Terra Lawson-Remer

Terra Lawson-Remer is fellow for civil society, markets, and democracy at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), where she is directing the CFR-sponsored study on the political economy of transitions. She is also assistant professor of international affairs at The New School University in New York City and serves as chair of the university's advisory committee on investor responsibility.

Previously, she was senior adviser for international affairs at the U.S. Department of the Treasury. Dr. Lawson-Remer's research addresses opportunity and exclusion in the global economy, including economic development and poverty, natural resources, global economic governance, property rights, emerging economies, fragile states, inclusive growth, and rule of law. She has written numerous academic research articles on these issues, and worked and conducted field studies in Latin America, North and East Africa, Asia, and the South Pacific. She is co-creator of the social & economic rights fulfillment (SERF) index and author of the forthcoming book Fulfilling Economic & Social Rights (with Sakiko Fukuda-Parr and Susan Randolph, Oxford University Press).

She previously held positions at the United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research, Latham & Watkins LLP, Amnesty International USA, the Ethical Globalization Initiative, and the New York Civil Liberties Union, and consulted for the World Bank. Long a committed civic leader, Dr. Lawson-Remer also previously worked as an organizer, action coordinator, and strategist for a variety of grassroots environmental and social justice organizations. She cofounded and codirected STARC: Students Transforming and Resisting Corporations, a national membership based organization advocating corporate responsibility in the face of increased globalization and greater public accountability by the World Bank, IMF, and WTO.

She earned her BA in ethics, politics, and economics from Yale University; her JD from New York University School of Law, where she was dean's merit scholar, and her PhD in political economy from New York University's law and society institute.

Father Frank Pavone

FR. FRANK PAVONE is one of the most prominent pro-life leaders in the world. Originally from New York, he was ordained in 1988 by Cardinal John O’Connor. He is a priest of the Amarillo Diocese and serves full-time in pro-life leadership with his bishop’s permission. In 1993 he became National Director of Priests for Life. He is also the President of the National Pro-life Religious Council, and the National Pastoral Director of the Silent No More Awareness Campaign and of Rachel’s Vineyard, the world’s largest ministry of healing after abortion. He travels throughout the country, to an average of four states every week, preaching and teaching against abortion. He produces programs regularly for religious and secular radio and television networks. He was asked by Mother Teresa to speak in India on the life issues, and has addressed the pro-life caucus of the United States House of Representatives. The Vatican appointed him to the Pontifical Council for the Family, which coordinates the pro-life activities of the Catholic Church. He also serves as a member of the Vatican’s Pontifical Academy for Life. He was present at the bedside of Terri Schiavo as she was dying and was an outspoken advocate for her life. He was invited by members of the Class of 2009 at Notre Dame to lead an alternate commencement ceremony for those students who refused to attend the ceremony in which President Obama was honored. Fr. Frank was invited by members of Congress to preach at the prayer service they had in the Capitol just prior to the vote on health care reform. He received the “Proudly Pro-life Award” by the National Right to Life Committee, and numerous other pro-life awards and honorary doctorates. He is the author of two books, Ending Abortion, Not Just Fighting It, and Pro-life Reflections for Every Day. Norma McCorvey, the “Jane Roe” of the Supreme Court’s Roe vs. Wade abortion decision, called Fr. Frank “the catalyst that brought me into the Catholic Church.”

Rabbi Aryeh Spero

Rabbi Aryeh Spero, president of Caucus For America, is author of the book, Push Back: Reclaiming the American Judeo-Christian Spirit (July 2012).  His articles have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Washington Times, National Review, New York Sun, Human Events Weekly, Newsmax.com, N.Y. Daily News, American Thinker, TownHall, Policy Review, American Conservative Union, Christian American, Atlanta Journal and Constitution, Fundamentalist Journal, Judaism, Tradition, Midstream, Free Congress Foundation, Response, Jewish Spectator, Post and Opinion, Sh'ma, Jewish World Review, Free Republic, Viewpoint, Jewish Press, newspapers in Hickory, N.C., Beaumont, Texas, Bucks County, Pa. and Canton, Ohio, and he contributed a chapter to Cultural Conservatism, with William Bennett. For over ten years, Rabbi Spero was a columnist for Human Events.

