Olivier Knox

A veteran of Washington media, Olivier spent more than a decade with Agence France-Presse, covering almost every facet of the political story, from presidential campaigns to Congressional drama to the real-world implications of policy decisions at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue.

Dee Dee Benkie

Indiana National Committeewoman Dee Dee Benkie is a dynamic political leader with a long record of success at every level of Republican activism. From the White House halls in Washington DC to the Versailles town hall of her heartland home in Southern Indiana, Dee Dee has utilized her excellent communication skills and technology savvy to advance the Republican cause.

Cathy Areu

Working in the media world for over a decade, she's been called a magazine maven by NPR, one of New York City's most influential women by the Oxygen TV Network, a woman of vision by DC's WashFM, and an "infobabe" (amongst other things) by Rush Limbaugh.

Since 2000, Cathy is known to millions of newspaper readers for her work as a contributing editor for The Washington Post Magazine. Her popular “First Person Singular” interviews have included one-on-one talks with First Lady Laura Bush, Secretary of State James Baker, Senator Al Franken, Host Larry King, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, and countless other VIPs. Every unique "First Person" profile, each which is read by more than 2 million readers, tells the story of one of the nation's most notable and influential persons, in his or her own words.

But, today, Cathy is probably best known as the founding publisher of the national Latina print magazine, and multi-media brand, CATALINA, created in 2001 to break stereotypes and show a positive side of the U.S. Hispanic community. In its first year, CATALINA magazine earned the “Lead Launch” distinction by Folio magazine; and reached an audited circulation of 500,000 by 2004, making it the largest lifestyle magazine targeting Hispanic women in the nation.

CATALINA's clients have included Burger King, Disney, ExxonMobil, Volvo, Southwest Airlines, Marshalls, Kodak, to name a few.

As a Latina publisher, Washington Post Magazine contributing editor, and former public high school teacher, Cathy's views on U.S. politics, Latino issues, pop culture and the nation’s education system have caught of attention of national media outlets.

In addition to serving as a frequent guest on shows including Fox’s O’Reilly Factor, HLN’s Prime News, and HLN’s Showbiz Tonight, Cathy has also appeared on CNN’s AC360, CNN’s Campbell Brown, Fox’s Hannity show, and MSNBC’s The Daily Rundown. Her tell-it-like-it-is views have also been discussed by Howard Stern, Rush Limbaugh, and other national commentators who wonder what Cathy will say next. Stay tuned ...

Cathy is the author of the top-selling, non-fiction inspirational book: Latino Wisdom. She is currently working on her second non-fiction book about the power of women in D.C.

Paul T. Conway

Paul T. Conway served as the Acting Federal Coordinator and Chief of Staff for the Federal Office of Gulf Coast Rebuilding - a Presidential Executive Order agency established in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina to better coordinate Federal and state communications, disaster policy and funding issues following the initial FEMA response. The scope of the office included the coordination of all Federal agencies and interaction with state and local officials throughout Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas, Alabama and especially the City of New Orleans. In this role, Mr. Conway worked across Federal agencies and with state and local governments on multiple issues including clean-up operations, temporary housing, infrastructure rebuilding, levee rebuilding and other state and local assistance issues. The total Federal expenditures for post-Katrina recovery as coordinated by the Office of Gulf Coast Rebuilding was estimated at over $100 billion.

Mr. Conway also served as the Chief of Staff of the United States Department of Labor during the initial response to Katrina and coordinated multiple issues including disaster unemployment assistance and other Federal aid.

Former Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff awarded Mr. Conway the second highest civilian award from DHS, the Secretary's Silver Medal, for his efforts to advance the mission of the department and to aid the states and communities impacted by Katrina. In addition, for his service to their citizens and communities, Governors Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, Haley Barbour of Mississippi, Rick Perry of Texas and Bob Riley of Alabama named Mr. Conway an Honorary Citizen.

Mr. Conway also has experience on over 100 political campaigns at the local, state and national level.

Jeremy Schaap

An ESPN reporter since 1996, Jeremy Schaap functions in a variety of roles at the network. He is a correspondent for E:60, the host of ESPN Radio’s The Sporting Life and a frequent contributor to SportsCenter, Outside the Lines, NFL Countdown and College Gameday. He is also a commentator for ESPN.com and the substitute host for The Sports Reporters.

Schaap has won six national Sports Emmy Awards and many other honors for his work. He is the author of Cinderella Man, a New York Times bestseller, and Triumph: The Untold Story of Jesse Owens and Hitler’s Olympics. His best-known stories at ESPN include a Bobby Fischer profile, which earned him the national Sports Emmy Award for writing, an award named for his father Dick Schaap, and an investigation that took him to Serbia in search of a basketball player accused of a brutal assault, which earned him the national Sports Emmy Award for journalism.

It was also Schaap who conducted the first interview with Bob Knight after he was fired by Indiana University in 2000. In the New York Post, Phil Mushnick called the interview, which turned confrontational, “A slam dunk… one that should be stored in the annals of sports broadcast journalism.”

In February 2003, Schaap broke the story of a pattern of misconduct by the University of Georgia’s basketball coaching staff. The investigation led to Georgia’s withdrawal from the SEC and NCAA tournaments and the departure of head coach Jim Harrick.  John Jackson of the Chicago Sun-Times wrote, “The report was the kind of first-rate reporting rarely seen on TV. Jeremy Schaap’s reporting was fair and balanced.”

In 2001, Schaap was honored by the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism for his two-part story on a white Florida high school football coach whose use of a racial epithet sparked a local furor.  In 2006, Schaap received the annual journalism award of the National Association for Multi-Ethnicity in Communications, for a story on the Morgan State lacrosse team, the only lacrosse team ever fielded by a historically black college. And in 2011, Schaap was honored by the United Nations with a special commendation for a report on so-called corrective rape, the sexual attacks committed against lesbian athletes in South Africa.

Schaap’s charitable endeavors include longstanding relationships with the ALS Association, whose annual sports awards dinner he emcees, and the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of America, which has honored him with its Lifetime Achievement Award.

In addition to his contributions for ESPN The Magazine and ESPN.com, Schaap’s work has appeared in The New York Times, Sports Illustrated, Time, Parade and The Wall Street Journal.

A native of New York City, Schaap is a 1991 graduate of Cornell University.