Roy Firestone is a seven-time Emmy Award-winning and seven-time cable ACE Award-winning host, interviewer, actor, narrator, writer, and producer. As the ground-breaking, original host of ESPN’s legendary Up Close, Up Close Classic and Up Close Primetime, Firestone has interviewed more than 5,000 athletes, musicians, actors and political figures. 

Sports Illustrated has called Firestone "The best interviewer in the business." The late Pulitzer Prize winning columnist Jim Murray once said, “Roy Firestone isn’t just the best sports interviewer I’ve ever seen, he's the best interviewer period.” He will be returning to ESPN soon as the host of a new show airing in 2022 and recently launched an online series called Unlikely Stories. Not limited to television, Firestone is also prolific in movies (Jerry Maguire, etc.) and on the printed page — his most recent book, That’s What I’m Talking About, follows his three best-selling books, Up Close with Roy Firestone and Don’t Make Me Cry, Roy as well as his only children’s book, Kobe and a Boy Named Roy. In 1996, Roy helped to create a foundation, https://www.westcoastsports.org/  that supports youth sports programs in Southern California. As part of the foundation’s programming he also presents the annual Roy Firestone Award: https://www.westcoastsports.org/roy-firestone-award. Viewed as a logical extension of his life’s work, Roy is passionate about the NSM project and will be a hands-on advisor to help bring the NSM vision to life, parlaying all of his experience and expertise as a sports-themed storyteller into the museum experience.

Ms. Ibrahim-Leathers founded Global Fund for Widows in 2009. Since then, the Fund has raised over $1,000,000 for economic empowerment programs in Egypt, India, Tanzania, Nigeria, Bolivia, and the Dominican Republic. With its focus on training and financing, the Fund has enabled more than 10,000 widows to become economically empowered and self-sustained. In addition to technical and economic programming, Ms. Ibrahim-Leathers is an active advocate for the rights of widows and child widows at the United Nations, presenting regularly, including at the Human Rights Council in Geneva, the United Kingdom’s House of Lords, and the Commission on the Status of Women in New York. Prior to her career in non-profit, Ms. Ibrahim-Leathers served as a Vice President in Credit Suisse’s Leveraged Investment Group, where she was directly responsible for over $1 billion in high yield and leveraged loan assets. Prior to Credit Suisse, Ms. Ibrahim-Leathers worked at JPMorgan where she was an Emerging Markets Fixed Income analyst responsible for over $4 billion worth of debt issuance. Ms. Ibrahim-Leathers earned the coveted Institutional Investor Award in 1997 for her seminal research on Brazilian banks. She also co-authored Toddlers ON Technology in 2013, a parental guide to explaining the benefits and risks of toddlers and their use of touch-screen technology. Ms. Ibrahim-Leathers earned her Bachelor’s in Economics from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and is a Chartered Financial Analyst.

Marc A. Pitman, CSP® has been leading organizations and teams for decades. His failures and successes have caused him to study leadership for over 30 years, including earning a Masters in Organizational Leadership and certification as a FranklinCovey Coach. Combining his ongoing education with his own experience, Marc helps leaders lead their teams with more effectiveness and less stress. His latest book is The Surprising Gift of Doubt: Use Uncertainty to Become the Exceptional Leader You Are Meant to Be. He’s also the author of Ask Without Fear!® – which has been translated into Dutch, Polish, Spanish, and Mandarin. He’s also the executive director of TheNonprofitAcademy.com and an former Advisory Panel member of Rogare, a prestigious international fundraising think tank. Over the past 18 years, Marc’s organizational and leadership coaching and trainings have helped tens of thousands of nonprofits advance their missions, meet revenue goals, and improve the lives of their staff and supporters including clients like the Maine Public Broadcasting, Georgetown University, In Defense of Animals, Habitat for Humanity, Chabad on Campus, Islamic Relief USA, and the Association of the U.S. Army.

New York-based artist Adam Port has been painting professionally for over 20 years and has devoted his photorealistic approach to painting pop culture icons including major historical figures of sports and entertainment: Ruth, Gehrig, Ali, Jordan, Tiger, Elvis, the Beatles, and many more have received the artistic tribute of Port’s life-like portraits. After graduating from Syracuse University’s School of Visual and Performing Arts, Adam burst on the art scene back in 2000 when he was discovered by a New York Knicks photographer and quickly earned a prestigious licensing agreement with the NBA. Port’s clientele consists of many other influential entities, including the Basketball Hall of Fame and Elvis Presley Enterprises, along with several A-list stars, such as Ray Lewis, Shaquille O’Neal and Michael Jordan.

