General Tommy Franks was born in Wynnewood, Oklahoma, and grew up in Midland, Texas, where he graduated from Robert E. Lee High School, one year ahead of former First Lady Laura Bush. After two years at the University of Texas, he joined the United States Army and in 1967, as a distinguished graduate of the Artillery Officer Candidate School, he was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant and sent to Vietnam.

His service in Vietnam earned him six awards for valor and three Purple Hearts. That assignment was the start of a long and distinguished career that would take him from one world hot spot to another - from West Germany at the height of the Cold War to the Demilitarized Zone in Korea, to the deserts of Arabia – where he gained the knowledge and experience that would prepare him for the leadership role that would mark his place in the annals of American History.

Along the way, General Franks attended the University of Texas, Arlington, where he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, and Shippensburg University, where he graduated with a master’s degree in Public Administration. He is also a graduate of the Armed Forces Staff College and the Army War College.

In June 2000, he was promoted to four-star General and assigned as Commander-in-Chief, United States Central Command. It is in this position that the world knows Tommy Franks best - culminating an almost four-decade military career that saw him lead American and Coalition troops in two strategically unprecedented campaigns in two years - Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan and Operation Iraqi Freedom in Iraq.

The General's awards include five Distinguished Service Medals, four Legions of Merit, four Bronze Stars and three Purple Hearts, in addition to numerous foreign awards. He was appointed Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE) by order of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II on May 25, 2004. President George W. Bush awarded him the nation's highest civilian award, the Presidential Medal of Freedom on December 14, 2004.

General Franks has received honorary degrees from a number of universities including his alma mater, Shippensburg University and his wife's alma mater, Oklahoma State University.

Since his retirement from the military in 2003, General Franks has traveled the world speaking on leadership, character and the value of democracy. His autobiography, American Soldier, debuted as Number #1 on the New York Times Best Seller list in August 2004.

The General serves on the board of directors of Bank of America. He also sits on the boards of directors of the National Park Foundation and the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Foundation. He is an advisor to the Central Command Memorial Foundation and the Military Child Education Coalition, and is a spokesman for the Southeastern Guide Dogs Organization.

General Franks and his wife, Cathryn Carley Franks, have one daughter who is married to a military officer and three grandchildren. The Franks divide time between their home in Tampa, Florida, and their ranch in Roosevelt, Oklahoma.

President George W. Bush calls Franks, "a down to earth, no-nonsense guy." His troops call him, "a soldier's General," and his associates call him, "an astute businessman." His grandkids call him, "Pooh."

  John C. Goodman is NCPA president and CEO of the National Center for Policy Analysis.  The Wall Street Journal and the National Journal, among other publications, have called him the "Father of Health Savings Accounts," and the Media Research Center credits him, along with former Sen. Phil Gramm and columnist Bill Kristol with playing the pivotal role in the defeat of the Clinton Administration's plan to overhaul the U.S. health care system. 

Dr. Goodman's health policy blog is the only right-of-center health care blog on the Internet.  It is the only place where pro-free enterprise, private sector solutions to health care problems are routinely examined and debated by top health policy experts throughout the country-conservative, moderate and liberal.

Goodman regularly appears on television and radio news and talk programs and authors editorials on economic policy issues.  He regularly appears on the Fox News Channel, CNN and CNBC.  He's also appeared on the Lehrer News Hour (PBS) and was a debater on many of William F. Buckley's Firing Line programs.  Goodman also regularly contributes columns to The Wall Street Journal and other national publications.

 He is frequently invited to testify before Congress on health care reform and retirement topics and is the author of more than 50 published studies on topics such as health policy, retirement reform and tax issues and nine books, including Lives at Risk: Single Payer National Health Insurance Around the World; Leaving Women Behind: Modern Families, Outdated Laws; and the trailblazing Patient Power: Solving America's Health Care Crisis, the condensed version of which sold more than 300,000 copies.

A native of Waco, Texas, Goodman became interested in economics and classical liberal ideas while an undergraduate at the University of Texas at Austin, where he became vice president of the student body.  He is a crossword puzzle aficionado, and most days he is able to conquer the puzzles in The New York Times in ink.

