Steven Horsford was elected to the Nevada State Senate in November 2004 where he represents Senatorial District Four. He has served in four special sessions and three regular sessions of the Nevada Legislature. He is co-chair of the Senate Finance Committee and also serves on the Senate Committee on Health & Education and the Senate Committee on Government Affairs. In addition, Senator Horsford is the Democratic National Committeeman for the State of Nevada and was intimately involved in securing Nevada’s role in hosting the second in the nation Presidential Caucus in 2008. In November of 2008, he was named Nevada Senate Majority Leader.

Outside of his legislative service, he is the Chief Executive Officer of the Culinary Training Academy (CTA). The CTA is a highly successful joint management and labor partnership between participating gaming companies and the Culinary and Bartenders Unions and prepares more than 3,500 students annually for positions in the hospitality industry.

Born and raised in Las Vegas, Senator Horsford has established deep roots as a prominent member of the business and government community. He is a voluntary board member for the Las Vegas Urban League, Nevada Partners, Inc. and 100 Black Men of Las Vegas.

Senator Horsford also serves on a number of national committees. He is currently a board member of the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, a member of the Democratic National Committee's Change Commission, and a member of the DNC's Rules & Bylaws Committee.

In recognition of his service, Senator Horsford has earned numerous community honors and awards including: In Business Las Vegas’ “Top 40 under 40”, The Links, Inc. “Service to Youth” Award, “Friend to Working Families” Award from the AFL-CIO, the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce “Community Achievement” Award in Communications, KLAS-TV Channel 8 “Portrait of Pride”, and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Committee Community Leader for “Distinguished Man of Southern Nevada”, among others.

Gerald W. McEntee is the International President of the 1.6 million-member American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), one of the most aggressive and politically active organizing unions in the AFL-CIO. McEntee was first elected AFSCME President in 1981 and was re-elected in July 2008 to another four-year term.

As a Vice President of the AFL-CIO and chair of the Political Education Committee, McEntee is a key leader of the labor movement and its political efforts. Under McEntee’s leadership, the federation created its highly successful and much imitated voter education and mobilization program, which increased the number of union household voters to a record 26 percent of the electorate in 2006.

McEntee has long been a leader in the fight to reform the nation’s health care system. He chairs the AFL-CIO’s Health Care Committee and is a co-chair of Health Care for America NOW!, a national grassroots coalition that has launched a $40 million campaign to guarantee quality, affordable health care for all Americans.

McEntee is a co-founder and chairman of the board of the Economic Policy Institute, the preeminent voice for working Americans on the economy. He led the successful fight to stop President Bush’s plan to privatize Social Security, was an outspoken proponent for increasing the federal minimum wage, and is one of the nation’s leading advocates for America’s vital public services.

For his efforts to improve the lives of working families, the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights presented McEntee with its prestigious Hubert H. Humphrey Award in 2004.

Before assuming the presidency of AFSCME, McEntee began his distinguished career as a labor leader in Pennsylvania in 1958. He led the drive to unionize more than 75,000 Pennsylvania public service employees, which at that time was the largest union mobilization in history. He was elected Executive Director at the founding convention of AFSCME Council 13 in Pennsylvania in 1973 and an International Vice President of AFSCME in 1974.

Markos Moulitsas Zúniga is founder and publisher of Daily Kos, the largest progressive community blog in the United States. Named "the single most successful entrepreneur of the progressive movement" by NY Times magazine writer and author Matt Bai, Moulitsas is also co-author of the critically acclaimed book Crashing the Gate: Netroots, Grassroots, and the Rise of People-Powered Politics, author of Taking on the System: Rules for Radical Change in a Digital Era, a contributing columnist to Newsweek Magazine and a weekly columnist at The Hill newspaper. He was named one of the 100 Most Influential Hispanics in the world by People en Español, clocked in at third in Forbe's Web Celeb 25 rankings, and was listed 26th in PC World's list of the "Most Important People on the Web."

Ed Schultz is the most listened-to Progressive radio talk show host in America. He has spoken at numerous caucus meetings on Capitol Hill and is one of the most consistent voices for working class Americans. Schultz has been the keynote speaker at union conventions all across the country.

Schultz was the first Progressive talker to hit 100 affiliates, both satellite networks and the Armed Forces Radio Network. But it's not just his ever-expanding audience that has been captivated by Ed's bold commentary and lightning wit. He's a favorite guest of talk show pioneer Larry King on CNN. Schultz has also been seen on Hardball, The O'Reilly Factor, Lou Dobbs, The Situation Room, American Morning, Morning Joe and many other shows. What he says matters. "But what my listeners say matters more," he says.