Mitchel Gray is a photographer, videographer, and author. His photographic life has encompassed two different disciplines, Fashion and Beauty for the first half and Sports and Fitness for the second. The connection between the two has been a consistent propensity for photographing the body--at rest or in motion, clad or unclad, airborne, waterborne, snowborne, mounted on a machine or four-legged creature. He has to his credit two best-selling photography books, and has illustrated many more, particularly in the active lifestyle/health and fitness field. He has photographed over one hundred magazine covers for publications including Men’s Health, Men’s Fitness, Muscle & Fitness, M & F Hers, Runner’s World, Mountain Bike, Bicycling, Fitness, et al.  He has shot many hundreds of magazine editorial and ad pages for various publications and advertising agencies around the world. Much of his portrait work in recent years has focused on celebrities including Tom Brady, Derek Jeter, Barry Bonds, and Ken Griffey, Jr. His latest fine art series, Bodies in Action, which includes several current Olympic and professional athletes, as well as professional dancers from the New York City Ballet, has been the subject of three gallery shows in New York. His earlier fine art work has been shown in galleries throughout the United States and Europe.

Lauren Meyer is an Emmy nominated Director who grew up in NJ and attended  Rutgers. Her work has been seen on dozens of TV Networks and Digital Platforms including Netflix, Amazon, ABC, NBC, Nickelodeon, ESPN, HGTV, A&E, Discovery and many more.

Her specialty is storytelling and being a champion for the underdog while crafting beautiful imagery.

She works as a Director and Producer for broadcast, digital and corporate clients and is the filmmaker behind the critically acclaimed documentary “The Other Boys of Summer”. The film explores civil rights through the lens of America’s pastime and features exclusive interviews with many Negro League baseball players. These are the men who played alongside Jackie Robinson and changed America.

The Other Boys of Summer is being used as the centerpiece of an original Diversity, Equity & Inclusion program that’s making a positive impact with companies, communities and organizations across the country.

Michelle Rodriguez, MPT, OCS, CMPT, is the founder and director of MPG ONE Wellness, a physical therapy and wellness center. She has over 22 years of experience as a physical therapist working with elite dancers, athletes, performers, musicians, and actors. Michelle's unique background in orthopedics and biomechanics began with her career as a young professional ballerina. Michelle's work with the dance world has led to her involvement, both on-and-off screen, with three movies: Jock Soto's documentary "Water Flowing Together", Darren Aronofsky's "Black Swan”, and Wendy Whelan's documentary "Restless Creature". Michelle and her team have also provided physical therapy to several Broadway shows, including "On the Town", "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory", and "Carousel", among others.

Pamela Bebry is a NY licensed attorney with over 10 years of experience working with athletes and celebrities, companies, and household brands to leverage their IP and reputation through licensing, endorsements, and strategic partnerships. Pamela's work has supported over $1 Billion in new revenue for her clients, which have included some of the world's most iconic names in sports — Muhammad Ali, Shaquille O'Neal, and Dr. J, to name a few. A graduate of the University of Michigan and Cardozo Law, Pamela began her legal career with the Screen Actors Guild and later joined Authentic Brands Group (ABG), a leading brand development, marketing, and entertainment company. Pamela led ABG's business and legal affairs department for more than 8 years, through the expansion of its then-binary portfolio to over 50 global brands, culminating with Blackrock's first PE investment valuing ABG at over $4 Billion. After her exit from ABG, Pamela founded her own practice, Bebry Law, through which she advises and supports young companies, executives, and IP-focused organizations as they pursue similar success.

Dennis Ramdahin is a humanitarian, solutionist, high net-worth connector, and driver for innovation in project and program development for global poverty alleviation, climate mitigation, peace, environmental and economic restoration, and sustainability architecture.

Dennis is the Founder and CEO of the Vihara Foundation, Rock against Poverty, and Co-Founder of POSSIBLE Humanitarian Concert Series, and sits on the board of many social impact making non-profits. 

He has developed innovative sustainable fundraising models (using music and entertainment) for humanitarian projects globally and in the United States. 

One of his milestone projects is the Vihara Poverty Alleviation Project (whole-system design framework for economic restoration and sustainable wealth creation), which includes a grassroots intervention medical clinic (100,000+ people treated over a 10-year period). 

Dennis is an 18-year Veteran of the US Armed Forces (12 years Navy and 6 years Air Force), which included work on the US Secretary of Air Force Model Base Energy Initiative (an energy efficiency, renewable energy modeling of military bases to cut costs and reduce carbon impact).

Gus Ornstein began his athletic career as an All State Quarterback and All State Baseball player at the Fieldston School in the Bronx. He went on to play both sports at the collegiate level starting at Notre Dame before transferring to Michigan State University where he earned academic all Big Ten honors. Gus graduated from Michigan State University summa cum laude, and went on to play professionally for the St Louis Rams, Indianapolis Colts, Miami Dolphins, Kansas City Chiefs and the New York Jets. Gus also played in the Canadian Football League for the BC Lions and the now defunct NFL Europe League for the Scottish Claymores. 

After being drafted by the Mariners in high school and the Royals in college, Gus was drafted by the New York Yankees and went on to play one season of minor league baseball with them. After finishing his athletic career, Gus spent three years running the Parisi Speed School, an athletic training facility. Gus worked as a color commentator for ESPNU and MSG Varsity, broadcasting a variety of high school and college football and baseball games nationally. 