Goodman received his Ph.D. in economics from Columbia University, and has taught and done research at Columbia, Stanford University, Dartmouth University, Southern Methodist University and the University of Dallas.

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Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee is the host of the number one rated weekend hit "HUCKABEE" on the Fox News Channel, and is heard three times daily across the nation on the "Huckabee Report" on the ABC Radio Network, the fastest growing new program on the ABC Radio Network in years.

He is the author of 6 books, the most recent being "Do the Right Thing," which spent its first 7 weeks of release in the top ten of the New York Times Bestseller list.

After his quest for the Republican nomination for President in 2008, in which he finished second to John McCain, he formed HuckPac to assist Republicans running for office nationwide and amassed a volunteer army of thousands of activists in all 50 states.

Huckabee first was elected lieutenant governor in a 1993 special election and was elected to a full four-year term in 1994. He was only the fourth Republican to be elected to statewide office since Reconstruction.

From 1996-2007, Huckabee served as the 44th Governor of Arkansas. He was one of the youngest governors in the country at the time. Huckabee was elected to a full four-year term as governor in 1998, attracting the largest percentage of the vote ever received by a Republican gubernatorial nominee in Arkansas, and was re-elected to another four-year term in November 2002.

A significant part of his early adult life was spent as a pastor and denominational leader. He became the youngest president ever of the Arkansas Baptist State Convention, the largest denomination in Arkansas. Huckabee led rapidly growing congregations in Pine Bluff and Texarkana. He said those experiences gave him a deep sense of the problems faced by individuals and families.

Huckabee, 53, is an avid musician and is bass player in his rock-n-roll band, Capitol Offense, which has opened for artists such as Willie Nelson and the Charlie Daniels Band, and has played the House of Blues in New Orleans, the Red Rocks Amphitheater in Denver, and for two presidential inauguration balls. He is featured each week in the musical segment of his Fox show with the Fox house band, "The Little Rockers."

The former governor and his wife, Janet, live in North Little Rock. They have three grown children: John Mark, David and Sarah.

Since becoming Oklahoma Christian University President in 2002, Dr. Mike O’Neal has implemented his vision for Oklahoma Christian University to be academically excellent and spiritually vibrant and to continue to prepare young people for effective service to God and to their fellow man.

Under O’Neal’s leadership -- with the support of a talented and dedicated staff and faculty -- Oklahoma Christian has reduced operating expenses, increased academic support, added 20 faculty, significantly increased the endowment, and set four consecutive undergraduate and graduate enrollment records. The University also launched and completed a comprehensive $34 million student residence building project, remodeled and expanded science lab facilities in Herold Science Hall and Vose Hall, and is completing a highly successful $60 million Higher Learning~Higher Calling fundraising campaign. The heart of the campus has been transformed with the development of the beautiful and functional Lawson Commons, Freede Centennial Tower and McGraw Pavilion.

Before joining Oklahoma Christian, O’Neal served Pepperdine University from 1976 to 2002 as general counsel and vice president for finance and administration and was named vice chancellor in 1991. O'Neal served on the faculty of Harding University from 1974 to 1976. As a CPA, he has also worked with the accounting firms of Coopers & Lybrand; Touche, Ross & Co; and Ernst & Ernst. O'Neal attended Oklahoma Christian from 1964 to 1966 before completing his degree in accounting and business at Harding University in 1968. He earned his juris doctorate from Stanford University in 1974.

Since moving back to Oklahoma, O’Neal has served on the board of the Last Frontier Council of the Boy Scouts and on the board of advisers of the Greater Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce. He is a member of the downtown Rotary Club 29 and currently serves on the United Way and Mercy Hospital boards. He is secretary/treasurer and a member of the board of directors of the Council for Christian Colleges & Universities.

O'Neal and his wife, Nancy, live in Oklahoma City. Their son, Michael, and daughter, Amanda, are OC alumni.

Michele Mary Smith is a two-time Olympic Softball Gold Medalist with the U.S. National Softball Team, having played in the 1996 and 2000 Summer Olympics. In 2006, she was inducted into the Amateur Softball Association of America (ASA) Softball Hall of Fame. She has played professionally in the Japanese Professional Softball League since 1992. She is a seven-time Japanese Pro League Champion and Most Valuable Player. Presently, she is playing for Toyota Shokki and serves as a softball analyst for ESPN. She continues to serve as Ambassador of Softball to bring softball back to the Olympic Games in 2016. Smith also served as an analyst for NBC sports coverage of softball at the 2008 Summer Olympics.

