Hy Berman, Professor Emeriti in the Department of History at the University of Minnesota. Hy is a renowned author, speaker, and teacher. An historian of high repute, specializing in the history of American labor and immigration, Berman is best known on campus and throughout the state for his work in connecting these themes to ongoing life in Minnesota through presentations on radio and television. These presentations have made him arguably the University's leading "media star".

For most of his business career Ron Bosrock traveled extensively throughout the world. As Vice President of International for H.B. Fuller he negotiated one of the first successful joint ventures with China that led to the construction of a manufacturing plant in Guangdong Province in 1988. In 1998 he was appointed Professor of Management and the John Myers Chair in Management at Saint John’s University where he served until 2005. For 11 years, until Nov. 2010 he was the author of the column “The Global Executive” which appeared in the Minneapolis Star Tribune business section. He currently serves on a corporate board that frequently takes him to the Middle East.

Mick Caouette is a film writer, director and producer who has been producing non-fiction history films, most with social justice themes, since 1996. He spent nearly a decade making The Art of the Possible, a moving, no-holds-barred documentary about one of America's greatest legislators: Hubert H. Humphrey. He interviewed dozens of friends and colleagues to render a portrait of a public servant who is as inspirational today as he was when he served his community and his nation as mayor of Minneapolis, U.S. Senator, and Vice President of the United States. Mick has produced full length films and museum installations for the University of Minnesota and The Minnesota Historical Society. He created short pieces for presentations by Vice President Walter Mondale and President Bill Clinton

Arne Carlson was the 37th Governor of Minnesota, serving from 1990 to 1999. He retired as chair of Riversource (Columbia) Funds Board, but continues as Vice Chair of Rideau Recognition Board and as Secretary of the University of Minnesota Medical School Board of Advisors. He writes a regular political blog.

Dan Carr is President of The Collaborative. In addition to his efforts convening Minnesota's innovation economy and helping growing companies over the past 24 years with The Collaborative, he also has first-hand entrepreneurial experience as a co-founder of several businesses—including Law & Politics magazine, Minnesota Ventures Magazine and the Minnesota Environmental Initiative. Carr and The Collaborative are past recipients of the Tekne Award for Technology Leadership and the Entrepreneur of the Year Award for Supporter of Entrepreneurship. Carr also writes occasionally on entrepreneurship, innovation and the Minnesota economy.

Cheung Ho is president and CEO of the Metropolitan Economic Development Association (MEDA) and an advocate for Minnesota’s minority business owners and entrepreneurs. She emigrated from her native Hong Kong in 1972 to study business at the University of Minnesota, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in business administration in 1976. MEDA is a nonprofit organization offering services to Minnesota businesses owned and operated by minority businesspeople. Its services include help with loans and financing, training, and consulting. Cheung Ho has been credited with keeping MEDA financially stable in recent years despite declining funding from the government and the corporate sector.

Steven Clift - http://stevenclift.com - is the founder and Executive Director of E-Democracy.org. His organization connects thousands of Minnesotans (as well as a few communities in the UK and New Zealand) for online neighborly exchange and civic participation on dozens of Neighbors Issues Forums. Recognized as an innovator around the world since creating the world's first election information website in 1994, Steven has spoken across 30 countries from Iceland to Mongolia to Kenya. A social entrepreneurship Ashoka Fellow, he attended the Hubert H. Humphrey Institute 20 years ago after a stint working in the Minnesota Senate and serving as state chair of the Minnesota Young DFL. Connect with Steven Clift via Twitter @democracy as well.

Governor Mark Dayton is Minnesota's 40th Governor. For most of the past 34 years, Mark has served Minnesotans, as Commissioner of the Minnesota Departments of Economic Development and of Energy and Economic Development, as State Auditor, and as United States Senator. He has worked throughout our state to help businesses locate or expand and create jobs, to improve local government services, to better fund our public schools, to support our servicemen and women, to help Minnesotans get the health care they need, and in many other ways to make a better Minnesota. Currently, Mark serves on the Executive Committee of the National Governor's Association.

