Senator Blackburn was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2018, and is currently serving her first term representing the state of Tennessee. Before her election to the Senate, Marsha represented Tennessee’s 7th Congressional District.

Senator Blackburn servers on the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, the Senate Judiciary Committee, Veteran’s Affairs Committee, and the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Congressman Chris Smith is a world-recognized champion of human rights. He serves as a senior member on the Foreign Affairs Committee, and is a Ranking Member of Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights and International Organizations Subcommittee. He is the Co-Chair of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, and Ranking Member of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, and also serves as “Special Representative” for the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly. He is the recipient of the 2015 Citizen Power Award. 

Congressman Ted Yoho represents North Central Florida’s 3rd Congressional District. He was elected to the 113th Congress in November 2012, and won re-election for his fourth term in the 116th Congress. He servers as a ranking member of Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific in House Committee on Foreign Affairs. He is also a member of the Congressional Caucus for Effective Foreign Assistance. 

Professor Irwin Cotler is the Chair of the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights, an Emeritus Professor of Law at McGill University, former Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada and longtime Member of Parliament, and an international human rights lawyer. 

Mr. Nury Turkel is a Commissioner to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. He is the first U.S.-educated Uyghur-American lawyer and human rights advocate. He currently serves as the Chairman of the Board for the Uyghur Human Rights Project (UHRP), which he co-founded in 2003. He also served as the president of the Uyghur American Association, where he led efforts to raise the profile of the Uyghur people in the United States

Hon. Michael Danby is a former Member of Parliament of Australia. In December of 2018, Mr. Danby introduced the Australian Magnisty Act. He also served as the Parliamentary Secretary of the Australian Labor Party. Mr. Danby was previously Parliamentary Secretary for the Arts, Chairperson of the Australian Parliament’s Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence, and Trade, as well as the Joint Standing Committee on Migration. 

Dr. Jianli YANG is the president and founder of Citizen Power Initiatives for China. He is a survivor of 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre. He later earned Ph.D. of Mathematics from U.C. Berkerley and Ph.D. of Political Economics from Harvard JFK School of Government. He served 5 years (2002-2007) as a prisoner of conscience in China after returning to China to observe the labor unrest. He founded Citizen Power Initiatives for China after he was released from China and returned to the United States.

Mr. Christopher Walker is Vice President for Studies and Analysis at the National Endowment for Democracy (NED). In this capacity, he oversees the department responsible for NED’s multifaceted analytical work. He is an expert on authoritarian regimes, and has been at the forefront of the discussion on authoritarian influence on open systems, including through what he terms “sharp power.”  He is co-editor of the edited volume Authoritarianism Goes Global: The Challenge to Democracy, and co-editor of the report Sharp Power: Rising Authoritarian Influence.

Dr. Zsuzsa Ferenzy is an affiliated scholar at Vrije Universiteit Brussel. She is also a China and Korean Peninsula consultant at Human Rights Without Frontiers and was a political advisor at the European Parliament, Brussels (2008–2020). Dr. Ferenzy is also the author of the book “Europe, China, and the Limits of Normative Power“ 

Mr. Eric Brown is a senior fellow at Hudson Institute where he studies Asian and Middle East affairs, international security and development, alternative geopolitical futures, and U.S. diplomacy and strategy. He is also the editor, with Hillel Fradkin and Husain Haqqani, of the review Current Trends in Islamist Ideology. In recent years, his work has focused on the contest over order in West Asia, the geo-strategic ramifications of growing Trans-Asian connectivity, coping with state fragility, and U.S. security strategy.

Prof. Tomoko Ako is a Professor of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at the University of Tokyo. Her research interests include the empowerment of socially vulnerable people such as
migrant workers, HIV/AIDS positives, women, elderly people and children, with a particular focus on China. Recently she has been involved in research projects on civil society and social media, and has interviewed a wide range of Chinese public intellectuals, human rights lawyers, and journalists.

Mr. Benedict Rogers is the co-founder and Chief Executive of Hong Kong Watch. Ben launched Hong Kong Watch, together with other co-founders, in Speaker’s House in the British Parliament on 10 December 2017, just two months after he was denied entry to Hong Kong on the orders of Beijing. Before joining Hong Kong Watch as the Chief Executive in September 2020, Ben was the East Asia Team Leader at the international human rights organization CSW, where he specialized in Myanmar, Indonesia, North Korea, and China.

Dr. Lianchao Han is the VP of Citizen Power Initiatives for China. After graduating from law school in China, he worked in the Chinese Foreign Ministry. After the Tiananmen Square Massacre, Dr. Han co-founded and served as the first VP of the Independent Federation of Chinese Students and Scholars. He worked in the U.S. Senate for 12 years, serving as legislative counsel and policy director for three U.S. Senators. Dr. Han is an expert on China’s economic and political development. Dr. Han holds graduate degrees from China Foreign Affairs University, Yale University, George Mason University and Johns Hopkins University. 

Brian O’Shea is the CEO and Senior Investigator at Striker Pierce. Executive VP & COO at Centurion Intelligence Partners. Brian’s specialties include M&A/Exit Strategies and Information Protection for Investment Clients. Additionally, Brian assists companies in protecting their information, especially during deals, from competitive intelligence collection as well as information loss through nefarious means.

Brian has spent over 20 years in the field of investigations and intelligence working first in military intelligence for two Special Forces groups and then for two different government agencies.

Atul Aneja is an international journalist and commentator. He is the former Strategic Affairs Editor of The Hindu newspaper. Atul was previously Associate Editor (China), posted in Beijing. 

Atul specializes in geopolitics and international security with a focus on China, Eurasia, and West Asia. He has an M.Phil degree in International Relations from the School of West Asian and African Studies of Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.

Keely Sage is serving her second term as the President of Tennessee College Democrats. She currently is a senior at the University of Tennessee Knoxville where she is pursing a degree in Biosystems Engineering.  She was featured in the 2020 DNC Roll Call across America as the delegate delivering Tennessee’s Presidential nominating votes.

Courtney Hope Britt is the Southern Regional Vice Chair for the College Republican National Committee. She has worked for state and federal campaigns, the Virginia Senate Republican Caucus and the Republican Party of Virginia’s General Counsel. A Richmond, Virginia native, she graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2017 with a degree in philosophy and French and from the University of Richmond in 2020 with her Juris Doctor degree.

Rory O’Connor is President and Chairman of the Athenai Institute. As a college freshman, he helped organize student support for the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act and the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act. He has previously worked in Senator Chris Coons office, and led the effort behind the Washington Appeal.