Smith attended Voorhees High School in Glen Gardner, New Jersey, where she set school records for wins, strikeouts and no hitters. Smith was inducted into the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association Hall of Fame in 1998.

Andrew Speno has been the main news anchor for Oklahoma City's Primetime News at Nine since March 2001. Andrew is the only main anchor in Oklahoma City who also reports almost every day, with a focus on political and investigative reporting. It keeps him in touch with the community he serves, Speno says. His work has won awards from the Associated Press, Society for Professional Journalists and Oklahoma Association of Broadcasters. He was also named to Oklahoma City's "40 Under 40" list as one of the most influential people younger than 40.

Andrew was a political science major at Illinois College, went to Law School at Northern Illinois University and conducted his graduate studies in Broadcast Journalism at Virginia Commonwealth University.

Andrew lives in Edmond with his wife, three kids and three dogs. He has been an active volunteer for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and United Way for five years. He also coaches his daughter's soccer team and attends Crossings Christian Church.

Senator Todd Lamb was elected to his first term in the Oklahoma Senate on November 2, 2004, by the voters of Senate District 47, which encompasses northwest Oklahoma City and portions of Edmond and Deer Creek. A few of the district’s landmarks are Oklahoma Christian, Mercy Hospital, Quail Springs Mall, Francis Tuttle Technology Center and the Baptist Retirement Village.

Senator Lamb and his wife Monica have been married 13 years and have two children, Griffin and Lauren. The Lambs are active members of Quail Springs Baptist Church, where Senator Lamb serves as a church deacon. They are also active in a number of civic and political organizations. Senator Lamb is a member of the Oklahoma Secondary Schools Athletic Association and officiates high school football. In his spare time, he enjoys fishing, hunting, reading, and spending time with his family.

Senator Lamb played college football at Louisiana Tech University and Oklahoma State University. He earned his Bachelor of Science degree from Oklahoma State, and his law degree from Oklahoma City University School of Law.

In 1993, Senator Lamb worked on the campaign staff of gubernatorial candidate Frank Keating. Upon Keating’s election, Lamb worked alongside the Governor for four years. During his time in the Governor’s office, Lamb traveled to all of Oklahoma’s 77 counties, almost half of the United States, and 2 foreign countries promoting Governor Keating’s pro-growth economic agenda. In 1998, Senator Lamb became a Special Agent with the United States Secret Service. He was elected president of his Secret Service Academy class and graduated with special recognition. During his Secret Service tenure, Lamb investigated and made numerous arrests in the areas of counterfeiting, bank fraud, threats against the President and identity theft. His duties included domestic and international protection assignments during the Clinton and George W. Bush administrations. In 2000, Lamb was a site supervisor for George W. Bush’s presidential campaign. In early 2001, he was appointed to the national Joint Terrorism Task Force, where he received training and briefings at the CIA, FBI and Secret Service headquarters in Washington, D.C. After the terrorists’ attacks, he was assigned to portions of the 9-11 investigation.

Senator Lamb departed the U.S. Secret Service in 2002 in order to spend more time with his wife and young family. Upon leaving, he accepted a position on the staff of United States Senator Don Nickles.

Senator Lamb is currently General Counsel for the CLS Group in Edmond, Oklahoma.

Dr. Nathan B. Mellor is the Vice President of Community Engagement for Oklahoma Christian University as well as Assistant Professor of Leadership in the School of Business Administration where he teaches courses in ethics, law and leadership at the undergraduate and graduate levels. Formerlyf an adjunct professor at the Pepperdine University School of Law, Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution, Malibu, California, Mellor is also a summer fellow at the Vanderbilt Peabody College of Education & Human Development, Nashville, Tennessee.

Mellor holds the Bachelor of Arts (1995) and Master of Education (1997) degrees from Harding University, Master of Dispute Resolution (2005) degree from Pepperdine University School of Law and Doctor of Education in Organizational Leadership from Pepperdine University (2007).

