Congressman Jake Auchincloss is serving his third term representing the Massachusetts Fourth. In addition to his work on the House Committee on Energy & Commerce, his areas of focus include healthcare, clean energy, gun violence, and building a strong middle class.

Auchincloss was born and raised in Newton, Massachusetts, the son of a surgeon and a scientist. They showed him the value of curiosity and hard work. From the moment he could read, Auchincloss loved American history.

After graduating from Harvard College, Auchincloss joined the Marines. He commanded infantry in Afghanistan and special operations in Panama.

Upon returning home, Auchincloss continued his service as a three-term city councilor in Newton. While working at City Hall on nights and weekends, Auchincloss built a career in business, running product development at both a Fortune 100 insurance company and a cybersecurity startup. He has degrees in economics and finance from Harvard University and MIT Sloan School of Management.

Today, Auchincloss lives in Newton with his wife, Michelle, and their children, Teddy, Grace, and Audrey (along with their Labrador Retriever, Donut).

General CQ Brown, Jr., USAF, Retired, is a strategic leader and global security expert whose nearly 40-year military career has centered on leading people, strengthening alliances, and driving change. He most recently served as the 21st Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the nation’s highest ranking military officer. General Brown also served as the 22nd Chief of Staff of the Air Force and commanded at every level, serving across the United States, the Middle East, Europe, Africa, and the Indo-Pacific.

He now draws on experience from the flight line to the White House Situation Room to help organizations and their leadership navigate uncertainty in complex and high-stakes environments. General Brown currently serves as an executive-in-residence at Duke University, as the Hoover Institution’s Susan McCaw distinguished visiting fellow, and as a member of the Shield Capital and RAND National Security Advisory Boards. General Brown serves on the boards of directors of Bessemer Trust, the 9/11 Memorial & Museum, and the Air & Space Forces Association, and is a senior advisor to McKinsey & Company. He also advises several private companies. Throughout his military career, General Brown received numerous awards to include being named one of TIME’s 100 Most Influential People. He earned a bachelor’s in civil engineering from Texas Tech University, a master’s in aeronautical science from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, and served as a national defense fellow at the Institute for Defense Analyses.

David Feith is a senior fellow at Hudson Institute. He specializes in U.S.-China relations and technology policy, including artificial intelligence, export controls, and managing dual-use risks.

Feith served in the second Trump administration as special assistant to the president and senior director for technology and national security on the U.S. National Security Council.

Feith served in the first Trump administration as U.S. deputy assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, overseeing the Offices of Regional and Security Policy and Multilateral Affairs, and as a member of the secretary of state’s policy planning staff, helping to create the U.S. Indo-Pacific Strategy and reorient U.S. policy toward China and Asia generally.

Before government service, Feith worked for The Wall Street Journal in Hong Kong from 2013 to 2017, writing editorials on Asian economic and political affairs, and before that as an op-ed editor in New York from 2010 to 2013. He was also an assistant editor at Foreign Affairs.

Feith has consulted for a wide range of financial and corporate clients, and for the U.S. Air Force. He has testified before the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives, and his writing has appeared in The Washington Post, The New York Times, Foreign Affairs, Commentary, and other publications.

He is also an adjunct senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security.

Feith received a BA in history from Columbia University.

Richard Fontaine is chief executive officer of CNAS. He serves concurrently as a member of Anthropic’s Long-Term Benefit Trust and as executive director of the Trilateral Commission’s North America group. Prior to CNAS, he was foreign policy advisor to Senator John McCain and worked at the State Department, the National Security Council (NSC), and on the staff of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Fontaine served as foreign policy advisor to the McCain 2008 presidential campaign and subsequently as minority deputy staff director on the Senate Armed Services Committee. He was associate director for Near Eastern affairs at the NSC from 2003–4 and focused on Southeast Asia in the NSC’s Asian Affairs directorate.

At the State Department, Fontaine worked for the deputy secretary and in the department’s South Asia bureau. Fontaine began his foreign policy career working on the Middle East and South Asia for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He also spent a year teaching English in Japan.

Katherine Kuzminski is the director of studies at CNAS, where she is responsible for managing the Center’s research agenda, publications, and research staff.

In addition to her senior management role, Kuzminski leads the Center’s work on national security human capital. Her research specializations include military recruitment, retention, and talent management; mobilization; Department of Defense institutional and organizational design and management; civil-military relations; and veteran and military family issues.

