Ambassador Rahm Emanuel
Rahm I. Emanuel most recently served as the United States Ambassador to Japan. As Ambassador, Emanuel helped deepen the U.S.-Japan alliance, including support for Japan's increased defense spending and expanded military cooperation. He promoted Japan's leadership in Indo-Pacific key security initiatives and participated in the historic trilateral summit at Camp David that reaffirmed that cooperation between the United States, Japan, and the Republic of Korea.
Previously, Emanuel was the 55th Mayor of the City of Chicago, a position he held until May 2019. During that time, he made the critical choices necessary to secure Chicago's future as a global capital.
As Mayor, Emanuel added four years to a student鈥檚 education. He increased the school day by 75 minutes and added more than 200 hours to the school year, marking the largest single increase in educational time by any city and taking Chicago from having the least educational time of any large school district in the country to being on par with its peers. He implemented universal pre-kindergarten and full-day kindergarten for every Chicago child, and made Chicago the first city in America to provide free community college.
The Mayor's comprehensive public safety strategy focused on expanded prevention programs for at-risk youth, smarter policing strategies, and empowering parents and communities to reduce violence. The Ambassador made it a priority to bring global companies to the city, helping Chicago to lead the U.S. in corporate relocations and foreign direct investment for seven consecutive years. His administration invested in infrastructure, public transportation, open space, and cultural attractions. From the $8.5 billion O'Hare International Airport modernization program that is cementing Chicago's status as a global leader in travel, tourism, and trade to the development of the iconic 1.25-mile Chicago Riverwalk, the City's investments are creating thousands of good-paying jobs and making Chicago a better place to live, work, and play.
Prior to becoming Mayor, from November 2008 until October 2010, Emanuel served as President Barack Obama's Chief of Staff. In addition to being the President's top advisor, Emanuel helped the Obama administration secure the passage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 and the landmark Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
Before serving as Chief of Staff, Emanuel was elected four times as a Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Illinois's 5th Congressional District (2002-2008). As Chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, Emanuel helped pass legislation to raise the minimum wage and authored the Great Lakes Restoration Act.
From 1993 to 1998, Ambassador Emanuel was a key member of President Bill Clinton's administration, rising to serve as Senior Advisor to the President for Policy and Politics. During this time, Emanuel served as a legislative liaison to Congress and spearheaded efforts to pass several of President Clinton's signature achievements, most notably the Federal Assault Weapons Ban, the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act, and the historic Balanced Budget Act, which created the Children's Health Insurance Program that expanded health care coverage to 10 million children. Emanuel also worked closely with President Joseph R. Biden Jr., then a U.S. Senator, to shepherd the Violence Against Women Act of 1994 through Congress.
Emanuel graduated from Sarah Lawrence College in 1981 and received a Master's Degree in Speech and Communication from Northwestern University in 1985. He is married to Amy Rule, and they have three children.
Douglas Brinkley
Douglas Brinkley is the Katherine Tsanoff Brown Chair in Humanities and Professor of History at Rice University, presidential historian for the New-York Historical Society and a contributing editor at Vanity Fair. He serves on the Board of Trustees of the National Archives Foundation, the James Madison Council of the Library of Congress, and both the Theodore Roosevelt and Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Libraries. The Chicago Tribune dubbed him 鈥淎merica鈥檚 New Past Master鈥. He is the recipient of seven honorary doctorates in American studies.
Brinkley has written/edited three New York Times bestselling books on Ronald Reagan: The Boys of Point du Hoc: Ronald Reagan, D-Day and the U.S. Army 2nd Ranger Battalion (2005); The Reagan Diaries (2007); and The Notes (2011). More recently, his two-volume, annotated Nixon Tapes (2014-15) won the Arthur S. Link鈥揥arren F. Kuehl Prize. Brinkley has also written on World War II, the Vietnam War, the National Parks system, John F. Kennedy, Rosa Parks, Gerald R. Ford, Bob Dylan, Hurricane Katrina, Henry Ford and Walter Cronkite which all received critical acclaim. Six of his nonfiction books have been chosen as New York Times鈥檚 鈥淣otable Books of the Year鈥. Brinkley has also won two Grammy Awards in the jazz category for the albums Presidential Suite and Fandango at the Wall.
He lives in Austin, Texas with his family.
Sonia Manzano
When you think of Sonia Manzano, you immediately think of children and television. Manzano鈥檚 most recent accomplishment was creating a children鈥檚 program, Alma鈥檚 Way, for PBS KIDs. It has won two Imagen Awards for Best Youth Programing, a 2022 Emmy nomination for Outstanding Writing for a Preschool Animated Program and a 2023 NAACP nomination for an Image Award.
But what Ms. Manzano is best known for is performing the role of 鈥淢aria鈥 on Sesame Street for 44 seasons, where her work affected the lives of millions of children and parents and garnered her two Emmy Award nominations, in addition to the National Academy of Arts and Science鈥檚 Lifetime Achievement Daytime Emmy in 2016. As a writer for Sesame Street, she took home 15 Emmys. In 2022, Manzano received the Beacon Award from PBS, and the Latino Spirit Award from the California Latino Legislative Caucus Foundation.
She is also the author of four picture books and three Young Adult novels. Her Scholastic Young adult novels include Becoming Maria: Love and Chaos in the South Bronx and The Revolution of Evelyn Serrano. Her most recent novel, Coming Up Cuban, is set in 1959, and follows the lives of four children who represent different intersections of race and class during the Cuban Revolution. Proud to have been raised in the South Bronx, she attended the High School of Performing Arts in New York City before attending 91视频 in Pittsburgh. Please visit her website at