Eric Greitens, Chairman and CEO

Eric Greitens was born and raised in Missouri, where he was educated in the public schools. He was an Angier B. Duke Scholar at Duke University where he studied ethics, philosophy, and public policy. Selected as a Rhodes and a Truman Scholar, he attended Oxford University from 1996 through 2000. There he earned a master's degree in development studies in 1998 and a Ph.D. in politics in 2000.

Eric's book of award-winning photographs and essays, Strength and Compassion, grew from his humanitarian work.  His doctoral thesis, Children First, investigated the ways in which international humanitarian organizations can best serve war-affected children. He has worked as a humanitarian volunteer, documentary photographer, and researcher in Rwanda, Cambodia, Albania, Mexico, India, the Gaza Strip, Croatia, and Bolivia.  Strength and Compassion is a collection of striking photographs from each of these countries, combined with bold essays on Strength, Pity, Dignity, Courage, Faith, Time, Hope, and Compassion.

Eric is also a United States Navy SEAL officer, and he has deployed four times during the Global War on Terrorism to Iraq, Afghanistan, the Horn of Africa, and Southeast Asia. He has served as the Commander of a Joint Special Operations Task Unit, Commander of a Mark V Special Operations Craft Detachment, and as Commander of an Al Qaeda Targeting Cell.  His personal military awards include the Joint Service Achievement Medal, the Navy Commendation Medal, the Combat Action Ribbon, the Purple Heart, and the Bronze Star.

In 2005, Eric was appointed by the President to serve as a White House Fellow. The White House Fellowship is a non-partisan, non-political appointment that is considered America's most prestigious fellowship for leadership and public service.

Eric is a sub-3 hour Marathon runner and the winner of the Shamrock Marathon at Camp Fallujah, Iraq. As a boxer, he won two Oxford Boxing Blues and the Gold Medal at the BUSA National Boxing Championships.

Eric used his combat pay from Iraq to start The Mission Continues.  The Mission Continues empowers wounded and disabled veterans to continue their service to their country and communities as citizen leaders here at home. Eric currently serves as volunteer Chairman and CEO. He has contributed over 2,000 volunteer hours to The Mission Continues, and in October 2008 the President of the United States personally presented Eric with the President's Volunteer Service Award in recognition of his inspiring national leadership working with wounded and disabled veterans.

Eric is a Senior Fellow at the Truman School of Public Affairs at the University of Missouri, where he teaches on public service, ethics, and leadership.

Kenneth Harbaugh, Co-Founder

Kenneth Harbaugh is a former Navy pilot and holds a Juris Doctor from Yale Law School. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa and Summa Cum Laude from Duke University in 1996, and attended Navy Officer Candidate School immediately following. Upon graduating at the top of his class, he attended flight school where he was the top-ranked Navy pilot. He chose to fly long range intelligence aircraft, and was sent to Electronic Warfare School where he finished as the Class Honor Graduate.

From 1998 to 2002, Kenneth served as an Electronic Warfare Aircraft Commander, leading classified combat reconnaissance missions in hostile environments. He and his crew deployed to remote locations around the world, sometimes as the only U.S. intelligence aircraft in theatre. Several of the missions planned and led by Kenneth gained the attention of the Joint Chiefs and President. He was selected to attend "Top Gun" for intelligence pilots, and was awarded two U.S. Naval Institute Silver Medals for his writing on civil-military relations.

In 2002, Kenneth left flying to serve as an Assistant Professor of Naval Science at The Citadel in Charleston, South Carolina. From 2002 to 2005, he taught Naval History and advised the largest Freshman Naval ROTC class in the nation. He served on the Citadel Faculty Council, and contributed commentaries to National Public Radio and Marketplace. His pieces regularly featured on NPR's "top e-mailed stories" list.

Following his tour at the Citadel, Kenneth entered Yale Law School in 2005, where he co-founded the Yale Law Veterans Association. In 2006, he traveled to Afghanistan as a consultant for the International Center for Transitional Justice, where he established a national training program to educate leading Afghan citizens about legal mechanisms for addressing war crimes.