Albert Eisele is editor-at-large of The Hill, a non-partisan newspaper covering Congress and politics, which he helped start in 1994. He was nominated three times for a Pulitzer Prize before stepping down as editor in 2005. Since then, he has made two reporting trips to Iraq as well as to Kazakhstan, Cuba, Germany, France and Japan. In 2007, he was Distinguished Visiting Professor at the University of Oklahoma’s Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication, and Public Policy Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C. In 2008, he was the first Resident Scholar of the Eugene McCarthy Center for Public Policy at Saint John’s University in Collegeville, Minnesota.

A Washington correspondent for the St. Paul Dispatch & Pioneer Press and Knight-Ridder Newspapers from 1965-76, he was press secretary to Vice President Walter Mondale from 1977-81. In 1982, he was a Fellow of the Institute of Politics at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard.

He is the author of an acclaimed dual biography of Eugene McCarthy and Hubert Humphrey, which he is revising and updating for publication in 2011.

Representative Keith Ellison has represented the Fifth Congressional District of Minnesota in the U.S. House of Representatives since taking office on January 4, 2007. The Fifth Congressional District is the most vibrant and ethnically diverse district in Minnesota with a rich history and traditions. The Fifth District includes the City of Minneapolis and the surrounding suburbs. Keith's philosophy is one of "generosity and inclusiveness." His roots as a community activist and his message of inclusivity through democratic participation resonates throughout the Fifth District. His priorities in Congress are: promoting peace, prosperity for working families, environmental sustainability, and civil and human rights. Keith is a member of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party (DFL). He previously served two terms representing Legislative District 58B in the Minnesota State House of Representatives, from 2003 to 2007.

Matt Entenza is the Founder and Board Chair of Minnesota 2020 a public policy think tank based in St. Paul, Minnesota. He is a Senior Policy Fellow of the Center for American Progress in Washington, D.C. and on the National Advisory Board of the New America Foundation in Washington, D.C. Mr. Entenza has had a long career as a non-profit attorney. He has been an Assistant Minnesota Attorney General specializing in non-profit litigation; a white-collar crime prosecutor specializing in non-profits; and a private practice attorney working with non-profits in crisis. He also worked for the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division. Entenza was the Democratic Leader of the Minnesota State House of Representatives. He specialized in civil/human rights, non-profit and education issues.

David Erickson is Director of E-Strategy, Tunheim Partners’ internet marketing practice. David has been marketing online since 1995, first as a freelancer, and then in 1997 as the founder and president of e-Strategy. For the next 10 years, David had a close partnership with New School Communications, during which time he conceived and executed countless strategic Internet marketing plans on behalf of his and New School's public relations and public affairs clients. David joined Tunheim Partners as part of the New School Communications acquisition. Erickson is a student of how people use technology to communicate, and that fascination informs his work. He is a "first adopter" of the latest technologies because he wants to understand how they can be used as marketing tools.

Arvonne's first job out of college was as receptionist/secretary in the 1948 Humphrey for U.S. Senate campaign where she also met Don Fraser, her husband, and began her career in politics and government. Some three decades later she came full circle joining the Humphrey School of Public Affairs as one of its first senior fellows. Active in the women’s movement in Washington, and on Capitol Hill as her husband’s unpaid administrative aide, she served in the Carter and Clinton administrations as director of Women in Development at USAID and as U.S. Ambassador to the UN Commission on the Status of Women. The rest of her story is in her latest book: “She’s No Lady: Politics, Family and International Feminism.”

For more than 35 years, Don Fraser served as a member of the Minnesota State Senate, the U.S. House of Representatives, and as Mayor of Minneapolis. Born in Minneapolis, Fraser was educated in the public school system and later at the University of Minnesota and the University of Minnesota Law School. Today, Fraser works with the Committee of the Achievement Gap, a project of the DFL Education Foundation, which was organized to study the educational achievement gap experienced by children from high-poverty areas, with a focus on the Twin Cities metropolitan area.

