Dr. Jalal Alamgir (Moderator) is Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Massachusetts, Boston. His areas of specialty are globalization and democratic politics, perception of rivalry and competition, and violent and non-violent representation, especially through political and economic changes. His papers have appeared in International Studies Review, Issues and Studies, Pacific Affairs, Journal of Contemporary Asia, Brown Economic Review, and Journal of Social Studies. He is currently working on a book manuscript titled Globalism, Rivalry, and the Continuity of Economic Openness. Prior to joining UMass, Dr. Alamgir served as Associate Editor of International Studies Review, and held research appointments at the Watson Institute for International Studies at Brown University, the Southern Asian Institute at Columbia University, and the Center for Policy Research, New Delhi. Dr. Alamgir has also consulted for strategy consulting firms and for the United Nations. Dr. Alamgir holds a Ph.D. from Brown University.

Dr. Ayesha Jalal is a MacArthur Fellow and Professor of History at Tufts University. She obtained her BA, majoring in History and Political Science, from Wellesley College, USA, and her doctorate in history from the University of Cambridge. Dr. Jalal has been Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge (1980-84), Leverhulme Fellow at the Centre of South Asian Studies, Cambridge (1984-87), Fellow of the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars in Washington, D.C. (1985-86) and Academy Scholar at the Harvard Academy for International and Area Studies (1988-90). She has taught at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Tufts University, Columbia University, and Harvard University. Her publications include The Sole Spokesman: Jinnah, the Muslim League and the Demand for Pakistan (Cambridge 1985 and 1994); The State of Martial Rule: the Origins of Pakistan's Political Economy of Defense (Cambridge, 1990) and Democracy and Authoritarianism in South Asia: a Comparative and Historical Perspective (Cambridge 1995). She has also co-authored Modern South Asia: History, Culture and Political Economy (Routledge 1998) with Sugata Bose, which has been published by Oxford University Press in India and by Sang-e-Meel in Pakistan. Her most recent book is Self and Sovereignty: the Muslim Individual and the Community of Islam in South Asia since c.1850 (London/New York: Routledge, Delhi: Oxford University Press and Lahore: Sang-e-Meel).

Dr. Rounaq Jahan is Senior Research Scholar at the Southern Asian Institute at Columbia University. Professor Jahan's research is concentrated on gender and development, governance, health, and politics of Bangladesh. Among her books are Bangladesh Politics: Problems and Issues, expanded ed. (University Press 2005); Bangladesh: Promise and Performance (ed. - Zed Books 2000); The Elusive Agenda: Mainstreaming Women in Development (Zed Books and St. Martin's Press 1995); Bangladesh Politics: Problems and Issues (University Press 1980); Women and Development: Perspectives from South and South-East Asia, coedited with Hanna Papanek (Bangladesh Institute of Law and International Affairs 1979); and Pakistan: Failure in National Integration (Columbia 1972). She is also the author of numerous articles published in edited books and academic journals. Dr. Jahan has also served in various advisory and leadership positions for the Government of Bangladesh, the International Labor Organization (ILO), United Nations Asia Pacific Development Centre, UNDP, UNFPA, UNIFEM, UNICEF, UNCDF, SIDA, NORAD, USAID, OECD, the Ford Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, International Women's Health Coalition, Human Rights Watch, Population Council, and the Asia Society. Dr. Jahan earned her Ph.D. at Harvard University in 1970. From 1970 to 1993 she taught at Dhaka University, Bangladesh, and chaired its political science department between 1973 and 1975.

Dr. Nazli Kibria is Associate Professor of Sociology at Boston University. She received her Ph.D. from University of Pennsylvania in 1986. Her research and teaching interests are in the areas of family, race and ethnicity, gender and globalization with a focus on South Asia as well as the Asian American experience. She is currently engaged in a study of globalization and family life, one that focuses empirically on the emerging dynamics of family, both within selected communities in Bangladesh and among Bangladeshi-origin families around the world, including the U.S., Britain, and France. By conceptually locating the family at the center of scholarly debates on globalization, she hopes to generate insights into cultural responses and adaptations to globalization processes. In her current work, she is focusing on two aspects of family life and their relationship to globalization: marriage decisions and adolescence.

Dr. Elora Halim Chowdhury is an Assistant Professor of Women's Studies in the University of Massachusetts Boston. Her teaching and research interests include critical development studies, third world/transnational feminisms, globalization and women's organizing in Bangladesh. She has worked with various philanthropic/development organizations in Bangladesh and the U.S. The title of her current book project is, Transnationalism Reversed: Engaging Development, NGO Politics and Women's Organizing in Bangladesh.

Naima Zakaria is the executive director of Changebangladesh (www.changebangladesh.com), a non-profit organization based in North America advocating competent, proactive leadership in Bangladesh. Her passion for working with the constitutional generation of Bangladesh has allowed her training as a computer engineer to find new applications in web-enabled emerging voter education. The center is trying to build a "Competent Candidate database" serviced by a hotline that will allow a pilot project in Dhaka to take shape on the candidates running from the Dhaka city constituencies. The political challenges in 2007 during National Election '07 and Dr Yunus's upcoming dialogue with probashis has galvanized new programs and people in Bangladesh and abroad to organize for meaningful discourse leading to positive change. CBdChangemakers program is one such initiative to encourage authentic leaders to emerge at the national policy level. CBd is also actively seeking concerned people from all spheres to join our focus/task groups to prepare a prioritized national agenda moving away from bipartisan bickering, the focus groups are a major component to the upcoming Yunus-Probashi dialogues. The centers main work is to act as glue that holds disparate moving pieces together during this crucial time in our national history and assist our motherland in all fronts. Naima can be reached via email naima@changebangladesh.com

Shahnaz Yusuf did her undergrad in Social Work, concentrating on Women's Studies, and Refugee/Immigrant community. She completed her masters (MBA with MIS) from State Universities from Minnesota, USA. In 2002, she founded Adhunika - the only web based volunteer organization for Women of Bangladesh, in 2003 have initiated a project called Information Technology for Women which offers IT for under privileged women in Dhaka, Bangladesh. She now lives in New York with her husband and their son.