On television, Rabbi Spero has appeared on FOX News:  Neil Cavuto, Megyn Kelly, and Stuart Varney news programs; CBS; C-SPAN; WOR-TV; NET (American Family, Paul Weyrich, Capital Watch); MSNBC; FOX Business News; and the Glenn Beck TV program. Articles about his political activities have appeared in The Washington Times, New York Post, New York Sun and New York Observer.

On radio, he has been interviewed on the Laura Ingraham Show, the Michael Savage Show, the Tom Marr Show, the Washington Times Morning Show, and WABC.  He has also been interviewed on the following shows: Jeff Kuhner, Barry Farber,  Joey Reynolds, Faith 2Action, and on New York-New Jersey radio: WOR, WLIR and WEVD. He is a regular guest on America’s Morning News/TRN, Washington, D.C. He has also been interviewed on radio shows in Los Angeles, New Orleans, Cleveland, Las Vegas, Boulder, Indianapolis, Houston, and Washington, D.C.  He has twice debated liberal spokesmen on National Public Radio (NPR).

He has spoken in front of the National Press Club, testified in front of the House Judiciary Committee,  has addressed The Heritage Foundation, Tea Party rallies, and is a frequent speaker and crowd-rouser for the New York State Conservative Party.  He is an acclaimed public speaker, inspiring diverse audiences.  He was the keynote speaker 2012 for Northwood University’s Freedom Center Conference in Detroit.

He has been invited to inform policy-makers, candidates, and elected officials in the halls of Congress, and in the Executive, regarding the moral and religious dimensions of policies and legislation under consideration.  He served congregations as a pulpit rabbi in Ohio, Manhattan and Long Island.

In the mid-1990s, he founded a conservative think-tank of Black and Jewish political conservatives, with Herman Cain.  He was the first rabbi to endorse Ronald Reagan for President in public newspaper ads around the country.

He hosted “Talking Sense,” a radio show heard on WWDJ, WSNR and WEVD in the New York metropolitan region. He has interviewed Ann Coulter, Dick Morris, Michael Barone, Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, Senators Brownback and Coleman, Gary Bauer, Daniel Pipes and many others. He also hosted a nightly program on Rightalk, and is known for his lively and thought-provoking "One Minute Commentaries" on N.Y.C. radio. 

Rabbi Spero created his well-known signature slogans: "I'm Battling for the Soul of America" and "It's Your Country...Stand Up for It!"

Michael A. Cohen

Michael Cohen is regular writer and commentator on American politics and U.S. foreign policy. He is the author of Live from the Campaign Trail: The Greatest Presidential Campaign Speeches of the 20th Century and How They Shaped Modern America (Walker Books, 2008), as well as a columnist the Guardian newspaper. He previously wrote a  weekly column for Foreign Policy and was a blogger for the New York Daily News.

Formerly he was a senior fellow at the New America Foundation and the American Security Project. He also served in the U.S. Department of State as chief speechwriter for U.S. Representative to the United Nations Bill Richardson and Undersecretary of State Stuart Eizenstat. He has worked at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and was chief speechwriter for Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT). He has also worked on political campaigns, both in the United States and overseas.

He is a frequent writer on politics and international affairs, and his work has been featured in publications such as the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times,Boston Globe, Foreign Affairs, Politico, World Policy Journal, the Christian Science Monitor, World Politics Review, Nation, Dissent and Reuters. He has also been featured on ABC News, Good Morning America NOW, Fox News, BBC TV, South African television, Al Jazeera, al Hurra, Air America, The Brian Lerer Show, To the Point with Warren Olney, Pacifica Radio, Sirius/XM Radio’s POTUS and Wall Street Journal Radio.

Michael holds a bachelor’s degree in international relations from American University and a master’s degree from Columbia University where he is also an adjunct lecturer in the School of International and Public Affairs. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife Sarah and his daughter Isodora.