James Franklin Collins, Ambassador (retired) Ambassador Collins is a senior associate and director of the Russian and Eurasian Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. One of America’s leading authorities on Russia and Eurasia, Ambassador Collins enjoyed a distinguished diplomatic career as U.S. ambassador to the Russian Federation from 1997 to 2001 and as ambassador-at-Large and special advisor to the secretary of state for the New Independent States in the mid-1990s. He has been active as a member of several boards of directors of including the U.S.-Russia Business Council, the American Academy of Diplomacy, the Open World Leadership Program and American Councils for International Education. Ambassador Collins taught Russian and European history, American government and economics at the U.S. Naval Academy. He received his B.A. cum laude from Harvard University in 1961 and his M.A. from Indiana University in 1964.

Benicio Del Toro Host of True Stories: Life in the U.S.A. season one, Benicio Del Toro is an award-winning actor with an international reputation. At the 2003 Venice International Film Festival, Del Toro won the Audience Award [Lion of the Public] for Best Actor and an Academy Award nomination for his performance in 21 Grams. As Javier Rodriguez in Steven Soderbergh’s Traffic he earned an Academy Award, as well as Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild, National Society of Film Critics and Silver Bear [Berlin International Film Festival] Awards. Del Toro made his motion picture debut in John Glen’s License to Kill, opposite Timothy Dalton as James Bond. His subsequent films include Peter Weir’s Fearless; George Huang’s Swimming with Sharks; Abel Ferrara’s The Funeral; Marco Brambilla’s Excess Baggage; Terry Gilliam’s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas; Christopher McQuarrie’s The Way of the Gun; Guy Ritchie’s Snatch; William Friedkin’s The Hunted; and The Indian Runner and The Pledge both directed by his fellow 21 Grams actor, Sean Penn. His television credits include the NBC Emmy winning miniseries Drug Wars: The Camarena Story (directed by Brian Gibson). Del Toro recently starred in Robert Rodriquez’s Sin City, based on three of Frank Miller’s graphic novels. More »

Ambassador Edward P. Djerejian Edward P. Djerejian is the founding director of the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy. He served both President George H.W. Bush and President William J. Clinton as assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern Affairs and Presidents Reagan and Bush as U.S. Ambassador to Syria. He served President Clinton as U.S. Ambassador to Israel before completing his foreign service career in 1994. He also served President Reagan as special assistant and deputy press secretary for foreign affairs. He has been awarded the Presidential Distinguished Service Award, the Department of State’s Distinguished Honor Award and numerous other honors including the Ellis Island Medal of Honor and the Anti-Defamation League’s Moral Statesman Award.

Danny Glover Actor, producer and activist Danny Glover is the series host of True Stories Season Two. As a commanding presence on screen, stage and television for more than 25 years, Glover’s film credits range from the blockbuster Lethal Weapon franchise to smaller independent features. At the same time, Glover has also gained respect for his wide-reaching humanitarian and philanthropic efforts, with a particular emphasis on advocacy for economic justice and access to health care and education programs in the United States and abroad. Internationally, Glover has served as goodwill ambassador for the United Nations Development Program from 1998-2004, focusing on issues of poverty, disease and economic development in Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean and currently serves as UNICEF ambassador.

Honorable Lee H. Hamilton Lee H. Hamilton is president and director of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and director of the Center on Congress at Indiana University. Hamilton represented Indiana’s 9th congressional district for 34 years beginning January 1965. During his tenure, he chaired the House Committee on Foreign Affairs and the Subcommittee on Europe and the Middle East. Hamilton has served as co-chair of the Iraq Study Group, a forward looking, bi-partisan group created at the urging of Congress and is currently a member of the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board. Hamilton, a graduate of DePauw University and Indiana University school of law, authored A Creative Tension: The Foreign Policy Roles of the President and Congress; How Congress Works and Why You Should Care and co-authored Without Precedent: The Inside Story of the 9/11 Commission.

Patricia Harrison Patricia Harrison has been president and CEO of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting since June 2005. Previously, she served as Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs and as Acting Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs. At the Department of State, she created "Partnerships for Learning,” a global initiative to enhance education and opportunity. Ms. Harrison received the Secretary's Distinguished Service Award from Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice for her leadership. Entrepreneur and author, Ms. Harrison holds an honorary doctorate from the American University in Rome. She received the 1999 Global Women's Leadership Award and, in 1997, was named one of “50 Most Influential Women in Politics” by Ladies’ Home Journal.

Honorable James A. Leach James A. Leach served 30 years as a representative in Congress where he chaired the Banking and Financial Services Committee, the Subcommittee on Asian and Pacific Affairs and the Congressional-Executive Commission on China. Leach attended Princeton, the School of Advanced International Studies of Johns Hopkins and the London School of Economics. He holds eight honorary degrees, has received decorations from two foreign governments and is the recipient of the Wayne Morse Integrity in Politics Award, the Woodrow Wilson Award from Johns Hopkins, the Adlai Stevenson Award from the United Nations Association and the Edger Wayburn Award from the Sierra Club. Leach serves on the board of the Century Foundation, the Kettering Foundation and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Trilateral Commission and formerly served as a trustee of Princeton University.

Joseph S. Nye Jr. Joseph S. Nye, Jr., Distinguished Service Professor at Harvard University and Sultan of Oman Professor of International Relations, was Dean of the John F. Kennedy School of Government from December 1995 through June 2004. Nye has been on the faculty at Harvard since 1964, during which time he also served as Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs, Chair of the National Intelligence Council and Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Security Assistance, Science and Technology. His most recent publications are The Power Game: A Washington Novel (2004); Soft Power: The Means to Success in World Politics (2004) and an anthology, Power in the Global Information Age (2004). Nye received his bachelor's degree summa cum laude from Princeton University, did postgraduate work at Oxford University on a Rhodes Scholarship and earned a Ph.D. in political science from Harvard.