Mr. Charlie Batch is a former NFL quarterback turned tech entrepreneur, media personality/color analyst, community advocate and professional speaker. His NFL career spanned 15 years and two Super Bowl victories. In retirement, Mr. Batch continues to be a respected strategist in the NFL, providing game-day commentary for Steelers broadcasts and several national media outlets. He also serves as Senior Captain for The Trust Powered by the NFLPA, an initiative that Mr. Batch helped negotiate in 2011 with NFL team owners. Additionally, he helps former players achieve their dreams after football as a Transition Consultant for the NFLPA. At the same time, Mr. Batch is a professional speaker who takes his motivational messages about teamwork and entrepreneurialism to corporate and nonprofit audiences across the country. His speeches include “Expect Your Best” and “From Sweat Suit to Business Suit: It’s Never Too Early to Plan Your Next Success.” Mr. Batch is an entrepreneur whose company, Impellia, brings state-of-the-art sports medicine and rehabilitation technologies to everyone. As Co-Founder, Mr. Batch and his partners have brought to market tech innovations from the University of Michigan, the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Colorado, among others. His interest in sports medicine extends to research as well. Mr. Batch is a Player Advisor on the Football Players Health Study at Harvard University. Additionally, he serves as an Advisory Council Member for the University of Pittsburgh Brain Institute. Since 1999, his Best of the Batch Foundation has worked to create communities where all kids and families are equipped with the tools they need to build their own best futures. In addition to his own foundation, Mr. Batch serves on multiple boards. They include the United Way of Southwestern Pennsylvania, the Western Pennsylvania Humane Society and the Urban League of Greater Pittsburgh. Charlie Batch is a recipient of numerous awards including the 2015 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award for Western Pennsylvania and West Virginia, and the 2013 Byron “Whizzer” White NFL Man of the Year Award. Mr. Batch holds a Master’s Degree in Organizational Leadership from Robert Morris University. Additionally, he holds honorary Degrees of Doctor from Eastern Michigan University, Point Park University, La Roche University, Bethany College, and Washington & Jefferson College. Below is a link to a sample on-camera appearance:
Ken Gormley is President and Professor of Law at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh. He previously served for seven years as Dean of Duquesne University School of Law. He joined the faculty in 1994, after teaching at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law and engaging in private practice. Gormley earned his B.A. from the University of Pittsburgh in 1977, summa cum laude, and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He received his J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1980, serving as a teaching assistant to Professor Archibald Cox in Constitutional Law. Gormley’s work has earned him a reputation as a highly-respected Constitutional scholar, in Pennsylvania and nationally. In 1997, he published Archibald Cox: Conscience of a Nation (Perseus Books), the authorized biography of one of the leading lawyers and public servants of the 20th century. The Cox book was awarded the 1999 Bruce K. Gould Book Award for an outstanding publication relating to the law. In 2010, Gormley published The Death of American Virtue: Clinton vs. Starr (Crown), a New York Times bestseller chronicling the scandals that nearly destroyed the Clinton Presidency. The Death of American Virtue received a 2011 Silver-Gavel Award (Honorable Mention) from the American Bar Association as well as critical acclaim in publications including the New York Times Book Review (Editor’s Choice), Washington Post, Book World, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, Atlantic magazine, and dozens of others. Gormley appeared on NBC’s Today Show, The Charlie Rose Show, Hardball with Chris Matthews, NPR’s Fresh Air and hundreds of television and radio shows in the United States and worldwide. Gormley’s most recent book, American Presidents and the Constitution: A Living History, was published by NYU Press in May, 2016, and has received national acclaim. Gormley has testified in the United States Senate three times. He has also testified in the Pennsylvania Senate on State Constitutional matters. Gormley formerly served as President of the Allegheny County Bar Association, the first academic to hold that position in the organization’s 137-year history. From 1998-2001, Gormley served as Mayor of Forest Hills, Pennsylvania. He lives there with his wife Laura. They have four children.