Mike Freeman is presently serving his fourth term as the elected Hennepin County Attorney. He previously served eight years in the Minnesota Senate. He was honored to serve as then Senator Hubert H. Humphrey's Page in the United States Senate during the summers of 1964 and 1965.

Jessica Hayssen is the Field Director at the Minnesota AFL-CIO and supports the work of area labor councils in Greater MN and the Minnesota Young Worker Program. She holds a Masters Degree in Advocacy and Political Leadership from U of MN Duluth. She is on the national AFL-CIO Young Worker Advisory Council which is developing resources to engage and connect young workers throughout the country.

Tom Horner is a long-time public affairs and communications professional. In 1989, he co-founded Himle Horner and was a principal in the firm until 2010 when he became a candidate for governor of Minnesota. Earlier in his career, Horner served as chief of staff to former Minnesota Senator Dave Durenberger. Horner and his wife Libby met in Washington where she served as a staff assistant to Sens. Muriel and Hubert Humphrey. Horner currently consults on public affairs and communications, is an adjunct professor at the University of St. Thomas and is involved in several non-profit organizations. He also is a frequent speaker and commentator on public policy. Horner is a Minnesota native. He and Libby have three adult children.

Former Attorney General for Minnesota and long-time civic leader, Humphrey currently provides strategic public affairs counsel to a variety of business, nonprofit and government clients at Tunheim Partners. He continues intense involvement in both public and private community sectors, serving as a Senior Fellow at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health, Division of Epidemiology, on the national board of AARP, and as a board of director for Shattuck-St. Mary’s Schools. He is also a consultant (ACE Panel Member) to Tunheim Partners. Humphrey was elected Minnesota Attorney General in 1982 and served four consecutive terms. He was elected National Association of Attorneys General President and has been recognized nationally for his accomplishments as an anti-crime activist, watchdog for taxpayers interests, childrens advocate, environmental leader, and consumer protector. Humphrey has received many public and private awards during his career, especially in the areas of child protection, consumer rights and drug policy initiatives.

Steve Hunegs was named Executive Director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas (JCRC) in November of 2006. Hunegs has a long association with the JCRC. He served on the Board of Directors from 1993 to 2002 and served as Board President from 1998 to 2000.

He also served as vice president of the Minneapolis Jewish Federation in 2004-2005 and volunteered with Jewish Family & Children’s Services Citizens Advocacy Project. Before becoming JCRC’s Executive Director, Hunegs was an attorney with Hunegs, Stone, LeNeave, Kvas & Thornton, P.A. since 1996.

Before that, he was with the Minnesota Office of the Attorney General in the Consumer Division where he litigated consumer protection cases. He organized the Minnesota Older Consumers Anti-Fraud campaign with AARP and the Minnesota Crime Prevention Officers Association.

Steve Hunter is the secretary/treasurer of the Minnesota AFL-CIO. Previously, he served as the political action director in Minnesota for the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees. Hunter graduated from the University of Minnesota in 1973 and served on the Board of Regents of the University from 2005 to 2011. He has also served on other governing boards including the American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota, Transit for Livable Communities, the Twin City Area Labor Management Council, the Resource Center of the Americas and the Community Solutions Fund.

Barbara Johnson was first elected to the Minneapolis City Council in 1997 to represent the Fourth Ward in the northwest corner of Minneapolis. She has served as President of the Minneapolis City Council since January of 2006. Council President Johnson serves on the Public Safety & Health, Executive and Zoning & Planning committees of the City Council. She also serves on the Board of Estimate and Taxation, MEET Minneapolis, the Riverfront Development Corporation and Hennepin County’s Task Force on Teen Pregnancy.

