First elected to the state senate in 2004, Senator Klein has built a reputation as an effective and trusted public servant, authoring numerous laws directly impacting the health, welfare and economic prosperity of residents across New York State.  A lifelong resident of the northeast Bronx, educated in Bronx public schools, Klein holds a B.A. from Queens College, an M.P.A. from Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs and a J.D. from the City University of New York Law School where he was also a member of the law review. Klein previously served as Senate President Pro Tempore from 2012-2014. He also served as Deputy Majority Leader of the Senate from 2009-2010. Prior to that, Senator Klein served his current district as a member of the New York State Assembly for ten years. 

Michelle Dolgow Cristofaro currently serves as Executive Director of The Bronx Chamber of Commerce, overseeing the organization’s day to day operations, specializing in funding contract management, media relations, and legislative affairs. She has spearheaded the chamber’s business education program, helping to ensure that companies have access to current information on a range of critical business issues, such as incentives, financing, business planning, navigating the government, and more. She directs the MWBE program and is an active part of the NYC MWBE Leadership Association, helping many companies receive their certification and recertifications from NYC and NYS, creating real growth and economic empowerment for minority and women-owned businesses. Michelle also serves as Administrator of Bronx H.I.R.E. (Help Identify Real Employment), which is a unique jobs program sponsored by Senator Jeff Klein and The Bronx Chamber of Commerce aimed at connecting Bronx workers with real jobs through a comprehensive, direct approach.

Michael Skolnik is a 21st century businessman and a Civil Rights organizer. Michael is the President of GlobalGrind.com, a multi-million dollar news website founded by hip-hop impresario, Russell Simmons, that attracts over 8 million people a month. This platform has given Michael a leadership role in the new social justice movement, where he has led national conversations about America’s relationship with race, the death of Trayvon Martin, Mike Brown and Eric Garner, the Boston Marathon bombings, the rise of violence in Chicago and the Obama presidency, amongst many other topics. A trailblazer of social media with 160,000 followers, Michael regularly discusses the aforementioned topics, current events, and how they affect his generation on CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, NPR and HLN, to name a few media outlets.

Max Stossel is a storyteller, digital marketer, and poet based in New York. His debut video, Subway Love, was an immediate viral success and his work has been featured by a wide variety of media, including Fast Company, Mashable, The Daily Mail, Upworthy, Buzzfeed, Vimeo, and many others. He has created social media strategies for startups and Fortune 500 companies including Budweiser, Dove, and several Pepsico brands. He was a founding team member of Ocho, a Mark Cuban backed social video platform aiming to reimagine what Youtube would look like if it launched today. He is passionately curious about the future of technology and stories.

Majora Carter is an urban revitalization strategy consultant, real estate developer, and Peabody Award winning broadcaster. She is responsible for the creation & successful implementation of numerous green-infrastructure projects, policies, and job training & placement systems. After Co-Founding StartUp Box #SouthBronx as a social enterprise to seed diverse participation through entry level jobs in the knowledge economy, she launched StartUp Box #QA (Quality Assurance testing services) which was proud to assist in the launch of Mayor Bill DeBlasio'sDigital.NYC in 2014. 

Angie joined Per Scholas in March 2013 as the Executive Director of New York City operations. Previously, she spent seven years working at the NYC Department of Small Business Services, overseeing the City’s Workforce1 Career Center system. During her tenure in the Bloomberg administration, she oversaw the growth of the system from six Career Centers to fifteen, serving more than 120,000 individuals and placing more than 25,000 in employment each year. She also implemented several successful Mayor’s Center for Economic Opportunity initiatives focused on improving the income and advancement prospects for working poor New Yorkers. These included nationally recognized Workforce1 Sector Career Centers in healthcare and transportation.

Christina Sass began building education programs in her home state of Georgia and has since started schools and youth programs in the U.S., China, The Palestinian Territories, Kenya, and Nigeria. While directing the Program Department at The Clinton Global Initiative, she worked closely with President Clinton and his office to drive Commitments to Action with corporations, NGOs, governments and philanthropies with a particular focus on scalable education solutions and empowerment of girls and women. She then served as an advisor to the President and CEO of The MasterCard Foundation on fostering collaboration among partners. The MasterCard Foundation is a global foundation with over $9 billion in assets working to advance education, employment, and financial inclusion for youth in Africa. In co-founding Andela,Christina has finally found a scalable way for young people to receive training and employment without any debt and without leaving home. Christina has a Bachelor's degree in Ancient Philosophy from the University of Georgia and a Master's degree in International Law and Diplomacy from The Fletcher School at Tufts University.