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David J. Hickton is the founding director of the University of Pittsburgh Institute for Cyber Law, Policy, and Security. At Pitt, Mr. Hickton also has secondary faculty appointments as professor in the the School of Law, the School of Computing and Information, and the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs. Prior to coming to Pitt, he served as United States Attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania. He was nominated by former President Barack Obama on May 20, 2010, and was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on Aug. 5, 2010. He was sworn in as the District's 57th U.S. Attorney on Aug.12, 2010. Prior to becoming U.S. Attorney, Hickton engaged in the private practice of law, specifically in the areas of transportation, litigation, commercial and white-collar crime. He began his legal career serving as a law clerk for the Honorable U. S. District Judge Gustave Diamond from 1981 to 1983. For more than a decade, Hickton was an adjunct professor at the Duquesne University School of Law, where he taught antitrust. A fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers and the Academy of Trial Lawyers of Allegheny County, Hickton has been admitted before numerous courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court and the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. At the request of President Bill Clinton, he previously served on the President’s Advisory Committee on the Arts for the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Hickton has long been a staunch supporter of many civic organizations, including those that benefit children and the arts. He served as an executive board member and president of Pittsburgh Public Theater and was a member of the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust. Mr. Hickton is a 1978 graduate of the Pennsylvania State University and a 1981 graduate of the University of Pittsburgh School of Law. In 2016, Pitt’s School of Law named Hickton one of its Distinguished Alumni. That same year, The Legal Intelligencer named him Pennsylvania Attorney of the Year. Hickton and his wife, Dawne, have been generous supporters of Pitt in a number of projects, including helping to establish the Loren H. Roth, MD, Summer Research Program in the School of Medicine. Pitt recognized Hickton as a Legacy Laureate in 2013 and also that year presented him with its 225th anniversary medallion, an honor bestowed on alumni who have brought particular honor to the university through their work and service.
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Jesse Washington is a Senior Writer for ESPN’s The Undefeated, a platform that explores race, sports, and culture. He was previously the National Writer on Race and Ethnicity at The Associated Press, where he held a variety of writing and managerial positions during fifteen years with the wire service. Washington has been managing editor of Vibe magazine, founding editor-in-chief of Blaze, and co-founder of the independent basketball magazine Bounce. He independently published two coffee-table books about African-American artists,The Art of Romare Bearden: The Prevalence of Ritual and The Art of Elizabeth Catlett. Simon Spotlight Entertainment published his novel, Black Will Shoot, in 2008. He is currently writing the autobiography of former Georgetown basketball coach John Thompson Jr., I Came As A Shadow, to be published in 2021 by Henry Holt. Washington played basketball at Yale, where he received a bachelor’s degree in English in 1992. He lives near Pittsburgh with his wife and their four children.
