It Matters

Jeh Johnson is the former U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security. He served in that position from December 2013 to January 2017. Johnson now practices law again in New York City at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, LLP. Johnson has been affiliated with Paul, Weiss off and on since 1984, and he was elected the firm’s first African American partner in 1993. Johnson now serves on the Management and Partnership Committees of the firm. In private life Johnson is also a regular commentator on NBC, CBS, ABC, MSNBC, CNN, FOX, FOX Business and Bloomberg News.

Prior to becoming Secretary of Homeland Security, Johnson was appointed by President Obama to be General Counsel of the Department of Defense (2009-2012) and appointed by President Clinton to be General Counsel of the Department of the Air Force (1998-2001). Earlier in his career, Johnson was an Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York (1989-1991).

Johnson is a graduate of Morehouse College (1979) and Columbia Law School (1982), and the recipient of ten honorary degrees. He has debated at both the Oxford and Cambridge Unions in England and is an honorary life member of the Cambridge Union.

Seema Yasmin is an Emmy Award-winning journalist, poet, medical doctor and author. Yasmin served as an officer in the Epidemic Intelligence Service at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention where she investigated disease outbreaks and was principal investigator on a number of CDC studies. Yasmin trained in journalism at the University of Toronto and in medicine at the University of Cambridge.

Yasmin was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in breaking news in 2017 with a team from The Dallas Morning News and recipient of an Emmy for her reporting on neglected diseases. She received two grants from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting. In 2017, Yasmin was a John S. Knight Fellow in Journalism at Stanford University investigating the spread of health misinformation and disinformation during epidemics. Previously she was a science correspondent at The Dallas Morning News, medical analyst for CNN, and professor of public health at the University of Texas at Dallas.

Her writing has earned awards and residencies from the Mid Atlantic Arts Council, Hedgebrook, the Millay Colony for the Arts and others. Her first book, The Impatient Dr. Lange (Johns Hopkins University Press, July 2018) is the biography of an AIDS doctor killed on Malaysia Airlines flight MH17. Her second book, Debunked! Pseudoscience, Medical Myths and Why They Persist, is forthcoming in November 2019. A major title about women is forthcoming from HarperCollins in 2020.

Yasmin’s unique expertise in medicine, epidemics and journalism has been called upon by The Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues, the Aspen Institute, Skoll Foundation and others.

Nomiki Konst is an American activist and political commentator. She worked for The Young Turks and Our Revolution, a progressive political action organization developed from the Bernie Sanders 2016 presidential campaign.

Rev. Dr. Howard-John Wesley is the exciting, gifted and anointed senior pastor of the historic Alfred Street Baptist Church. Known to challenge the mind and inspire the heart, Dr. Wesley is a much sought after speaker for worship services, conferences, and revivals. His preaching became a favorite of former President and Mrs. Barack Obama who worshipped with their family at Alfred Street Baptist Church on several Easter Sundays. “Faith Forward,” his radio broadcast on the Radio/Urban One network, is one of the most listened to religious Radio broadcasts in the Washington, DC area. His sermons on YouTube have garnered more than 100 million views.

Bakari Sellers made history in 2006 when, at just 22 years old, he defeated a 26-year incumbent State Representative to become the youngest member of the South Carolina state legislature and the youngest African American elected official in the nation.

In 2014, Sellers won the Democratic nomination for Lt. Governor and is widely considered to be a rising star within the Democratic Party and leading voice for his generation.

Sellers earned his undergraduate degree from Morehouse College, where he served as student body president, and his law degree from the University of South Carolina. He has followed in the footsteps of his father, civil rights leader, Dr. Cleveland Sellers, in his tireless commitment to public service while championing progressive policies to address issues ranging from education and poverty to preventing domestic violence and childhood obesity.