A veteran of 30 years in broadcasting, Schultz has covered some of the biggest events in American history. His gripping live network reports from Capitol Hill in Washington D.C. during the attacks of September 11th 2001 are the stuff of legend. Displaying quick thinking, composure and heart, Ed Schultz captured the moment through the voices of the biggest political names of the day on the spot and in the moment. Schultz also took his show to Gulf Port, Mississippi in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, leading a personal effort to make a difference. He is one of the few broadcasters in the country ever to do a show from Cuba.

Schultz has won three Eric Sevareid Awards and has managed and been lead talent for a broadcast team that has won two Marconis and a prestigious Peabody Award. Ed has been named one of the top ten radio hosts in the country by Talkers Magazine in each of the last two years. In 2007 Ed Schultz was nominated Syndicated News/Talk Personality of the year by Radio & Records

Ed's book, "Straight Talk from the Heartland," laid a roadmap for the Progressive wave that's sweeping America.

Elon James White, Editor in Chief of ThisWeekinBlackness.com, is a Brooklyn-based comedian, writer and is the host of the award-winning web series This Week in Blackness, a satirical look at race, politics and pop-culture in a so-called “post-racial” America. White has been a featured commentator on Countdown with Keith Olbermann on MSNBC and on VH1's Black to the Future &The Great Debate. His commentary on race and politics has been featured on Salon.com, The Huffington Post, Alternet and The Root. Praised as "The perfect comedian for the Obama era, talking race while exploding racial stereotypes" by Dr. Harris-Lacewell of Princeton on Politco.com and as "Precise, thought provoking and hilarious" by Daily Show creator Lizz Winstead, White continues to win accolades from critics, academia and audiences alike. White was the recent recipient of four 2009 Black Weblog Awards, including Best Humor Blog, Best MicroBlog (Twitter), Best Video Blog and Blog of the Year. He has been featured in The NY Observer, NY Post, Gothamist, Newsweek and Gawker and has appeared on ComedyCentral.com and Sirius Satellite Radio. White’s festival appearances include the DC Comedy Festival, the NY Underground Festival, 2009 LA Comedy Festival, the 2010 NC Comedy Arts Fest, and 2010 SF Sketchfest, where he headlined with The Just-Us League of America.

As co-creator and former head writer of The Daily Show and Air America Radio co-founder, LIZZ WINSTEAD is one of the top political satirists in America. As a performer, LIZZ brought her political wit to The Daily Show as a Correspondent and later to the radio waves co-hosting Unfiltered, Air America Radio's mid morning show, where she brought on board Hip Hop legend CHUCK D and political big brain RACHEL MADDOW.

LIZZ’S talents as a comedian and media visionary have been recognized by The New York Times, The Washington Post, Entertainment Weekly's 100 most Creative People issue and has brought numerous television appearances, including Comedy Central Presents and as a regular contributor for MSNBC’s “The Ed Show” and "The Joy Behar Show."

Most recently, Lizz wrote and produced an independent pilot of her Off-Broadway hit, “WAKE UP WORLD, a show Rachel Maddow called, “The funniest thing I have seen in years.”

While the term “green-collar jobs” gains more press and pundits daily, very few people have actually marshaled the resources to get unemployed Americans trained and placed on pathways out of poverty in this growing economic sector. Majora Carter has. Born, raised, and continuing to live in the South Bronx, her work takes her around the world in pursuit of resources and ideas to improve the quality of life in environmentally challenged communities. She founded Sustainable South Bronx in 2001 and by 2003 had implemented the highly successful Bronx Environmental Stewardship Training (BEST) program— a pioneering green-collar job training and placement system — seeding communities with a skilled workforce that has both a personal & economic stake in their urban environment. She is currently president of the green-collar economic consulting firm the Majora Carter Group, LLC.She is probably the only person to have received an award from John Podesta's Center For American Progress; AND a Liberty Medal from Rupert Murdoch's: New York Post.

Most recently, she was named one of the 100 Most Creative People in Business by Fast Company Magazine, and of them, one of the 10 Best Small Businesses in the US.

Her vision, drive, and tenacity earned a MacArthur “genius” Fellowship. Newsweek named her one of “25 To Watch” in 2007, and one of the “century’s most important environmentalists” in 2008. She a board member of the Wilderness Society, SJF, and CERES. She host a special national public radio series called “The Promised Land” , and “Eco-Heroes” on the Sundance Channel.

Follow her on twitter at @majoracarter and on facebook.com/majoracarter