Kuzminski previously served as the deputy director of studies and the director of the Military, Veterans, and Society (MVS) Program at CNAS. She returned to CNAS from the RAND Corporation, where she was a political scientist researching military personnel policy. During her time at RAND, she led research teams examining officer personnel management, reserve component utilization, senior officer selection and development, military culture, and ground force capability development.

From 2013 to 2017, Kuzminski served as a research associate, Bacevich fellow, and fellow for the CNAS MVS Program. During this time, she led the Rebuilding the Bipartisan Defense Consensus Project and developed the Veterans Data Project.

Kuzminski has testified before the congressionally mandated National Commission on Military, National, and Public Service. Her research and analysis have been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, NPR, BBC, NBC Nightly News, and CBS Evening News. She is completing a certificate in management excellence at Harvard Business School, and earned a BS in military history and an MA in security studies from Kansas State University.

Lieutenant General John (Jack) N.T. Shanahan, United States Air Force, retired, is an adjunct senior fellow with the CNAS Technology and National Security Program and concluded a distinguished 36-year military career in 2020. In his final role, he served as the inaugural director of the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) Joint Artificial Center, where he led efforts to integrate artificial intelligence across the defense enterprise. Throughout his career, Shanahan held a variety of operational and staff positions spanning flying operations, intelligence, policy, and command and control. He commanded at the squadron, group, wing, agency, and numbered Air Force levels. As the founding director of the Algorithmic Warfare Cross-Functional Team (Project Maven), he pioneered the DoD’s first operational AI program, advancing the use of AI for military operations and intelligence collection and analysis.

Shanahan earned a master of international studies from North Carolina State University (NCSU) in 2022 and serves on the NCSU Shelton Leadership Center Board of Advisors. He is a nonresident senior fellow with the Institute for America, China, and the Future of Global Affairs at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. Additionally, Shanahan serves on numerous defense- and intelligence-focused committees, boards, and advisory groups, and advises on the use of AI for national security.

Dr. Ely Ratner is a principal at the Marathon Initiative and a senior advisor at Clarion Strategies. He served as assistant secretary of defense for Indo-Pacific security affairs from 2021 to 2025 and as deputy national security advisor to Vice President Joe Biden from 2015 to 2017. He has also worked in the Office of China, Mongolia, and Taiwan Affairs at the State Department and in the U.S. Senate as a professional staff member on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Outside of government, Ratner served as the executive vice president and director of studies at the Center for a New American Security, as a senior fellow for China studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, and as an associate political scientist at the RAND Corporation. He received his BA from Princeton University’s School of Public and International Affairs and earned his PhD in political science from the University of California, Berkeley.

Stacie Pettyjohn is a senior fellow and director of the Defense Program at CNAS. Her areas of expertise include defense strategy, posture, force planning, the defense budget, airpower, and wargaming. Her current projects focus on the effect of drones on warfare, munitions stockpiles, and nuclear deterrence in a multipolar world. Pettyjohn also serves as the chair for the Total Force Integration Subcommittee on the Reserve Forces Policy Board, a federal advisory committee within the Office of the Secretary of Defense, and teaches a graduate course on wargaming as an adjunct professor at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced and International Studies.

Prior to joining CNAS, Pettyjohn spent over 10 years at the RAND Corporation, where she served as the director of the Strategy and Doctrine Program in Project AIR FORCE and the codirector of the Center for Gaming. In 2020, she was a volunteer on the Biden administration’s defense transition team. Previously, she was a research fellow at the Brookings Institution, a peace scholar at the United States Institute of Peace, and a TAPIR fellow at the RAND Corporation.

Pettyjohn has authored or coauthored reports on a wide range of issues, including drones, defense strategy and budgets, nuclear deterrence and escalation management, readiness and responsiveness, the role of airpower in defeating the Islamic State, gray zone competition with Russia, possible war fighting scenarios with North Korea, and command and control of multinational NATO amphibious forces. Additionally, she has crafted a large body of work on the United States’ overseas posture, which explores the operational requirements, its vulnerability to attack, and the political access challenges that the United States faces.

Pettyjohn’s work has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Foreign Affairs, War on the Rocks, Defense News, The National Interest, Foreign Policy, and Lawfare. She has a PhD and an MA in foreign affairs from the University of Virginia and a BA in history and political science from the Ohio State University. 