Prior to joining the faculty of OC, Mellor was the assistant director of the prestigious Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution at the Pepperdine University School of Law. The Straus Institute is currently ranked by U.S. News and World Report as the number one dispute resolution program in America. He has also participated in non-academic training programs in managing workplace dispute at the Program on Negotiation at the Harvard School of Law.

While a student at Harding University, Mellor was named among the Who’s Who in American Colleges and Universities, played intercollegiate football and was voted Student Body President. Upon graduation, he was selected as the graduate assistant to the President of the University. Following the completion of his first graduate degree, he was hired by Harding to help establish the Institute for Church and Family.

As a student at Pepperdine University, Mellor was selected as a Fellow at the Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution and was named a Colleague by the Graduate School of Education and Psychology. Nathan and his wife Christie have two daughters.

Barbara Bailey Kennelly served as a Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives from Connecticut for 17 years.

Kennelly was born in Hartford, Connecticut, the daughter of long-time Democratic Party leader John M. Bailey. She graduated from Trinity Washington University in 1958 and received a master's degree from Trinity College in 1971. She was married to the late James J. Kennelly, an attorney who served as a Connecticut State Representative and Speaker of the Connecticut House of Representatives. She has three daughters, one son, and nine grandchildren.

In 1975, Kennelly was elected to the Hartford City Council, where she was a member until 1979. She served as the Secretary of the State of Connecticut from 1979 until 1982.

Kennelly was elected to Congress in a special election to fill the vacancy caused by the death of William R. Cotter. She represented Connecticut's First Congressional District in the United States House of Representatives from January 12, 1982 until January 3, 1999. She did not seek re-election in 1998, running instead for governor of Connecticut against Republican incumbent John G. Rowland, to whom she lost.

Since 2002, she has served as President of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare.

In 2000, President Bill Clinton appointed Dr. Thomas R. Saving as a Public Trustee of the Social Security and Medicare Trust Funds. On May 2, 2001, President Bush named Saving to the bipartisan President's Commission to Strengthen Social Security. On April 19, 2006, President Bush appointed Saving for a second term as a Public Trustee of the Social Security and Medicare Trust Funds. He is also an National Center for Policty Analysis (NCPA) senior fellow and the Director of the Private Enterprise Research Center at Texas A&M University.

His current research emphasis is on the benefit of markets in solving the pressing issues in health care and social security. He is the co-editor of Medicare Reform: Issues and Answers, University of Chicago Press, 1999 and the co-author of The Economics of Medicare Reform, W. E. Upjohn Institute, 2000, in addition to many articles in professional journals and two influential books on monetary theory.

Saving's research has covered the areas of antitrust economics, monetary economics, health economics, the theory of the banking firm, and the general theory of the firm and markets. He has served as a referee or as a member of the editorial board of the major United States economics journals and is currently co-editor of Economic Inquiry.

Saving received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago and served on the faculty at the University of Washington, Seattle and Michigan State University before moving to Texas A&M University in 1968. A University Distinguished Professor of Economics at Texas A&M, he also holds the Jeff Montgomery Professorship in Economics.

Saving has been elected to the post of President of the Western Economics Association, President of the Southern Economics Association and President of the Association of Private Enterprise Education.

Peter Harbage, a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress Action Fund and President of Harbage Consulting, has more than a decade of experience working to improve health policy at the federal, state and local level. He teaches on the American healthcare system at the University of Southern California’s School of Policy, Planning and Development and is a frequent contributor to UCS’s Annenberg School for Communication Health Journalism Fellowship program.

Working almost exclusively with government agencies and nonprofit foundations, Harbage has published extensively through his national research practice on health reform concepts and the public financing of health care. His clients include the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, The Commonwealth Fund, and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation. His work also focuses on coalition building to find solutions to the pressing challenges facing health care systems in America.

Harbage has also been involved in crafting several major comprehensive health reform proposals. From 2003 to 2008, Harbage served as the senior health policy advisor to presidential candidate and former Senator John Edwards. In 2007, he worked extensively with Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s health care reform team in California.