As a member of Yale's Lowenstein Human Rights Clinic, Kenneth assisted in drafting legislation empowering Connecticut's treasurer to divest state pension funds from Sudan in response to the ongoing genocide in Darfur. Prior to the legislature's vote, he testified before the State Senate. The bill passed with overwhelming bipartisan support.

In 2007, Kenneth co-founded The Mission Continues, and served as its Executive Director. His writings on civil-military affairs have appeared in such publications as the Yale Journal of International Law, Canada's National Post, Proceedings, and the New York Times. He has taught as a Guest Fellow at Yale University, and currently serves as an Associate with McKinsey and Company in Cleveland, Ohio.

Rodney Bullard, Director                                                 

Rodney Bullard is currently an Assistant United States Attorney in the Northern District of Georgia.

Rodney previously served as an Active Duty JAG officer in the Air Force where he served in the Secretary of the Air Force' s office of legislative affairs, at NASA and as a trial attorney. Among his many voluntary activities, Rodney serves as a member of the Truman National Security Project, the American Bar Association's Standing Committee on Law and National Security Committee, 100 Black Men of D.C., the Air Force Academy's Falcon Foundation, the Duke Law Young Lawyers Board of Directors, and the Board of Directors for The Mission Continues, an organization committed to assisting wounded veterans transition into civilian service.

Rodney served as a White House Fellow and continues his affiliation with the military in the Air Force Reserves. He holds a B.S. in Legal Studies from the United States Air Force Academy and a J.D. from Duke University Law School.

Anne Marie Burgoyne, Director

Anne Marie Burgoyne identifies and supports Draper Richards Foundation Fellows. The Draper Richards Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship invests in early-stage nonprofit organizations with start-up funding and technical support.

Before joining Draper Richards, Anne Marie was the Executive Director of United Cerebral Palsy Association of the Golden Gate. Earlier, she was a Roberts Enterprise Development Fund (REDF) Farber Fellow, managing social enterprise businesses at Community Gatepath, a non-profit organization that supports adults with developmental disabilities. Before entering the non-profit arena, Anne Marie was the Vice President of Service at Digital Impact, a publicly-traded email marketing company, and an Associate at Robertson Stephens, an investment banking firm.

Currently, Anne Marie serves on the Boards of One Acre Fund, Living Goods, Mapendo International, Spark, Agora Parterships, and Global Citizen Year. She is on the Advisory Councils of Net Impact and the Stanford Graduate School of Business Alumni Consulting Team as well as a judge for the Manhattan Institute's Annual Social Entrepreneurship Award, Social Venture Network's Innovation Awards and Civic Ventures' Purpose Prize. She is a past board member of Little Kids Rock, VisionSpring (formerly Scojo Foundation), Grassroot Soccer, Build Change, and Genocide Intervention Network.

Anne Marie received her Master of Business Administration and Public Management Program certificate from Stanford University's Graduate School of Business and was selected by her peers as the recipient of the Ernest C. Arbuckle Award. She also holds a Bachelor of Arts in English and a Bachelor of Science in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania and its Wharton School, respectively.

Robert Gassoff, Director

More coming soon on Bob Gassoff

Kaj Larsen, Director

Kaj Larsen is an award winning producer and correspondent for Current TV. He has reported from war zones and conflict spots around the world including places such as Afghanistan, Somalia, Cambodia, and Haiti. Kaj's intrepid reporting and powerful filmmaking have put him at the vanguard of the new broadcast journalism and earned him critical acclaim including Emmy and Peabody nominations, a Telly Award, and several Golden Cine Awards.

Prior to his work in television journalism, Kaj spent five years serving as a US Navy SEAL. As a Lieutenant he led a team of special warfare personnel in operations overseas, deploying as a detachment Commander in support of the Global War on Terrorism.