In 2006, Amy Klobuchar became the first woman elected to represent the State of Minnesota in the United States Senate. Throughout her public service - both as chief prosecutor in the state's largest county and now as a U.S. Senator - Amy has always embraced the values she learned growing up in Minnesota. Since arriving in the Senate, Amy has been a strong advocate for middle-class families and Minnesota values on the critical issues facing our nation, from promoting long-term economic growth and job creation to bringing fiscal responsibility and accountability to Washington, from supporting our Minnesota businesses, workers, and farmers to developing homegrown energy.

Rick Krueger served in the legislature from 1983 – 1994 from Staples (rural district between Brainerd and Alexandria). There he was in several leadership positions including Speaker Pro Tempore and Chair of State Government Finance. His legislative interests included social justice, economic development and innovations to improve the delivery of government services such as Performance Based Budgeting and information technology. Previously Rick has also served in many capacities for private profit companies and nonprofit organizations (Minnesota High Tech Association and the Transportation Alliance) and education (Lakeville and Staples) entities. He also has served on the Science Museum, MHTA and UST’s School of Engineering Boards.

D. J. Leary, now retired, was one of the founding co-editors of the original POLITICS IN MINNESOTA newsletter, that was published for almost a quarter of a century starting in 1982. Prior to writing about politics, Leary was a professional political media consultant whose media work included the Humphrey presidential campaigns in 1968 and 1972 and Humphrey Senate campaigns in 1970 and 1976. His public affairs business represented major business clients throughout the United States. In retirement, he continues to serve as Vice President of the Board of Directors of the Minnesota State Fair. It’s a post he has held for the past 10 years, labeling it as the best job he ever had.

Betty McCollum is a Democrat serving her sixth term in the United States Congress, representing the families of Minnesota’s Fourth District. In 2000, Congresswoman McCollum made history as only the second Minnesota woman elected to serve in Congress since statehood in 1858. In the U.S. House of Representatives, she serves the residents of Minnesota's capital city, St. Paul, as well as Ramsey County, northern Dakota County and western Washington County. In the 112th Congress, Congresswoman McCollum brings a common sense, Minnesota perspective to her work on the House Appropriations and Budget Committees.

Walter Mondale served as a Senator from Minnesota and Vice President of the United States. He practiced law in Minneapolis and was appointed and elected attorney general of Minnesota in 1960 and reelected in 1962. On December 30, 1964, he was appointed as a Democrat to the United States Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Hubert H. Humphrey for the term ending January 3, 1967. He was elected in 1966, reelected in 1972 and served from December 30, 1964, until his resignation December 30, 1976. In 1976 he was elected Vice President of the United States on the Democratic ticket with President Jimmy Carter and served until January 20, 1981. He was the Democratic nominee for President of the United States in 1984 and served as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Japan, 1993-1996.

Alberto Monserrate moved from San Juan, Puerto Rico to Minnesota in 1984 to pursue a degree from the University of Minnesota. A professional background added experience in management, accounting, financial planning, investment advising, and marketing and community relations to emerging markets, and helped prepare Monserrate for his role as an entrepreneur. As the Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of the Latino Communications Network (LCN) since 2000, Monserrate is recognized as the leading authority on Latino media in Minnesota. Alberto is recognized locally as an authority on marketing to the Latino community, and he is frequently quoted in the Star Tribune, Pioneer Press, Minnesota Public Radio and Minnesota Business publications. Alberto served as State Chair of the Minnesota Young DFL, as a member of the DFL State executive committee, and co-chaired DFL Senate District conventions in the 1990’s.

Jack Ohman has been the editorial cartoonist for The Oregonian since 1983. His cartoons are syndicated to 300 newspapers across the U.S. by Tribune Media Services. He is the author of eight books. Jack has won the 2002 National Headliner Award for editorial cartooning, and the 1995 Thomas Nast Award from the Overseas Press Club. Jack has a B.A. in History from the University Honors Program at Portland State University.

