Susan Gold is an experienced educator who taught third grade in the Montgomery County (MD) Public Schools from 1998 to 2006. During the summers of 2003 – 2005, she provided curriculum orientation and training for incoming teachers. From 1999 to 2002, Ms. Gold was Coordinator and Team Leader for the MARJiS/Japan Elementary School Educational Exchange Network, a three-year cultural and educational exchange program developed by the University of Maryland, College Park, and the University of Tokyo. During her tenure, she also served on the Character Counts Steering Committee in the City of Gaithersburg, MD; managed her school’s character education program; and field tested the “3 Rs Program” in conjunction with the American Psychological Association. Ms. Gold is a member of the National Association for Gifted Children and has been a speaker at its annual convention. She is a graduate of the Holton-Arms School in Bethesda, MD; earned a B.A. in Sociology from McGill University; and holds an M.S. in Child Development and Early Childhood Education from Wheelock College.

Robert Gold is a licensed Maryland attorney who has worked in the mergers and acquisitions tax department of Ernst & Young LLP and in the Washington national tax office of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP. An expert in school admissions testing, Mr. Gold taught prospective SAT- and LSAT-takers for Kaplan, Inc. between 1996 and 2003. As a youth, he was identified by the Baltimore County (MD) Public Schools as a gifted and talented student, and received mathematics honors in the Johns Hopkins University Center for Talented Youth talent search. Before launching his legal career, Mr. Gold developed marketing plans for both for-profit and nonprofit organizations with Bell Atlantic. Mr. Gold received a B.A. in English from Cornell University and a J.D. from Rutgers School of Law-Newark. He is a member of Maryland Educators of Gifted Students, and the National Association for Gifted Children, where he has served as a speaker at its annual convention.

VADM Cullom holds a B.S. in Physics with distinction from the U.S. Naval Academy and an M.B.A. with distinction from Harvard Business School.  A nuclear-trained surface warfare officer, he has held many assignments at sea culminating in command of a guided missile destroyer, an Expeditionary Strike Group, and two Carrier Strike Groups.  Ashore, he has served in numerous technical, staff, policy, and strategy assignments, and was instrumental in leading Navy's energy, environment, innovation, and sustainability programs.

Ursula Golladay has fourteen years’ experience teaching in the Montgomery County (MD) Public Schools, most recently as music teacher and choral director at Oakland Terrace Elementary School. Recipient of three Washington Post Grants for the Arts as well as a City of Gaithersburg grant, Ms. Golladay has successfully written grants for such diverse areas of study as Japanese arts, African-American history, integrated arts and the Music! Words! Opera! program. In 2004 – 2005 Ms. Golladay served on the board of the Maryland General Music Teachers Association. She earned a B.S. in General Music / Choral-Vocal from the University of Maryland, College Park, and went on to earn a Masters in Educational Leadership, with Administrator I and II endorsements, from Hood College.

Mitzi Wertheim, Professor Naval Postgraduate School, Practice for Sustainability, Enterprises and Social Networking. With a vast experience in government spanning fifty years, Wertheim has the distinguished honor of being the first woman appointee in the Navy to serve as Deputy Under Secretary of the Navy.  Wertheim oversees the Energy Conversation, a network of government and other sectors working together to build the foundation for horizontal communications and whole of government solutions to complex energy problems, under the motto of building “change at the speed of trust.”  She founded and is executive board member of MIT Seminar XXI Foreign Politics, International Relations & National Security.  Early in her career, she was part of the talent bank from which Sergeant Shriver selected his overseas Peace Corps.  Wertheim was also the first Executive Director of the Cafritz Foundation, the largest private foundation in Washington.  During the Carter administration she was part of the Transition Team and helped staff the National Security Cluster – State, Defense, NSC, CIA and the UN.  Her thirteen years at the Federal Systems Division of IBM, included being the IBM Marketing Manager for President Reagan’s “Star War” program. Wertheim is recipient of numerous recognition’s including;  Navy Distinguished Public Service Award, HHS Alumni Award for Excellence , DOD Federally Employed Women Award, Woodrow Wilson Fellow.