Kaj received his Masters degree in Public Policy from Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government. He is a joint fellow at the Jebsen Center for Counter-Terrorism Studies and the Shorenstein Center for Press, Politics, and Public Policy. His focus includes international security policy, media politics, and political affairs.

Board of Advisors

John Danforth

Former United States Senator John C. Danforth is a partner with the law firm of Bryan Cave LLP.

In 2004, Danforth represented the United States as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations where he focused on ending the North/South civil war in Sudan, a 20 year conflict that killed two million people and displaced five million others. President Bush appointed Danforth as Special Envoy to Sudan in 2001. A peace agreement between the two sides was ultimately signed in Nairobi, Kenya on January 9, 2005.

Danforth represented the State of Missouri in the United States Senate for 18 years. Prior to his retirement from the Senate at the end of 1994, Danforth served on three key committees: the Committee on Finance, Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, and the Select Committee on Intelligence. His major legislative initiatives were in the areas of international trade, telecommunications, health care, research and development, transportation and civil rights.

Currently, Danforth is Chairman of the Danforth Foundation, a philanthropic organization focused on strengthening the St. Louis metropolitan area. He also chaired St. Louis 2004, a twelve county, citizen-based effort to revitalize the region through improvements in economic growth, capital projects and health care.

Additionally, Danforth serves on the boards of Cerner Corporation and Greenhill and Co. He has authored two books: Resurrection (Viking) and Faith and Politics (Viking).

In September, 1999, Danforth was appointed Special Counsel by Attorney General Janet Reno to investigate the federal raid on the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas. After interviewing over 1,000 witnesses and examining over 2.3 million pages of documents along with thousands of pounds of physical evidence, it was concluded that government agents were not responsible for the devastation at Waco.

Danforth began his political career in 1968, when he was elected Attorney General of Missouri, his first race for public office. He was re-elected to the post in 1972. He was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1976 and re-elected in 1982 and 1988. Danforth graduated with honors from Princeton University in 1958. In 1963, he received a Bachelor of Divinity degree from Yale Divinity School and a Bachelor of Laws degree from Yale Law School. Before seeking public office, Danforth practiced law in New York City and St. Louis.

Bob Kerrey

Since 2001, Senator Bob Kerrey has been president of The New School, a university founded on strong democratic ideals and daring educational practices and is well-suited for his leadership.

Throughout his career in public service, while serving as a governor and U.S. senator from Nebraska during the 1980s and 1990s, Bob Kerrey advocated for increased education spending. He continues to do so, recognizing that democratic life flourishes most when all citizens are properly educated and given every chance to participate in the political process. In his view, the United States has an obligation to work with the rest of the world to expand opportunities for all people. That is why he supports active diplomacy, foreign aid and free trade. Such support led him to serve on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and to become an active member of the 9/11 Commission.

Bob Kerrey is the author of When I Was A Young Man: A Memoir, published by Harcourt Books (May 2002). He served as a member of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States and currently leads a five-year writing challenge sponsored by The National Commission on Writing in America’s Schools and Colleges. In addition,Kerrey is co-chair with Newt Gingrich on The National Commission for Quality Long-Term Care, is a member of the advisory board of the United States Government Accountability Office and the National Security Higher Education Advisory Board.

In May, 2005 Bob Kerrey received the Robert L. Haig Award for Distinguished Public Service from the New York State Bar Association and an honorary Doctor of Laws Degree from New York Law School.

Max Cleland

Senator Max Cleland is a native of Georgia. After graduating from Lithonia High School, he attended Stetson University where he earned his BA Degree and took a second lieutenant's commission in the U.S. Army through its ROTC program. He has also earned a Masters Degree in American History from Emory University.

In 1967, Cleland volunteered for duty in Vietnam and was promoted to the rank of Captain in the U.S. Army. After being seriously wounded in a grenade explosion where he lost both legs and his right arm on April 8, 1968, Cleland returned to the United States just one month prior to the end of his tour of duty. He has since been awarded the Bronze Star for Meritorious Service and the Silver Star for Gallantry in Action.

