highest honor, the Lincoln Diploma of Honor. Hubbard us a Senior Fulbright Specialist and has received several grants for research and study abroad, including the Philippines and Malaysia. He has also represented the U.S. State Department in speaking engagements at several international Universities.

Siegfried Wiessner is a professor of Law at St. Thomas University School of Law and the founder and director of its LL.M. and J.S.D. programs in Intercultural Human Rights. He is editor-in-chief of Martinus Nijhoff's Studies in Intercultural Human Rights. Wiessner teaches U.S. Constitutional Law and International Law. He has published widely in the fields of constitutional law, international law, human rights, international indigenous law, the law of armed conflict, arbitration, space law and refugee law. Wiessner holds a law degree as well as a Dr. iur. from the University of Tubingen and an LL.M. from Yale. In fall 2009, he was a Fernand Braudel Senior Fellow at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy. He served as a member of the Executive Council of the American Society of International Law from 2007-2010. Since 2008, Wiessner has served as the chair of the International Law Association's Committee on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, tasked with writing an authoritative commentary on the 2007 United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Helen Elaine Lee is associate professor of fiction writing in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Writing and Humanistic Studies program and writer-in-residence with the Solstice Low-Residency MFA program at Pine Manor. She was educated at Harvard College and Harvard Law School. Lee’s first novel, The Serpent’s Gift, was published by Athenaeum in 1994 and her second novel, Water Marked, was published by Scribner in 1999. She recently finished Life Without, a novel about the lives of 10 people incarcerated in two neighboring U.S. prisons and The Hard Loss, a novel about a DNA exoneree’s first week of freedom after 22 years of incarceration for a crime he did not commit.

Akram Faizer joined the LMU faculty as an Assistant Professor of Law in July 2011. Prior to joining the LMU faculty, Faizer was a practicing attorney in Buffalo, NY, where specialized in litigation at Hiscock & Barclay LLP, a New York law firm. As a litigator, Faizer focused his practice on real estate valuation litigation, with special emphasis on both eminent domain and tax assessment disputes. While practicing as an attorney, Faizer was the first person to be awarded the Hanna S. Cohn Young Lawyer Award by the New York State Bar Association for pro bono legal service to his community. Faizer holds both a Bachelor of Arts Degree in International Relations and a Bachelor of Science Degree in Physiology from Montreal, Canada’s McGill University. He graduated from the University of Notre Dame Law School in Notre Dame, Ind.