Emily Kilcrease is a senior fellow and director of the Energy, Economics, and Security Program at CNAS, where her research focuses on the U.S.-China economic relationship, the alignment of national security and economic policy, and geoeconomic statecraft.

She previously served as a deputy assistant U.S. trade representative, leading USTR’s work on the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) and playing a key role in the Phase One Agreement with China and CFIUS reform regulations. Earlier in her career she served on the National Security Council as director for international trade, investment, and development, and held positions at the Departments of Commerce and Interior. Her commentary has appeared in major outlets including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and Financial Times, and she has testified before the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission. She holds an MA from Johns Hopkins SAIS and a BA from Georgetown University.

Paul Scharre is the executive vice president at CNAS. He is the award-winning author of Four Battlegrounds: Power in the Age of Artificial Intelligence. His first book, Army of None: Autonomous Weapons and the Future of War, won the 2019 Colby Award and was named by The Economist as one of the top five books to understand modern warfare. TIME named him in 2023 as one of the “100 most influential people in AI.”

Scharre previously worked in the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) where he played a leading role in establishing policies on unmanned and autonomous systems and emerging weapons technologies. He led the Department of Defense (DoD) working group that drafted DoD Directive 3000.09, establishing the department’s policies on autonomy in weapon systems. He also led DoD efforts to establish policies on intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance programs and directed energy technologies. Scharre was involved in the drafting of policy guidance for the 2012 Defense Strategic Guidance, the 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review, and secretary-level planning guidance.

Prior to joining the OSD, Scharre served as a special operations reconnaissance team leader in the U.S. Army’s 3rd Ranger Battalion and completed multiple tours to Iraq and Afghanistan. He is a graduate of the Army’s Airborne, Ranger, and Sniper schools and the honor graduate of the 75th Ranger Regiment’s Ranger Indoctrination Program.

Scharre has published articles in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, CNN, TIME, Foreign Policy, Foreign Affairs, Politico, and USA Today, and has appeared on CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, NPR, and the BBC. He has testified before the House and Senate Armed Services Committees and has presented at the United Nations, NATO, the Pentagon, the Central Intelligence Agency, and other national security venues. He holds a PhD in war studies from King’s College London and an MA in political economy and public policy and a BS in physics from Washington University in St. Louis.

Growing up and working on the family farm in Illinois, Rep. Don Bacon learned first-hand how the value of hard work and commitment contributes to the success of a small business. He left the farm to attend Northern Illinois University, graduating with a bachelor of arts in political science in 1984. That same year, he married Angie, the love of his life. Together they share three sons, one daughter, and eight grandchildren.

In 1985, Bacon began his military career when he joined the U.S. Air Force and served nearly 30 years on active duty, culminating his military career at the rank of brigadier general. During his career in the Air Force, Bacon specialized in electronic warfare and intelligence.

His military career highlights include two tours as a wing commander at Ramstein Airbase in Germany and Offutt Air Force Base in Bellevue, Nebraska; squadron and group command at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Arizona; and expeditionary squadron command, flying combat missions over Iraq. Bacon served 16 assignments with four deployments to the Middle East, including one to Iraq from 2007 to 2008 during Operation Iraqi Freedom. Bacon is a National War College graduate, distinguished graduate of Intelligence School, Navigator School, and Air Command and Staff College. He earned two master’s degrees while serving in the Air Force.

In 2016, Bacon was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, representing Nebraska’s Second Congressional District. He was named to the House Armed Services Committee (HASC) in 2017, where he currently serves on the Subcommittee on Tactical Air and Land Forces and the Subcommittee on Strategic Forces. In the 118th Congress, Bacon was named chairman of the bipartisan HASC Military Quality of Life Panel and led a year-long inquiry into military pay, housing, childcare, support for military spouses, and healthcare access. His efforts yielded more than 30 legislative recommendations to improve the lives of military servicemembers and families, which were included in the House National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for fiscal year 2025.

After completing his work on the Military Quality of Life Panel, Bacon was named chairman of the HASC Subcommittee on Cyber, Information Technologies, and Innovation. Since 2017, he has been named by the Speaker of the House to every NDAA Conference Committee responsible for reconciling differences between the House and Senate defense bills before final passage and enactment.