After returning home from Vietnam, Cleland was elected to the Georgia State Senate in 1970, at the age of twenty-eight. In 1977, he was appointed by President Jimmy Carter to head the U.S. Veterans Administration. Georgia voters elected him Secretary of State  in 1982, the youngest to hold the post in Georgia's history.

In 1996, Cleland was elected to the United States Senate, where he served on the Senate Armed Services Committee; the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation; the Small Business Committee; and the Governmental Affairs Committee.

Senator Cleland turned to public service because he believes that the main goal of politics is to generate hope in people. Throughout his life and political career, chronicled in his autobiography Strong at the Broken Places: A Personal Story, Cleland has demonstrated his ability to overcome hardship and to offer hope.

Bob Holden

From 2001 until 2005, Bob Holden served as Governor of the State of Missouri. As governor, Holden was known as both an effective business administrator and as a compassionate defender of Missouri’s elderly and school children. During his term as governor, Bob Holden repeatedly demonstrated his commitment and effectiveness as a leader of economic development. Missouri ranked among the top ten states in job creation during his tenure as governor..

Prior to his term as governor, Holden served two terms as State Treasurer. As the elected official responsible for investing and safeguarding Missouri’s treasury, Holden reached milestones such as being the first state treasurer to earn more than $1 billion in investment income for the taxpayers of Missouri.

Following a career in public service spanning more than 25 years, former Governor Bob Holden now is a private sector leader in the fields of education and international economic development.

Holden is chairman of The Holden Group, LLC, where he advises public and private sector clients on business development and international trade strategies He is also serving as a Dole Fellow at the Dole Institute on the campus of the University of Kansas.

Governor Holden is vice chairman of the new Midwest U.S.-China Association, featuring as senior advisors Adlai Stevenson; former U.S. Senator and U.S. Vice President, Walter Mondale; and Bill Daley, former U.S. Secretary of Commerce. The Association works with all Midwestern governors to improve economic cooperation and stimulate business growth between the Midwestern states and China.

Vincent C. Schoemehl, Jr.

Vincent C. Schoemehl, Jr. was the 46th mayor of St. Louis, Missouri, serving three terms from 1981 to 1993. At the time of his first term, he was one of the City's youngest mayors. Schoemehl is remembered for his leadership in the areas of historic preservation and urban design. He helped save the Cupples Warehouses from demolition and promoted "public-private partnerships" that led to more than 600 successful rehabilitation projects. He also launched Operation Brightside, a City beautification program; and Operation Safestreet, a home safety program.

Born in Saint Louis in 1946, Schoemehl served six years on the Board of Aldermen as a representative from the 28th Ward before being elected Mayor. Currently, he serves as president and CEO of Grand Center, Inc. Schoemehl returned to public office in 2003, winning election as a member of the St. Louis School Board. He resigned from that position in November 2005.

Harris Wofford

Harris Wofford was born in New York City on April 9,1926. After graduating from the University of Chicago in 1948 and Howard University Law School in 1954, he became a lawyer. Wofford was a legal assistant for the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights from 1954 through 1958 before becoming a law professor at Notre Dame University.

In 1960 Wofford was appointed special assistant to John F. Kennedy and Chairman of the Sub-cabinet Group on Civil Rights He held that post from 1960 through 1962. He assisted in the formation of the Peace Corps and served as a special representative to Africa. He later held the post of Associate Director of the Peace Corps from 1962 to 1966.

Wofford also served as president of the College at Old Westbury and Bryn Mawr College. In 1980 he published Of Kennedys and Kings. The book provides an insider's view of John F. Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Lyndon B. Johnson, Hubert Humphrey, McGeorge Bundy, Dean Rusk, Robert S. McNamara, Theodore Sorenson, and other leading political figures of the 1960s.

In May, 1991, Wofford was appointed to the United States Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Henry John Heinz III.

Harris Wofford was CEO of the Corporation for National and Community Service from October 1995 to January 2001.