Laurel Asness has been active in many charitable endeavors including autism research, education, and many Nebraskan specific charities. Along with her husband Cliff, Managing Principal of AQR Capital Management, Laurel has helped advance think tanks focused on national security and education advocacy groups designed to help close Connecticut’s achievement gap.
 
Laurel previously worked in both the Asset Management and Fixed Income divisions at the global banking firm Goldman Sachs. She also worked at Christie’s, the fine arts auction house, in New York City.
 
She received her Bachelor of Arts from Boston University and Master of Social Work from New York University. Laurel currently resides in Greenwich, Connecticut with her husband and four young children. ________________________________

William J. Bennett is one of America’s most important, influential and respected voices on cultural, political, and education issues. A native of Brooklyn, New York, Bill Bennett studied philosophy at Williams College (B.A.) and the University of Texas (Ph.D.) and earned a law degree from Harvard. He is the Washington Fellow of the Claremont Institute and a Senior Advisor to Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Over the course of his professional life, in education, government and the private sector, Dr. Bennett has succeeded in a trifecta of American institutions.  He brings broad and deep experience achieved from a unique series of successes in several distinct fields:  He is an award-winning professor in academia, having taught at Boston University, the University of Texas and Harvard; he is a three-time confirmed executive in the Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush administrations including holding two cabinet-level positions, Secretary of Education under Ronald Reagan and the Nation’s first Drug Czar under the first President Bush; he is the author of 20 books, including two New York Times Number One best sellers and two of the most successful books of the 1990s; he is the co-founder and served as the first Chairman of  K12, Inc., a very successful online education company; and he is the host of the number seven ranked nationally syndicated radio show, Morning in America.

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Dr. Bruce Cole is the President and CEO of the American Revolution Center (ARC), the first national institution devoted to exploring the history and continuing impact of the American Revolution.  Before coming to ARC, Cole served as the Chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), where he managed a budget of $150 million and a staff of 170 and was responsible for awards totaling over $800 million dollars. Appointed by President George W. Bush and unanimously confirmed by the Senate in 2001 and again in 2005, Cole was the longest serving Chairman of the NEH. Under Cole’s leadership, the NEH launched key initiatives, including We the People, a program designed to encourage the teaching, study and understanding of American history and culture, and the Picturing America project, which uses great American art to teach our nation’s history and culture in 80,000 schools and public libraries nationwide. He also created the NEH’s Digital Humanities Initiative and Office which made the Endowment a national leader in this new frontier of humanities access and knowledge. Under his tenure partnerships were developed with several foreign countries, including Mexico and China.

Cole’s connection with the Endowment began when he received an NEH fellowship. He subsequently served as a panelist in NEH's peer review system, and then as a member for seven years of the National Council on the Humanities, the presidentially appointed and senate-confirmed 26-member NEH advisory board.  Cole came to the Endowment in December 2001, from Indiana University in Bloomington, where he was Distinguished Professor of Art History and Professor of Comparative Literature. In 2008, he received the President’s Medal from the University for “excellence in service, achievement and teaching.” In 2006, Governor Mitch Daniels awarded Cole the Sagamore of the Wabash, which recognizes individuals who have brought distinction to the state of Indiana.

Read More...The medal is one of the highest honors the President can confer upon a civilian, second only to the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Earlier in 2008, Cole was decorated Knight of the Grand Cross, the highest honor of the Republic of Italy.
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Anita B. McBride was appointed as Executive in Residence at the Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies at American University’s School of Public Affairs in April 2010.  Mrs. McBride was the committee chair for the “The Legacies of America’s First Ladies” conference held in March 2011, which examined both the powerful job and the women who, though unelected and unpaid, devoted themselves to it. “It’s a topic near and dear to my heart,” said Anita McBride.

From 2005 to 2009, she served as Assistant to President George W. Bush and Chief of Staff to First Lady Laura Bush. She was responsible for the First Lady’s policy, press, correspondence, scheduling and advance, speechwriting, and social offices and directed the staff’s work on the wide variety of issues in which Mrs. Bush was involved.  As a senior member of President Bush’s staff, Mrs. McBride was responsible for working with West Wing policy advisors to coordinate the First Lady’s efforts in support of specific presidential policies and initiative including global health and education and human rights.

Read More...Mrs. McBride was appointed to the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board by President George W. Bush in January 2009.
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Jeri Thompson is a stay at home mom, who in between car pools, play dates and classroom projects, provides commentary for a number of radio, TV and online outlets.  Topics often include policy and politics in the context of how such things affect moms and families.   She can frequently be seen on Fox News shows, including regular appearances on “Hannity.”  She served as a co-host on the “Fred Thompson Radio Show,” something that was unavoidable because, first, former Sen. Fred Thompson is her husband, and second, the show was broadcast from their home studio.

For many years, Jeri worked as a communications and political consultant in Washington, D.C. She worked at the Republican National Committee, the Republican Senatorial Conference, Burson-Marsteller and the law firm of Verner Liipfert. 

Jeri graduated with a degree in English literature from DePauw University in 1988.  She currently serves on the nominations board of the Susan B. Anthony List, and has been involved in a number of political and philanthropic fundraising efforts over the years. She and Fred live in the Washington, DC area, with their two children, Hayden and Sammy. 
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