Miguel Sanchez is the Founder and Creative Director of Mass Ideation, a Bronx based Creative and Technology Content Marketing Agency specializing in Digital Strategy, Content Creation and Emerging Technologies. Prior to creating Mass Ideation, Miguel spent 8 years in the New York digital ad world creating high impact animated and interactive experiences for some of the biggest brands in the world such as Disney, Lexus, Intel etc. Miguel has been featured in the New York Times, Daily News to name a few due to his work with emerging technologies and large brands.

Jerelyn Rodriguez is the Co-Founder and CEO of The Knowledge House. Previously, she coordinated STEM after-school programming at Beyond Z and was the Bronx Field Director for Reshma Saujani's 2013 campaign for New York City Public Advocate. In 2011, Jerelyn joined Students for Education Reform (SFER) as the National Program Director, organizing and coaching college students in 35 states to advocate for education reform. Prior to SFER, Jerelyn worked in the public school system, teaching and designing student programs. Jerelyn has recently spoken on panels at SXSWedu, the New York City Social Innovation Festival and NASA’s SpaceApps Challenge. She is on the leadership council for South Bronx Rising Together, a founding Datanaut at NASA, a fellow at Camelback Ventures, and the Entrepreneur in Residence at the BXL: Bronx Business Incubator. Jerelyn has a degree in film studies from Columbia University.

Arthur Woods is an entrepreneur, speaker and writer on the next generation of work. He is the co-founder of Imperative, the first professional platform for purpose-driven people to find and manage a fulfilling career while helping companies hire and develop purpose-oriented talent. Arthur previously led operations for YouTube EDU at Google where he oversaw YouTube for Schools. He previously co-founded the Compass Fellowship, the world's largest collegiate social enterprise training program, in over 18 universities worldwide. He also co-founded Out in Tech, the largest technology community for LGBTQ. Arthur studied Operations and information Management at Georgetown University and Project Management at Stanford University. He is a World Economic Forum Global Shaper and sits on the Boards of the Georgetown Technology Alliance and Compass Partners. Arthur's efforts have been featured in Forbes, Fast Company, Huffington Post, Washington Post and ABC7’s Washington Business Tonight.

A Bronx native, Nicholas R. Diaz has been affiliated with Teach For America for over six years from serving as a campus ambassador at his alma mater, Cornell University, to teaching 7th Grade Language Arts for three years in Miami, FL. As a product of the NYC public schools, he is devoted to the idea that all students should have access to a quality education and hopes to achieve that vision in the Bronx through strategic talent acquisition and development at every level of the education sector

Gillian McPherson Champion is the First Vice President and Regional Manager for Amalgamated Bank. She oversees the operations and employer relations for the branch network and helps coordinate community engagement. She is a Bronx native and prior to joining Amalgamated Bank, she held positions in banking in several Bronx communities. 

David Echevarría is the CEO of Champeón Games, an indie game company he developed to release his games, including ¡Super Run Dog! which is currently available on the Google Play Store with an iOS port currently in development. David is currently working on turning Champeón into a platform to give aspiring game developers a chance to turn their game development dream into actual careers. In addition David has taught game development classes at The Knowledge House and participated in their Web Development course. His dream career is to be a game director and encourage more diversity in the industry.

Sergio Garcia is a self taught programmer from the Bronx. Specializing in the Game Development field, Sergio has created a few web based games such as Zurvival 1, Zurvival 2 and Raining Three's. Using the tech and leadership skills he's learning at The Knowledge House, Sergio competes at different Hackathons across the city. Sergio is currently working on releasing his first big game Skies and plans to create his own video game studio.

Gabriel Palacios is a Game Design student at Hostos Community College set to graduate in December.  He is currently looking to matriculate next fall to a four year university and continue his path towards a career in curriculum development.  With foundations in game design and a passion for education, Gabriel looks to implement gaming into curricula for all ages. Through this effort, he seeks to increase intrinsic motivation across every struggling demographic, and bridge the gaps in education.  He is also currently working on the release of his first game, Nihon-GO!, a Japanese language learning game, with his co-founder of Edu-Glyph Games Jose Vidal. His hobbies include billiards, soccer, music, film, animation and coming up with company slogans years before they become reality.

Jose Vidal has been a gamer for most of his life. The worlds and characters from the games that he has played helped get him through some dark times in his life. It is because of this that he is a game design major, currently attending Hostos Community College. His goal after working in the field as a game programmer for a few years to get a sense of the industry, is to start his own Game company, focused on creating story driven games with very relatable characters. The mission for his company will be to have games that’s worlds and characters form a connection with the players, and that they themselves grow after a play through, just like when you finish reading a good book. He is partnered up with Gabriel Palacios in creating a language learning game company called EGG (Edu Glyph Games). They are currently working on the crowdfunding release of their first game Nihon-GO!, a Japanese language learning game.