Harbage served as an Assistant Secretary for Health at the California Health and Human Services Agency under Governor Gray Davis. He also served as a Special Assistant to the Administrator of the federal Health Care Financing Administration under the Clinton Administration. His first health policy experience was as an intern on The White House Health Care Task Force in 1993.

Harbage’s expertise and insight makes him a frequent source for reporters. He has appeared on CNN and NPR, and has been cited in the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, the San Francisco Chronicle and the Sacramento Bee. He is a frequent opinion writer.

Harbage graduated Phi Beta Kappa with High Honors from the University of Michigan, where he also earned a graduate degree in public policy.

Michael Whalen developed, owns and operates 22 restaurants and hotels in seven metropolitan areas of five Midwestern states.

The 14 restaurants were built around varying concepts with The Machine Shed Restaurants as the flagship. The original 100-seats blossomed into the second highest volume restaurant in the state, second only to his other Machine Shed Restaurant.

Mike was the Republican candidate for Congress in Iowa's 1 st Congressional district in 2006. Prior to that campaign, Mike was a board member of the National Center for Policy Analysis and the Iowa state leader of the NCPA's "Team NCPA" Social Security education effort. In this role he traveled the state and region speaking to community groups about the need for fundamental Social Security reform.

Mike is involved in several commercial real estate developments in addition to his operating entities and he has a long history of community service and distinguished awards:

• Business Hall of Fame Laureate, Quad City IA
• Iowa Hospitality Award, Iowa Division of Tourism
• Restaurateur of the Year, Iowa Hospitality Association
• U.S. Small Business Administration's Entrepreneurial Success Award
• Entrepreneur of the Year, Inc. Magazine
• Board of Directors: various Chambers of Commerce, Convention and Visitor's Bureaus, River Action, Inc.
• Founder, Wildwood Hills Ranch, a 400-acre nonprofit camp for at-risk youth, St. Charles , IA
• Founder, KZZQ/99.5 FM Contemporary Christian Radio station, Des Moines , IA
• President (Past) Iowa Hospitality Association
• President (Past) Iowa Young Presidents' Organization
• Honorary Master Pork Producer, Iowa Pork Producers

An honors graduate of the University of Illinois and Harvard Law School , Whalen and wife, Kim have two children, Christopher and Katie, and reside in Bettendorf , IA.

Dr. Clifton Hooser, M.D. is the current Medical Director of Medical Students and Assistant Professor at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, in Dallas, TX. He is a member of the Expert Physician Panel of the Texas Medical Board and the Board of Directors of the M.R. and Evelyn Hudson Foundation. From 1977 to 2001, he served as the Chairman of the Medical Isotope & Radiation Safety Committee as well as the Medical Supervisor of Nuclear Medicine, Ultrasound, and MRI Divisions at Saint Francis Hospital in Tulsa, OK. From 1990 to 2002, Hooser was a Clinical Professor of Radiology at the University of Oklahoma's Tulsa Medical College. His has also served as a member of the Board of Trustees of the Tulsa County Medical Society and the Oklahoma State Medical Association.  In 1999, he served as the President of the Tulsa County Medical Society, and the Co-Chairman of Oklahoma State Medical Association. In 1996, he was elected a Fellow of the American College of Radiology.

He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Zoology from the University of Texas at Austin, and obtained his M.D. degree from Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas.

Wallace Hooser was born and raised in Dallas. Hooser received his bachelor's degree from The University of Texas at Austin in 1967. Hooser graduated from the Baylor College of Medicine in 1971. After severing his internship at Tripler Army Medical Center in Hawaii and completing his military service, he was honorably discharged in 1973. He then did his residency in radiology at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School followed by a two year fellowship at the University of California at San Diego. He then began a private practice career at St. Francis Hospital in Tulsa, Oklahoma for the next 25 years. In 2003, he joined the faculty at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School in Dallas. Hooser is currently Medical Director for Medical Student Education in Radiology. He has been active in many areas relating to healthcare issues over the past 20 years.

