STEPHEN MILES Advocacy Director, Win Without War TIM MILLER Executive Director, American Rising PAC ALEX MILLS Actor, SyneticTheater DIANA MINSHALL Agent, Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage JENNIFER MISHORY Executive Director, Young Invincibles SUJATA MITRA Director of Commuications, News and Politics, The Huffington Post NAVROOP MITTER CEO, Gryphn Corporation DOMENICO MONTANARO Political Director, PBS NewsHour DANIELLE MOODIE-MILLS Advisor on LGBT Policy and Racial Justice, Center for American Progress ALFRED MORRIS Running Back, Washington Redskins MARYAM MUJICA Public Policy Manager, Twitter PATRICK MURPHY U.S. Congressman (D-Florida) RAFAEL NÁVAR National Political Director, Communications Workers of America DEEJAY NEEKOLA DJ, Music Producer and Booking Agent HEIDI NEL Principal, Picture Motion JARED NELSON Featured Dancer, The Washington Ballet STEPHANIE NGUYEN Co-Founder and Lead Designer, Landmark PAUL NITZE Special Assistant to U.S. Attorney, Eastern District of Virginia
WA S H I N G T O N L I F E
JAMAL ABDI is the policy director at the National Iranian American Council, where he is helping pave the way for young, techsavvy Iranians to gain greater access to communications tools like smartphones and satellite Internet. After penning an op-ed for the New York Times in 2012 regarding the sanctions preventing Iranian Americans from even buying iPhones at Apple stores, Abdi worked with the administration to get the sanctions lifted.Today, Apple has indicated it may be one of the first companies to go into Iran if nuclear negotiations succeed. Whom do you admire professionally and why? “Reza Aslan and Hooman Majd. Reza is an amazing communicator who consistently short circuits all nonsense conventional wisdom to get his message out. Hooman can relate ordinary life in Iran to his readers and speak truth to power directly to decision makers there, all while being the most stylish guy in the world.”
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ANNE JOHNSON spends her days thinking about youth, specifically how she can make life better for the next generation. As the executive director of Generation Progress at the Center for American Progress, she has helped to launch major social change campaigns such as “It’s On Us” and “Higher Ed Not Debt” as well as the Gun Violence Prevention Network. Whom would you most want to sit next to at a dinner party, living or dead? “Paul and Sheila Wellstone. I worked on Paul’s campaign in 2002, the year that he and Sheila, their daughter and three campaign staffers died in a plane crash days before the election. I was a first-time field staffer, so I didn’t really know them personally, but that experience and the people from that campaign, have shaped everything I’ve done since then.”
NEIL GRACE is senior communications advisor for the FCC, working both within and beyond the agency to build and drive news as part of the communications team. What is your advice to young people in your profession? “I always advise young people to know who they’re talking to, read everything, ask a ton of questions, and to build a network. You never know how you can help by connecting people from different industries, beats or fields. Being able to build connections between people is a lifelong skill.”
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