Todd Otis, has been with Ready 4 K since 2001. He is a former member of the Minnesota House of Representatives where he served from 1979 to 1990. He focused on energy education, and chaired the House Economic Development Committee from 1987 to 1990. He served as DFL Party chair from 1990 to 1993 and then did public affairs consulting from 1995 to 2001, focusing on early childhood and environmental issues. He has served on the Board of Directors of a number of Minnesota-based organizations.

Vance Opperman is President and Chief Executive Officer of Key Investment, Inc., a private investment company involved in publishing and other activities. Previously, Opperman was President of West Publishing Company, an information provider of legal and business research now owned by Thomson Reuters. In addition to serving on the board of TCF Financial Corporation, he is on the boards of several educational and not-for-profit organizations. He has a law degree from the University of Minnesota and practiced law for many years.

Al Quie was Governor of Minnesota from 1978 to 1982. Married to Gretchen, an artist -- 5 children, 14 grandchildren, 8 great grandchildren, farmer in Rice County, Navy pilot WWII, St. Olaf College graduate, Conservative State Senator, Republican US Congressman, Minnesota Republican Governor, helped produce "A Nation at Risk", President of Prison Fellowship Ministries, rode horseback from Canada to Mexico along the Continental Divide through Montana, Wyoming, Colorado and New Mexico, wrote "Riding the Divide", Chair of Citizen's Commission for the Preservation of an Impartial Judiciary, on the Boards of "Coalition for an Impartial Judiciary" and Ready 4 K.

R.T. Rybak was first elected Mayor of Minneapolis in 2001 in his first run for public office and was overwhelmingly re-elected in 2005 to serve another term for the people of Minneapolis. Mayor Rybak took office facing a post-9/11 budget crisis and deep state and federal budget cuts. He responded by implementing innovative fiscal reforms that saved taxpayers millions by reducing $80 million of inherited debt, reigning in government spending and producing six balanced budgets in four years. Mayor Rybak is now leading efforts to revitalize north Minneapolis, attack juvenile crime, make Minneapolis a wireless city, end homelessness in ten years, and significantly reduce the City’s energy consumption to combat global climate change.

Charles Samuelson was born near Buffalo, New York and attended Hamburg High School. He graduated from Syracuse University with a B.A. in Medieval History and a minor in political science. He studied at Freiburg University in Germany and pursued a doctorate in Medieval History at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He moved to the Twin Cities in 1977 and has pursued a career in the non-profit sector for the past 25 years.

Norman Sherman became a DFL campaign worker in 1954 and, at various times, worked on the staffs of Orville Freeman, Karl Rolvaag, Don Fraser, Eugene McCarthy, and Hubert Humphrey. He was press secretary to Vice President Humphrey and later edited Humphrey's autobiography, "The Education of a Public Man." Since leaving political staff work, he has written on a freelance basis speeches, articles, and books for Senators, Congressmen, and business executives.

Dane Smith is a former 30-year journalist for the Star Tribune and the Pioneer Press, where he developed a solid reputation reporting and writing about state, local and federal government and politics. Tax fairness and the issues surrounding government's proper role in society were among Dane’s favorite issues as a reporter, and he has particular expertise in these areas. He understands the importance of smart public-sector investment that can help all Minnesotans improve their lives and strengthen the state’s economy.

He is a former state chairperson of the Minnesota DFL party and served on Bill Clinton's Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS from 1995 to 1999. He chairs the GLBT caucus of the Democratic National Committee. Rick was elected to the Minnesota AIDS Project Board in February 2009.

Lori Sturdevant writes editorials and a weekly column about topics she has covered for more than 30 years, state government and politics. She joined the Minneapolis Tribune as a summer replacement reporter in 1975, returned as a reporter in 1976, and was lead Capitol reporter and a newsroom assignment editor before joining the editorial staff in 1992. A native of South Dakota, Lori is a graduate of Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa and a member of that institution’s Board of Trustees. She has been the editor or co-author of six books, including “A Man’s Reach: The Autobiography of Elmer L. Andersen.” She lives in Minneapolis with her husband; they have three grown children.