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Sean Parnell, a U.S. Army Airborne Ranger and New York Times best-selling author of “Outlaw Platoon: Heroes, Renegades, Infidels, and the Brotherhood of War in Afghanistan,” served in the 10th Mountain Division for six years and retired as a highly decorated Captain. He has received two Bronze Stars (one for valor), and the Purple Heart. After receiving his commission through the Army Reserve Officers’ Training Corps program at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, PA, he led his light infantry unit, nicknamed the Outlaw Platoon, into 16 months of combat during Operation Enduring Freedom. Parnell is a renowned Afghanistan policy expert and has been featured on FOX News, MSNBC, CNN, Fox Business News, NPR, Sirius XM and other media outlets. Parnell has presented his unique perspective on leadership, selflessness and how much we take for granted to schools, colleges, community events, veterans’ organizations and corporations. Below is a link to a sample on-camera appearance: Lt. Col. Barry Wingard is an attorney in the Allegheny County, PA Public Defenders Office, and, serves as a Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S. Air National Guard. He represents Fayiz Al Kandari, a detainee at Guantanamo who was charged before a military commission in 2008. Col. Wingard had long maintained that the charges against his client – material support of terrorism and conspiracy ~ were based on flimsy, third-hand evidence. But now that they have been dropped, his client's situation is worse, since there is now no real hope of a judicial proceeding, and, his ability to advocate for Mr. al-Kandari is reduced. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette described Wingard as being "...among a handful of military attorneys who have chosen to risk their careers by publicly voicing criticisms of the Military Commissions, which face an uncertain future." Wingard was an enlisted soldier and an Iraq War Veteran in the United States Army where he served for fifteen years prior to earning a law degree, and, joining the United States Air Force. Below is a link to a sample on-camera appearance: Matthew T. Mangino is the former district attorney of Lawrence County, Pennsylvania. He also spent a six year term on the Pennsylvania Board of Probation and Parole. He is currently 'Of Counsel' with Luxenberg, Garbett, Kelly and George, P.C. Mangino's book The Executioner's Toll, 2010 was published in the spring of 2014 by McFarland & Company. His weekly column on crime and punishment is syndicated nationwide by GateHouse Media. He is an adjunct professor at Thiel College. Mangino's articles have been published in the Washington Post, Philadelphia Inquirer, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Cleveland Plain Dealer, Harrisburg Patriot News and The Pennsylvania Capital-Star. He is a featured columnist for the Pennsylvania Law Weekly and contributes regularly to the Youngstown Vindicator. He is a regular contributor to The Crime Report Mangino is a trial analyst for Law and Crime Network and has provided legal commentary for CNN, MSNBC, FoxNews, Al Jazeera-America, Court TV and National Public Radio. In addition to his law degree from Duquesne University, Mangino earned a masters degree in criminology from the University of Pennsylvania. Mangino served on the Pennsylvania Joint State Government Commission's Advisory Committee on Capital Punishment.
Alfred Blumstein is the J. Erik Jonsson Professor of Urban Systems and Operations Research at the Heinz College at Carnegie Mellon University whose research over the past twenty years has covered many aspects of criminal justice phenomena and policy, including crime measurement, criminal careers, sentencing, deterrence and incapacitation, prison populations, flow through the system, demographic trends, juvenile violence and drug-enforcement policy. He has had extensive experience in both research and policy in the public sector and has authored numerous articles and four books: “Key Issues in Criminal Career Research” (with Alex R. Piquero and David P. Farrington); “The Crime Drop in America” (with Joel Wallman, eds.); “Criminal Careers and ‘Career Criminals’” (with J. Cohen, J. Roth, and C.A. Visher eds.); “Research on Sentencing: The Search for Reform” (2 volumes) (with Jacqueline Cohen, Susan Martin, and Michael Tonry eds.); “Deterrence and Incapacitation: Estimating the Effects of Criminal Sanctions on Crime Rates” (Alfred Blumstein, Jacqueline Cohen and Daniel Nagin, eds). His interest in the criminal justice system began with his service on the President's Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice in 1966-67, as Director of its Task Force on Science and Technology. He was a member of the National Academy of Sciences Committee on Research on Law Enforcement and the Administration of Justice from its founding and served as chairman between 1979 and 1984. He has also chaired the committee's panels on Research on Deterrent and Incapacitative Effects; Sentencing Research; and, Research on Criminal Careers. He was a member of the Academy's Commission on Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education from 1994 to 2000. Blumstein also served from as chairman of the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency, the state's criminal justice planning agency, and, as a member of the Pennsylvania Commission on Sentencing from 1986 to 1996. He was also director of the National Consortium on Violence Research (NCOVR), a multi-university initiative funded by the National Science Foundation and headquartered at the Heinz College. Professor Blumstein received a bachelor's degree in engineering physics and a Ph.D. in operations research from Cornell University.
