Stephen Lewis is Co-Director of AIDS-Free World (www.aids-freeworld.org), a new international AIDS advocacy organization, based in the United States.  He is Chair of the board of the Stephen Lewis Foundation in Canada (www.stephenlewisfoundation.org) and he is a Professor in Global Health in the Faculty of Social Sciences at McMaster University.
Stephen Lewis’ work with the United Nations spanned more than two decades.  He was the UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa from June 2001 until the end of 2006.   From 1995 to 1999, Mr. Lewis was Deputy Executive Director of UNICEF at the organization’s global headquarters in New York.  From 1984 through 1988, Stephen Lewis was Canada’s Ambassador to the United Nations.
Mr. Lewis was an elected member of the Ontario Legislative Assembly from 1963 to 1978.  In 1970, he became leader of the Ontario New Democratic Party, during which time he became leader of the Official Opposition.
Mr. Lewis is the author of the best-selling book, Race Against Time.  He holds 28 honorary degrees from Canadian universities and is a Companion of the Order of Canada, Canada’s highest honour for lifetime achievement. He was awarded the Pearson Peace Medal in 2004 by the United Nations Association in Canada; the award celebrates outstanding achievement in the field of international service and understanding.  In 2007, the Kingdom of Lesotho (a small mountainous country in Southern Africa) invested Mr. Lewis as Knight Commander of the Most Dignified Order of Moshoeshoe. The order is named for the founder of Lesotho; the knighthood is the country’s highest honour.

Dr. Joel Westheimer is University Research Chair in the Sociology of Education and Professor of Education at the University of Ottawa. He is co-founder and executive director of Democratic Dialogue, (www.democraticdialogue.com). Westheimer teaches, researches, and writes on democratic engagement, social justice, activism, service learning, and community in education. He has published books such as Pledging Allegiance: The Politics of Patriotism in America's Schools (2007) which Teacher Magazine called “this year's most important education book,” What Kind of Citizen? Schools, Civic Education, and the Promise of Democracy (forthcoming, 2009), and Among Schoolteachers (1998). He also publishes widely in newspapers, magazines and scholarly journals and addresses radio and television audiences on shows such as Good Morning America, More to Life, The Agenda, NBC TV News, C-Span, NPR, and CBC radio.  Westheimer has received numerous awards including the Daniel E. Griffiths Award for Excellence in Education Research, the Jason Millman Award, and Outstanding Research of the Year Award from the American Political Science Association’s Division on Teaching and Learning.  In 2005, he was named John Glenn Service Learning Scholar for Social Justice by the John Glenn Institute for Public Service and Public Policy.