In 2005, Gus became the head football coach at his alma mater Fieldston.  Subsequently, Gus became the Athletic Director at Fieldston where he is approaching his tenth year, and where he also serves on the Administrative Council. In addition to his work at Fieldston, Gus is the president of the Athletic Directors Committee for the New York State Association of Independent Schools’ (NYSAIS) Athletic Association.

Dr. Fredric Abramson is founder, CEO and Chief Brand Ambassador of Golden Thread Technology, Inc, a biotech innovator that offers digital solutions for applying genetics and advanced data analytics to reduce athletic injury risks. Dr. Abramson’s Ph.D. is in human genetics from the University of Michigan. His undergraduate degree is in Mathematical Biology from the University of Pennsylvania. He's also an MIT Alfred P. Sloan Fellow as well as an attorney admitted in Maryland, the U.S. patent office, and the U.S. Supreme Court. Now you can see why he's affectionately called the "intellectual omnivore." He eats up any knowledge in his path. He was one of the first big data AI developers. He designed and developed high-end statistical software programs to analyze complex health-related data problems. For over 25 years, he taught business-related courses in the Johns Hopkins biotechnology master’s program. Dr. Abramson holds U.S. patent 7877273, which describes how to use wireless technology to match nutrition and supplement inputs to a person’s genetic makeup to lower disease risk and improve health. The central theme in his career has been combining technology, science, and practical implementation to solve complex problems. Today, his focus is on using the science of genetics to build workable solutions to lower the risks of injury to athletes and to empower people to succeed at losing weight and maintaining a healthy lifestyle.

Rhonda Vetere is a seasoned C-Suite executive and passionate global leader in technology. Recognized as one of the Most Powerful Women in Technology and a two-time author, Rhonda is an active leader — whether she’s spearheading corporate initiatives around the world, competing in another IRONMAN 70.3-mile triathlon, or mentoring students & athletes globally in STEM through sports.

Rhonda has worked across industries as a CIO, CTO, global executive, and digital transformation change agent at Herbalife Nutrition, Santander Bank, nThrive / Pamplona Capital Management, Esteé Lauder Companies, AIG, HP Enterprise Services, Barclays / Lehman, Bank One / JPMorgan Chase, CompuServe, UUNET, MCI, and Worldcom. Rhonda will be representing The University of Science and Technology Meghalaya (USTM) in India as its Global Ambassador starting in October 2022.

She has lived and worked internationally – in New York, Hong Kong, Singapore, London, Mumbai, and across India – and has managed teams of up to 20,000 people. Vetere is the author of Grit & Grind and co-author of an HP special edition book, Enterprise Service Management for Dummies.  

From her experience as Chief Technology Officer at Esteé Lauder Companies, Rhonda has deep domain expertise in technology and data. Her role included global leadership across 162 countries and running the technology & operations team. She spearheaded the transformation of the IT capabilities foundation into a digital environment at record industry pace, without business disruption, around the world – while saving $28 million a year.

Rhonda is one of the first humans to run across the Serengeti- a 55-mile endurance run.  She has done it 3 times. This race is with armed guards through rough terrain with wild animals in support of girls’ empowerment.  She is passionate about giving back— she lives and breathes it through all her 87 endurance races to date, including racing across America on a bike in 2022— 3,070 miles as founder of her team to help raise awareness for mental health and help prevent veteran and first responder suicide.

David Sabino is an Emmy and Peabody Award winning multimedia storyteller with nearly three decades of content creation experience for the most prominent brands in U.S. sports media. His work has been seen by millions on ESPN flagship linear franchises including Sportscenter, Outside the Lines, First Take and E60 and at Sports Illustrated where he spent two decades as a writer, reporter, SI.com columnist, Chief of Statistics and lead fantasy sports analyst. Since founding Mainframe Sports Media in 2021 Sabino has contributed in various roles to Fox Sports, WWE Network Documentaries, A&E Networks, Mandalay Sports Media, Mojo Sports and Peacock, including the Emmy-nominated documentary Woooooo! Becoming Ric Flair. 

A longtime print journalist, his contributions have appeared in official books for the National Football League and US Soccer, SPORT Magazine, The New York Times, Chicago Tribune and Boston.com. He is also author of the Game Time children's book series for Simon & Schuster and a contributor to 10 Sports Illustrated Books.

Sabino is a native of New York where he attended the Bronx High School of Science. He is a graduate from Syracuse University's Newhouse School of Public Communications and completed his MBA at the University of Miami.

Jackie Reyneke is an enthusiastic marketing and communications leader, currently serving as Vice President, Client & People Engagement at strategic communications firm Hirsch Leatherwood. Her past roles include integrated strategy at Bleacher Report and account management at Group SJR, a digital marketing agency. With experience in content strategy, client relations, and digital advertising, she finds most of her excitement in meaningful storytelling and connecting with others.

Jackie earned her B.A. in Psychology from Princeton University, where she played varsity basketball and was a member of several clubs. She is passionate about mental health awareness, loves skiing, and resides in beautiful Jersey City, New Jersey.