Dr. Tonya E. Thornton (Neaves) is the Director for Extramural Projects at George Mason University's Schar School of Policy and Government. She is also the Director for the Schar School's Centers on the Public Service, conducting research, provides training and education and offering thought leadership to advance the work of management officials across all sectors of government. As part of her faculty appointment, Dr. Thornton serves as an Assistant Professor in the Master of Public Administration program and is the Coordinator for its Emergency Management and Homeland Security graduate certificate. She is also on Mason's Executive Leadership Team for the Center for Resilient and Sustainable Communities and is an Advisory Council Member for its Institute for a Sustainable Earth. In addition to this, she is also the Director for the Virginia Certified Public Manager® Program. Dr. Thornton has published her work in the Review of Policy Research, Journal of Emergency Management, Review of Public Personnel Management, and the American Journal of Public Health. She has also co-authored book chapters in The Future of Disaster Management in the U.S.: Rethinking Legislation, Policy, and Finance, New Voices in the Old South: How Women and Minorities Influence Southern Politics. She was also an editor for the National Academy of Public Administration and American Society for Public Administration's Memos to National Leaders. Dr. Thornton has a Doctor of Philosophy in Public Policy and Administration from Mississippi State University, where she also earned a Master of Public Policy and Administration and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science with an emphasis in the Geosciences.

Ambassador (Ret.) Richard Kauzlarich is a Distinguished Visiting Professor, George Mason University Schar School of Policy and Government. He teaches courses in the Geopolitics of Energy Security as well as Policy Communications. He served as National Intelligence Officer for Europe on the National Intelligence Council from September 2003 to April 2011. Prior to that position, he was Director of the Special Initiative on the Muslim World at the United States Institute of Peace. Ambassador Kauzlarich joined the Schar School in Spring 2002 after a 32-year career in the Foreign Service. He served as United States Ambassador to Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1997-99 and to Azerbaijan in 1994-97, Senior Deputy to the Secretary of State's and the President's Special Representative to the Newly Independent States (NIS) in 1993-94, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State in the Bureau of European Affairs in 1991-93, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs in 1984-86, and Deputy Director of the State Department's Policy Planning Staff in 1986-89. He received his A.A. from Black Hawk College, his B.A. from Valparaiso University, and M.A.s from Indiana University and the University of Michigan.