Maj. Gen. Rita Aragon retired from the Air National Guard and the United States Air Force Dec. 31, 2007. She served command positions as a Services Flight Commander, Mission Support Squadron Commander, Logistics Squadron Commander, Aero Medical Evacuation Squadron Commander and Commander of the Oklahoma Air National Guard. She served as the Air National Guard assistant to the Secretary of the Air Force for Financial Management, Pentagon, Washington, DC, Air National Guard assistant to the Commander Air Education Training Command, Randolph Air Force Base, San Antonio, Texas, and completed her career as the Air National Guard assistant to the Deputy Chief of Staff for Manpower and Personnel, Pentagon, Washington, DC.

Aragon also served on the Air Force Personnel Board of Directors for personnel integration matters. Military Awards include: Air Force Distinguished Service Medal, Legion of Merit, Meritorious Service Medal with 2 devices, Air Force Commendation Medal, Army Commendation Medal, Air Force Achievement Medal, National Defense Service Medal and with 1 device, Global War on Terrorism Service medal, Humanitarian Service Medal, Small Arms Expert Marksmanship Ribbon with 1 device, Basic Military Training Honor Graduate Ribbon, and others.

She was a public school teacher, counselor, and principal for 24 years in Oklahoma City Public Schools. Aragon received the Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce Outstanding Educator for Oklahoma City, and Outstanding Principal of the year, president, Oklahoma City Principals Association.

Her Other awards and achievements include; Oklahoma Woman Veteran of the Year, Edmond Woman of the Year in Government, Red Lands Council Girl Scouts Woman of the Year, Oklahoma Hospitality Club Women in the News, Tulsa and Oklahoma City Women in Communications - By-liner Award, Diversity Journal's, 100 Women to Watch in America.

She serves on the Board of Governors for the Central Oklahoma American Red Cross, Board of Directors for Air National Guard "Starbase", Charter Member of Juliette Lowe Leadership Society for Redlands Council Girls Scouts, American Heart Association, Charter Member Women In Military Service for America Foundation, Board of Advisors for the Governor's Commission on the Status of Women in Oklahoma.

Aragon holds the distinction of becoming the first female to hold the rank of Brigadier General in Oklahoma National Guard and the first female commander of the Oklahoma Air National Guard in March 2003.

Her husband is J. Greg Aragon, business owner in Oklahoma City. She has six children, eleven grandchildren. Hobbies include golf, sewing, reading, but mostly playing with her grandchildren.

Born and reared in Duncan, Oklahoma, Jari Askins was sworn in as Oklahoma's 15th Lieutenant Governor in 2007, giving her the rare distinction of being involved in public service in all three branches of government.

After graduating from Duncan High School, Askins received a BA in Journalism from the University of Oklahoma and earned a Juris Doctorate from the OU College of Law. Askins served as Special District Judge for the District Court of Stephens County for eight years, from 1982-1990. In 1991, the Governor appointed her to the Pardon and Parole Board, which elected her as its first female Chairman. She later served as Executive Director of the Pardon and Parole Board and as Deputy General Counsel to the Governor. These experiences helped develop her expertise in criminal and juvenile justice issues.

Askins was elected to the Oklahoma House of Representatives in 1994 from District 50 (Stephens, Comanche and Cotton Counties) and served for twelve years. In her last term (2005-2006), she earned the position of Democratic House Leader, becoming the first woman to lead a caucus in the Oklahoma Legislature. She won statewide election as Lieutenant Governor in November 2006, becoming the first Democratic woman to attain that position. On January 8, 2007, Askins took the oath of office for a full four-year term.

Lieutenant Governor Askins has received numerous awards during her career in public service. Honors include “outstanding legislator” awards from more than two dozen organizations, the Oklahoma Wildlife Federation President's Award, the Oklahoma Commission on the Status of Women Kate Barnard Award, and the “Commitment to Excellence Award” from the Oklahoma Academy. She was inducted into the Oklahoma Women's Hall of Fame in 2001.

Askins is a Director of Arvest Bank in Duncan and a member of the Duncan Noon Lions Club, the Duncan Chamber of Commerce, Leadership Oklahoma, the Oklahoma Academy of State Goals, and the First Christian Church.