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R.J. Gallo, CFA, is Senior Vice President, Senior Portfolio Manager, Head of Municipal Bond Investment Group, and Head of the Duration Committee with Federated Investors, Inc. R.J. is responsible for portfolio management and research in the fixed income area concentrating in municipal securities. He is chairman of the Duration Committee which determines duration positioning for many of the fixed-income portfolios at Federated. He also manages multiple municipal strategies in addition to co-managing Federated Muni & Stock Advantage Fund, a balanced fund combining municipal bonds with dividend paying stocks. R.J. is a featured speaker on Federated’s quarterly webcasts where he shares insights on macroeconomic trends and factors affecting fixed income market performance. He has appeared frequently in financial media, including Bloomberg, The Wall Street Journal, Fox Business, Reuters and CNBC. R.J. is a regular speaker at industry conferences and is known for framing the key economic issues impacting the bond market in a thoughtful but practical manner. Before joining Federated, R.J. was a financial analyst & trader at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, an investment coordinator at Columbia University Office of Investments, and a financial analyst at Kidder Peabody & Co. R.J. has more than 20 years of investment experience. R.J. earned an M.P.A. from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University and his bachelor’s degree in Economics from the University of Michigan. A CFA charterholder, R.J. is a member of the CFA Society of Pittsburgh and the National Federation of Municipal Analysts.
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William R. Johnson is the retired Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of the H.J. Heinz Company, a global food company, which Had sales of approximately $12 billion across six continents at the time of its sale to 3G Capital and Berkshire Hathaway. Under his leadership for over fifteen years, Heinz accelerated its growth in Emerging Markets and transformed its global portfolio of high-quality brands to focus on three core categories: Ketchup & Sauces, Meals & Snacks, and Infant/Nutrition. In a career spanning 31 years with Heinz, Mr. Johnson was only the fifth Chairman in the 144 year history of the Company, which is based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where Company founder, Henry John Heinz, started the business in 1869. He joined Heinz in 1982 as General Manager – New Business for Heinz USA. In 1984, he was promoted to Vice President – Marketing for Ketchup, Food service and Sauces. He was named President and CEO of Heinz Pet Products in 1988, and assumed leadership of Star-Kist Foods, Inc. in May 1992, when the pet food business and Star-Kist were reunited. These businesses were spun off and merged with Del Monte Foods in December 2002. In 1993, Johnson was named Senior Vice President and joined the company’s Board of Directors. His responsibilities included Heinz operations in the Asia/Pacific area, including Australia, New Zealand, China, Thailand and South Korea, in addition to the canned tuna and pet food businesses of Star-Kist Foods, Inc. He became President and COO of Heinz in June 1996, and was appointed President and CEO in December 1997 officially assuming the role in April 1998. He was named Chairman, President and CEO in September 2000. An active supporter of community organizations, he has served as a member of the national Athena Awards committee, chaired the 2001 annual campaign for the United Way of Western PA, co-chaired the capital campaign in 2009 to raise funds for the new Ronald McDonald House in Pittsburgh, and chaired numerous local events including the 2004 Pittsburgh Cultural Trust gala event. In 2006, he received the inaugural Global Visionary Award from Helen Keller International for Heinz’s micronutrient program for combating childhood anemia. He also received the Marco Polo Award, the highest honor bestowed by the Chinese government on foreign business leaders for Heinz’s support of the development of the Chinese food industry. Mr. Johnson also commissioned a study on leadership that led to the 2010 publication of the book, “Preparing CEO’s for Success.” Proceeds from the book sales are donated to Ronald McDonald House Charities, Inc. He is a member of the Board of Directors of UPS (Lead Director) and PepsiCo. He is an Operating Partner with the private equity firm, Advent International, and serves as Chairman of Sovos Brands, an investment vehicle for food and beverage acquisitions, and as a Director for Dawn Holdings, the parent company of Serta Simmons Bedding. Mr. Johnson was inducted into the Hall of Fame at the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas on October 26, 2007. Mr. Johnson earned his undergraduate degree from UCLA and his MBA from the University of Texas.
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