Jacqueline Glover is executive director of Harvard’s Black Film Project. The newly created initiative founded by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. will support leading and emerging filmmakers focusing on the Black experience. Glover was the former Head of Documentary Programming for Onyx Collective, a new brand for Disney, where she worked with Onyx Collective’s roster of

Betsy West is an Academy Award®-nominated Emmy winning director/producer of RBG, along with Julie Cohen. Most recently, she and Cohen were the executive producers of FRIDA, which won the editing prize in 2024 at Sundance and premiered on Amazon this March. They previously directed GABBY GIFFORDS WON’T BACK DOWN, available on streaming platforms. Their documentary JULIA was shortlisted for an Oscar in

David G. Gutiérrez is Professor of History and Senior Associate Dean of Arts and Humanities Emeritus at the University of California, San Diego, where he has taught since 1990. He was educated at the University of California, Santa Barbara and Stanford University and has also taught at Stanford, the University of Utah, and the California

Ilyon Woo is the New York Times best-selling author of MASTER SLAVE HUSBAND WIFE: An Epic Journey from Slavery to Freedom, a New York Times “Top Ten Book of 2023,” People Magazine “Top 10 Book of the Year,” and a Kirkus Prize Finalist, also named a best book of the year by Oprah Quarterly, NPR, Time, Smithsonian Magazine. She is previously the author of THE GREAT

Claudio Saunt is Russell Professor in American History and Regents’ Professor at the University of Georgia. He is the author of four books, including West of the Revolution (2014), Black, White, and Indian (2005), and A New Order of Things (1999). His most recent book, Unworthy Republic (2020), was awarded the Bancroft Prize, the Robert

Sam Pollard is an accomplished feature film and television editor and documentary producer/director whose work spans more than thirty years. He was the producer of the series Eyes On The Prize II: America at the Racial Crossroads, and I'll Make Me A World: Stories of African-American Artists and Community, which received The George Peabody Award.

Carla Hayden was sworn in as the 14th Librarian of Congress on September 14, 2016. Hayden, the first woman and the first African American to lead the national library, was nominated to the position by President Barack Obama on February 24, 2016, and her nomination was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on July 13. Prior

Julianna Brannum is a citizen of the Comanche Nation and a documentary filmmaker based in Oklahoma. She most recently served as Consulting Producer for Ken Burn's documentary The American Buffalo. Prior to this, she was Producer of the Independent Lens documentary, Conscience Point, airing nationally on PBS and premiering at Doc NYC in 2019 and

DR. ANNETTE GORDON-REED is the Carl M. Loeb University Professor at Harvard University. Gordon-Reed won 16 book prizes, including the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, for THE HEMINGSES OF MONTICELLO: AN AMERICAN FAMILY (2008). She is the author of six books, and editor of two. She was the Vyvyan Harmsworth Visiting Professor of