Rachel Thornton, Pikesville. Rachel Thornton is a pediatrician and public health researcher. She most recently served as an Assistant Professor at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Her research addresses racial/ethnic disparities in health and health care with an emphasis on childhood obesity. She is passionate about using public health research to inform policy-making and was the director of a health impact assessment of Baltimore City’s comprehensive zoning code rewrite, a project among the first of its kind in the U.S. After receiving a medical degree from Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and a Ph.D. in Health Policy and Management from the Bloomberg School of Public Health, Rachel completed residency training at the Johns Hopkins Hospital Children’s Center. She has published scientific articles in peer-reviewed journals and presented her research at national meetings. As National President of the Student National Medical Association, she lectured nationally and internationally on racial/ethnic disparities in health and diversity in medical education. She also participated in service and educational missions to Ghana and Cuba. Rachel is committed to mentoring and serving as a positive force in children’s’ lives. Rachel graduated summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa from New York University, earning her B.A. with honors in psychology.

Kubby Rashid, Jessup. Kubby Rashid has been a member of the Gallaudet faculty since 1994, including a stint as Chair of the Department of Business. In addition to teaching, Dr. Rashid was active in faculty leadership and administration, and was co chair of a major initiative to reconfigure all academic programs at the University. Dr. Rashid served on the board of the World Deaf Leadership Program, guiding development projects for the deaf communities in South Africa and Thailand. She has also worked with individuals from many developing countries, helping deaf people learned to develop leadership skills and advocate for themselves. Dr. Rashid has previously been involved with the National Deaf Business Institute and taught several years for NDBI and Merrill Lynch's summer program for Deaf Business owners and would-be entrepreneurs. She was the first coordinator of the Bernstein Leadership Institute's Deaf Women's Leadership Program, and implemented the program and curriculum that form the core of the DWLP today. In 2008 she was appointed by Gov. Martin O’Malley to a six-year term on the Board of the Maryland School for the Deaf and also serves as a Board member of Discovering Deaf Worlds, an NGO dedicated to helping deaf people in developing countries.

Harley Feldbaum, Glen Echo. Harley Feldbaum is Director of the Global Health and Foreign Policy Initiative and a Professorial Lecturer at the Johns Hopkins Nitze School of Advanced International Studies. He directs all daily operations of a $1.6 million Gates Foundation grant to improve global health policymaking and train future leaders at the nexus between international relations and global health. Harley also serves as an author and senior consultant to the CSIS Global Health Policy Center and is a Fellow with the Truman National Security Project. Prior to Johns Hopkins, Harley consulted for the Nuffield Trust on health and security issues, was a program associate with the California Endowment, and worked as an interviewer and analyst on the Baltimore City needle exchange vans. Harley was a Luce Scholar in Chiang Mai Thailand, worked in the Nagatyad refugee camp with refugees from the Bosnian War, and volunteered for 3 years with the Llanberis Mountain Rescue Team on Mount Snowdon in North Wales. Harley received a Ph.D. in public health policy from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, a Masters in Public Health from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and graduated with Honors from Wesleyan University.