As Lieutenant Governor, Askins is President of the State Senate. She also serves on numerous boards and commissions and chairs the Oklahoma Tourism and Recreation Commission and the Oklahoma Film and Music Advisory Commission. The Lieutenant Governor is an advocate for children and for greater efficiency in government. Governor Brad Henry has appointed her “Oklahoma's Small Business Advocate,” tasked with providing assistance to small business owners throughout the state. She also participates in and promotes various economic development projects and supports legislation and innovative means of providing greater hope and opportunity for Oklahoma's citizens.

Jay T. Kimbrough currently serves as senior advisor to Governor Rick Perry and formerly served as the Governor's Chief of Staff.   He also served as Deputy Chancellor and General Counsel at Texas A&M University System, one of the largest systems of higher education in the nation.  From March to June of 2007, Kimbrough served as the Conservator to the Texas Youth Commission. 

Other offices he has held include Deputy First Assistant Attorney General and Director of the Office of Special Investigations, which conducts a wide array of criminal investigations on behalf of the state of Texas, and the Director of Homeland Security for the State of Texas.  Before being appointed to positions at the state level, Kimbrough served as Assistant District Attorney for the 156 th district of Texas, and then served as the county Judge in Bee County.

Kimbrough received a Bachelor of Business Administration from Southern Methodist University, and his Juris Doctorate from South Texas College of Law.  From 1966 to 1967, Kimbrough served in the Marine Corps in Vietnam.  From 1978 to 1982, he served in the Navy JAGC. His decorations include the National Defense Medal, Vietnam Service Medal, Vietnam Campaign Medal, Two Presidential Unit Citations, Vietnamese Unit Citation with Gallantry Cross, a Purple Heart and Rifle Sharpshooter.

Gordon Stables is the director of debate and forensics and a clinical assistant professor of communication at the Annenberg School for Communication.

His responsibilities include directing the Trojan Debate Squad (TDS), USC's nationally competitive debate program. The debate squad was USC's first chartered student organization and it has developed a tradition of excellence in intercollegiate competition. He oversees the development of squad argument culture, recruits both undergraduate and graduate students, manages the squad's travel and directs the squad's scholarship program. He is also heavily involved with USC's efforts to support urban debate league initiatives in Los Angeles.

He is an active member of the collegiate debate community and currently serves in a number of national leadership positions. He is the incoming president of the Cross-Examination Debate Association (CEDA) and the executive secretary of the National Debate Tournament. He is also the chair of CEDA's Topic Selection Committee, which is responsible for the development of the year-long annual intercollegiate debate topic. He is a co-chair of the upcoming Debate Summit and Development Conference hosted by Wake Forest University.

He teaches a variety of courses, including Public Deliberation, Argumentation and Advocacy, Political Communication, Communication as a Liberal Art and a graduate seminar in argumentation for the Public Diplomacy MA program. Gordon's teaching reflects his research interests; the study of argumentation and rhetoric in the context of significant public policy controversies, with an emphasis on military policy. Both his argumentation seminars for undergraduate students and Public Diplomacy MA students focus heavily on the challenges facing public deliberation of the War on Terror, the War in Iraq and Afghanistan. He is also committed to the use of new technologies to improve the classroom experience. The Public Diplomacy seminar, for example, utilizes PowerPoint, not traditional papers, as the primary course product. His recent political campaign course emphasized the role of technology in modern campaigns and required students to blog as part of their class participation.

Gordon also has an interest in international education. He teaches USC's International Communication Studies Program (ICS), which allows undergraduate students to meet with media, governmental and private organizations in London, Paris, Prague and Rome during a summer program. He also takes part in USC's international program planning as Annenberg's representative to the university off-campus (formerly overseas) study panel.

Originally from New Jersey, he and his wife Jennifer both received their Ph.D.s from the University of Georgia.

Baker is the Chief Executive Officer of the IMPACT Coalition and the Executive Director for the Associated Leaders on Urban Debate (ALOUD). ALOUD is a national initiative to make debate accessible to hundreds of thousands of students in low-income communities connecting groups using different strategies to build youth expression, including mediation, hip-hop, debate, reasoned discourse and town hall meetings. Baker is a past president of the Committee of Religious NGOs at the United Nations and served as a U.N. Representative for the International Association for Religious Freedom. He teaches argumentation at New York University in the Culture and Communication Department of the Steinhardt School of Education and coaches the NYU Debate team. In 2003, the team captured the National Championships making him the first African American director to win that title since Melvin B. Tolson of Wiley College in 1935. In 2005, he served President of the Cross Examination Debate Association (CEDA), the largest intercollegiate organization sponsoring policy debate. In 2008, he became the Vice President for High School Affairs for the American Forensics Association.