In addition to his impressive list of early accomplishments, Sellers served on President Barack Obama's South Carolina steering committee during the 2008 election. That coupled with his uncommon ability to reach across the aisle and get things done has led to numerous accolades including being named to TIME Magazine’s "40 Under 40" in 2010 as well as 2014’s “The Root 100” list of the nation’s most influential African Americans. Sellers has been a much sought after public speaker and has provided political and social commentary and analysis on many major national news outlets.

(Link to purchase " My Vanishing Country")

https://bookshop.org/books/my-vanishing-country-a-memoir/9780062917454

Dr. Wendy Osefo is the essence of a Renaissance woman— professor, political analyst, and entrepreneur. As a Maryland native, Nigerian-born Wendy joins the ladies of The Real Housewives of Potomac this season. With her strong personality, she knows how to hold her own and speak her mind when it comes to standing up to the other ladies.
 
Wendy’s life and upbringing embody the ultimate immigrant journey. Growing up with a single immigrant mother who put herself through college, Wendy learned first-hand the value of hard work and never thought of excuses or failure as options. Now an award-winning Nigerian-American television personality and progressive political analyst, she is on a quest to fulfill her insatiable appetite to succeed and obtain the American dream. Wendy received a Bachelor of Arts from Temple University, a Master of Arts from The Johns Hopkins University, a Master of Science from Rutgers University, and a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) from Rutgers University, where she made history by becoming the first black woman to earn a PhD in Public Affairs/Community Development.
 
Wendy is also a philanthropist who has sought to give back by supporting the next generation of leaders as the founder and CEO of the 1954 Equity Project, LLC, which provides tools, mentorship, and resources to underrepresented minorities to help them thrive in higher education. Wendy is currently a professor at the Johns Hopkins University School of Education specializing in urban education and politics. Prior to joining the faculty at The Johns Hopkins University, Wendy served as the Director of Family and Community Engagement for President Barack Obama's antipoverty initiative, DC Promise Neighborhood Initiative. When she is not busy traveling to exotic destinations or on date nights with her hubby, Wendy loves to cook for her family. Wendy also has a penchant for interior design and hopes to start her own home essentials line in the future.
 
Wendy has been married for nine years. She and her Nigerian husband, attorney Edward Osefo met as teenagers, were friends for several years before making it official after graduating college, and have been together ever since. They have three beautiful children together, seven-year-old son Karter, five-year-old son Kruz, and the newest addition to the family, newborn daughter Kamrynn.

Welcome to another episode of The Starr Report, I’m your host, Michael Starr Hopkins, and on today’s show, we’ve got NBC news anchor and my friend Alison Morris. Alison covers the most important stories of the day for one of the biggest networks in the world, NBC, and today she’s here with us, to talk about her path to 30 Rock.  Alison talked to me about her struggles, her successes, and how the worst moment of her career turned into an opportunity for growth.  This is my conversation with Alison Morris


Alison Morris is a news anchor and host for NBC News NOW, the online streaming network from NBC News. Alison anchors the weekend coverage on MSNBC from 2-4 p.m. 

Glenn is a former federal prosecutor with 30 years of trial experience.  He served in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia for 24 years, rising to the position of Chief of the Homicide Section.  In that capacity, Glenn supervised 30 homicide prosecutors and oversaw all homicide grand jury investigations and prosecutions in Washington, DC. Prior to joining the DC U.S. Attorney’s Office, Glenn served more than six years on active duty as an Army Judge Advocate General (JAG) prosecutor, trying court-martial cases and handling criminal appeals, including espionage and death penalty cases.

Glenn tried hundreds of cases in his 30 years as a prosecutor, including more than 50 murder trials, multiple lengthy RICO trials, and precedent-setting cases.  His cases have been made into major motion pictures (murder conviction of a sophisticated con man who ran in elite DC circles, subject of upcoming film “Georgetown”, starring Vanessa Redgrave, Christoph Waltz, and Annette Bening) and TV documentaries (defendant Andre Burno convicted of the ambush shooting of an on-duty police officer, subject of the Emmy Award-winning HBO documentary, “Thug Life in DC”). Glenn has lectured at Federal Bar Association seminars, judicial conferences and professional association events.  He has presented at the National Advocacy Center on the topic of homicide prosecutions and taught advanced criminal law at George Washington University School of Law as an adjunct faculty member.  He traveled as a Department of Justice representative to address Ukrainian prosecutors and detectives regarding the U.S. Criminal justice system.   