Louise Sundin is executive vice president of the Minneapolis Regional Labor Federation, AFL-CIO, representing more than 80,000 organized workers in the nine-county west metropolitan area. Sundin also serves on the Minnesota Board of School Administrators and is on the board of the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education in Washington, D.C. A career ninth-grade English teacher in Minneapolis, Sundin served 25 years as a national vice president of the American Federation of Teachers and 22 years as president of the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers Local 59. Sundin was appointed to the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities Board of Trustees in 2008 for a six year term expiring in 2014.

Tom Tipton’s remarkable experiences speak for themselves... successful business man, winning athlete, trusted friend of historic figures such as Hubert Humphrey and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., social activist, guest soloist for Chuck Colson Prison Fellowship and Billy Graham Washington D.C. Crusade and 25 years as a powerful singer for Robert Schuller’s ministry. Tom’s ministry includes speaking engagements, church worship services and concerts, musical performances at social and sporting events, including singing at the 2005 Humphrey Dinner before over 2,000 guests, including keynote speaker Sen. Hilary Rodham Clinton.

Judge John R. Tunheim was born in Thief River Falls, Minnesota, and raised in Newfolden, Minnesota. He graduated from Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota in 1975 and served as a staff assistant to U.S. Senator Hubert H. Humphrey. In 1980, he graduated from the University of Minnesota Law

School where he served as President of the Minnesota Law Review. Judge Tunheim served one year as a law clerk to Senior U.S. District Judge Earl Larson and worked in private practice at the St. Paul law firm of Oppenheimer, Wolff and Donnelly. In 1986, after serving for two years as the state's Solicitor General, he was appointed Minnesota Chief Deputy Attorney General by Attorney General Skip Humphrey and served until his appointment to the federal bench on December 29, 1995. He also was appointed by President Clinton and served as the Chair of the U.S. Assassination Records Review Board, an independent federal agency in charge of declassifying the government records of the Kennedy assassination, from 1994-1998

As principal and CEO of Tunheim Partners, Kathy Tunheim oversees strategic planning for clients and is actively involved in client service and counseling. Under her leadership, Tunheim Partners has grown to be one of Minnesota’s largest public relations agencies. Kathy also serves as Global President of IPREX, a worldwide network of leading independent public relations firms in major markets throughout the world. Prior to starting Tunheim Partners, Kathy held various leadership positions with Honeywell and NCR, as well as serving as assistant press secretary to Wendell Anderson during his terms as governor of Minnesota and his term as U.S. Senator from Minnesota. In 2011, Kathy returned to public service in the form of a volunteer part-time appointment as a Senior Advisor to Minnesota’s Governor, focused on economic and job growth. Upon acceptance of this appointment, she ended a long career of significant non-profit board governance.

Ruth Usem of Minneapolis is a philanthropist and civic leader. She serves on the boards of directors of several local and national organizations, including Ready for "K", WomenWinning, Save America's Treasurers, and People for the American Way. She also served on the Minneapolis Central Library Campaign Committee. She was a producer for the documentary "Mondale", the story of vice president Walter Mondale's service to our nation.

Rick Varco began his political career at the age of 15 when he appeared in a campaign commercial for Walter Mondale's 1984 Presidential campaign. After studying philosophy and other financial rewarding topics at the University of Chicago (B.A.) and Emory University (M.A.), he returned to the Twin Cities in 2000 and worked as a Field Organizer on both the Janezich and Dayton U.S. Senate campaigns. Since 2002, he has been the Political Director of SEIU Healthcare Minnesota which represents 15,000 hospital, clinic, and nursing home workers. He is also the Treasurer of the Senate District 64 DFL.