Baker held earlier positions as a Queens Assembly District Leader, Chief Management Officer for the Unitarian Universalist UN Office and Director of Rhetorical Scholarship Laboratories at Cornell University.

He was a finalist in the Ford Foundation Leadership for a Changing World competition. His past accolades include the 2003 National Speaker Association Pericles Award for Great Public Speaking, 1999 Don Brownlee Award as College Debate Coach of the Year, the 2005 Paul Slappy Award for fostering diversity and the 2004 Lucy Keele Award as Intercollegiate Debate Coach of the Year.

Danielle Verney O’Gorman is the Director of Debate and Adjunct Professor of Political Science at the U.S. Naval Academy. As a debater at The Catholic University of America, Verney reached elimination rounds at all three levels of competition. She was the assistant to the director and a lab instructor at the Capitol Classic Debate Institute in 2001 and 2002, and a lab instructor at the Liberty Debate Institute from 2006 to 2008. As Director of Debate, her teams have won several tournaments, including the novice divisions of West Point and Liberty. She received her law degree from The American University's Washington College of Law.

Moderator

Mike Gallagher is one of America's most entertaining conservatives, displaying a sense of humor and timing honed over three decades in the cauldron of local and national radio talk show experience. Mike continues to be a leading contributor to the top-rated FOX News Channel as well as a columnist at the leading conservative Web site Townhall.com. His weekly sparring with Chris Wallace of the FOX News Channel on his radio show is truly appointment radio. And listeners have shared the joys and sorrows of Mike's family life, including his late wife Denise's courageous public battle with cancer.

Mike Gallagher's road to being the 8th most listened-to radio talk show host in the country (Talkers Magazine) began in 1978 as a 17-year-old high school senior in Dayton, Ohio. Mike talked his way into an on-air shift at WAVI-AM in his Ohio hometown and has been talking on the radio and television ever since. Mike's broadcasting career has taken him from Dayton to WFBC-AM in Greenville, South Carolina (now WORD-AM), where his ratings and revenue success led to his eventual promotion to station manager. From there, he became the afternoon drive-time leader in Albany, New York, on upstate powerhouse WGY-AM.

From Albany, it was just a short drive south to the nation's number one market, New York City, where Mike enjoyed a two-year stint as morning drive host on WABC-AM, the nation's most listened-to talk radio station. In 1998, The Mike Gallagher Show was launched nationally with 12 radio stations. Today, Talkers Magazine reports that he's the eighth most listened-to talk radio host in America with more than 4 million weekly listeners. He's heard daily in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Detroit, Atlanta and Philadelphia as well as in small, medium and major markets all over the country. Mike has been featured in numerous magazines and newspapers, including the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Time and Forbes.

Besides his talk radio duties, Mike is equally comfortable in front of television cameras. He's a Fox News Channel Contributor making frequent appearances on Fox News Channel programs as well as occasionally guest hosting a talk show on the cable news giant. In addition to his busy broadcasting career, he's also added "author" to his resume. His book, "Surrounded by Idiots -- Fighting Liberal Lunacy in America", published by William Morrow, an imprint of Harper Collins, became a New York Times Bestseller.

Mike's proudest achievement is his family. On the morning of June 29, 2008, the love of his life, his wife Denise, died at home after a valiant and dignified year-long battle with endometrial cancer. She passed away the day before her 52nd birthday. Mike was holding her when she died, their four boys -- Bryan, Trevor, Matthew, and Micah -- all present as well, which is just how Denise wanted it. Two of the Gallagher sons live in South Carolina, and the other two live near Mike.

Now in Mike's 11th year of national syndication, the combination of solid conservative values, a fast-paced, fun delivery each day, and Mike's first-name basis relationship with leading newsmakers from coast-to-coast make The Mike Gallagher Show one of the most consistently popular programs on national radio today.

Sunday, July 12, 2009

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Friday, July 17, 2009