As an Army JAG, Glenn served as a prosecutor at Fort Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska, where he handled dozens of court-martial cases and served as legal advisor to Army commanders on criminal justice matters. He then served as an Army appellate attorney at the U.S. Army Legal Services Agency in Falls Church, Virginia, where he handled death penalty and espionage cases, among others.

Glenn attended Washington & Lee University in Lexington, Virginia, and was First-Team All American football player in 1983.  In 1987, he graduated with honors from New England School of Law in Boston, where he was named a Trustee’s Scholar. Glenn has received numerous awards, including the Harold J. Sullivan Award for Fairness, Ethics and Trial Excellence; the John F. Evans Award for Outstanding Advocacy; the Metropolitan Police Department’s Chief of Police Medal of Honor; the United States Attorney’s Office STAR Award; U.S. Army Meritorious Service Medal; Washington & Lee University Athletic Hall of Fame Inductee; and upcoming induction in September 2018 into the American College of Trial Lawyers. 

With the rise of the Tea Party and the election of Donald Trump, many middle- and lower-income white Americans threw their support behind conservative politicians who pledged to make life great again for people like them. But as Dying of Whiteness shows, the right-wing policies that resulted from this white backlash put these voters’ very health at risk—and in the end, threaten everyone’s well-being. 

Physician and sociologist Jonathan M. Metzl travels across America’s heartland seeking to better understand the politics of racial resentment and its impact on public health. Interviewing a range of Americans, he uncovers how racial anxieties led to the repeal of gun control laws in Missouri, stymied the Affordable Care Act in Tennessee, and fueled massive cuts to schools and social services in Kansas. Although such measures promised to restore greatness to white America, Metzl’s systematic analysis of health data dramatically reveals they did just the opposite: these policies made life sicker, harder, and shorter in the very populations they purported to aid.  Thus, white gun suicides soared, life expectancies fell, and school dropout rates rose. 

Powerful, searing, and sobering, Dying of Whiteness ultimately demonstrates just how much white America would benefit by emphasizing cooperation, rather than by chasing false promises of supremacy.

Tory Dandy has been close to football his entire life. Tory’s experience as a college football standout at Tusculum College allows him the ability to relate to his clients both on and off the field. As an NFLPA agent, Tory is very passionate about supporting his clients and their families both personally and professionally. 

Tory obtained a Bachelor’s degree in Business Management with a minor in Sports Management from Tusculum College in 2002. He earned his Master’s degree in Business Administration from Webster University in 2004. 

Tory is actively involved in the community where he tours numerous schools and churches speaking to and positively encouraging youth. Tory also serves as a youth mentor of the CDC Mentor Program of the Carolinas. In 2013, he established an annual scholarship, “The Tory Dandy Educational Scholarship” for graduating seniors from his high school (Woodruff High) in South Carolina.

Tory began his professional career in 2004 and was soon promoted to Director of Recruiting at Synergy Sports. In 2006, Tory transitioned to Director of Recruiting with Maximum Sports with veteran agents Eugene Parker and Roosevelt Barnes. In 2009, at the young age of 29 years old, Tory signed the #3 overall pick with client, Tyson Jackson. 
​
Tory helped represent numerous clients while at Maximum Sports. After a very successful career at Maximum Sports, Tory joined the Relativity Sports Family in 2013. As a certified NFLPA agent, Tory is involved in all aspects of his clients’ representation with his primary focus being contract negotiation, client services, and pre-draft process. Tory is now the Executive Senior Agent at CAA Football.