Serving on the House Committee on Agriculture since 2017, he led the effort on the 2017 Farm Bill to include language for a foot-and-mouth disease vaccine and has four bills included in the House’s version of the 2024 Farm Bill: a bill to monitor and prohibit foreign ownership of farmland; language allowing temporary contractor hiring for efficient SNAP administration during crises, funding for youth organizations, expanding programs in rural areas to nurture leadership and community engagement; and language to protect roosters and dogs, prohibit trafficking, enable citizen suits, and enhance enforcement.

During his tenure in Congress, Bacon cofounded and twice chaired the For Country Caucus, a group of principled military veteran congressional members working together across party lines to pass thoughtful legislation related to national security, veterans’ affairs, and national service issues. In addition, he served as chair of the Republican Main Street Caucus, a group he resurrected in the 117th Congress. He is currently a cochair for the largest bipartisan caucus, the Congressional Caucus on Foster Youth. A member of the Air Force Academy Board of Visitors since 2017 and boards for the Holocaust Museum, Bacon also cochairs the House Baltic Caucus, the Congressional Office for International Leadership, the Electromagnetic Warfare Working Group, and the Congressional Soccer Caucus.

Following the 2019 Midwest floods, which devastated Offutt Air Force Base and Camp Ashland, Bacon quickly organized the effort in the House to secure more than $1.6 billion in emergency federal funding to clean up, rebuild, and modernize both installations, which are critical to U.S. national defense and Nebraska’s economy. Following his support for the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, Eppley Airfield has received more than $70 million to modernize this significant regional transportation hub, making it more accessible for international flights. Most recently, this legislation has provided more than $25 million to the cities of Omaha and Wahoo for sewer and gas pipeline replacement projects.

Together with his staff, Bacon has received the following key awards and recognition: These honors include the Outstanding Constituent Services Award by the Congressional Management Foundation (2021); Ranked #1 Most Effective Republican Legislator in the House by the University of Virginia and Vanderbilt University’s Center for Effective Lawmaking (2022); Ranked #2 for Highest Number of Bills Signed into Law in the House by Govtrack.us (2022); the Defender of Children Award by the First Focus Campaign for Children (2022 & 2023); Top 10 Most Bi-Partisan Member of the House by The Lugar Center and the McCourt School of Public Policy Georgetown University (2022 & 2023); the Outstanding Workplace Environment Award by the Congressional Management Foundation (2024); and the Top Elected Official in America for Bipartisan Cooperation by the Common Ground Committee (2021, 2022, 2023 & 2024).

Ambassador Jesper Møller Sørensen is the Ambassador of Denmark to The United States at the Royal Danish Embassy in Washington D.C.

Most recently, he held a position as the State Secretary for Foreign Policy in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark (2019-2023). Prior to this, he was the Political Director in the Foreign Ministry (2015-2019).

Ambassador Møller Sørensen has also previously been the Ambassador of Denmark to Pakistan (2013-2015), and the Deputy Ambassador to Afghanistan (2010-2011).

In 2019, he also briefly served in the EU’s European External Action Service (EEAS).

Ambassador Møller Sørensen began his career at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Denmark in 1997. He served abroad at the Royal Danish Embassy in Ankara, Turkey (2000-2003), and he was Minister Counsellor for political affairs at the Royal Danish Embassy in Washington D.C. (2005-2009).

Earlier in his career, Ambassador Møller Sørensen worked in the department for European Enlargement (1997-1998), the department for Africa (1998-2000), and the department for Security Policy (2003-2005). He also served as the Head of Department of the Analysis Unit (2011-2013).

The Ambassador holds a Master of Political Science from University of Copenhagen and a bachelor from Aarhus University. He is a First Class Knight of the Order of Dannebrog.

Ambassador Møller Sørensen lives with his partner, Rasmus Windeløv. They have two young children.

Jovita Neliupšienė became the Ambassador of the European Union to the United States on January 1, 2024. Before that, she was a Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania from September 2022, where she was responsible for the coordination of European Affairs, European bilateral and regional issues, as well as national sanctions coordinator.

From 2020-2022, she was Vice Minister of Economy and Innovation of Lithuania, tasked with investment and export promotion, international cooperation, including policy coordination of state-owned enterprises, as well as chairing the interagency commission for export control.

In 2020, she held the post of Chancellor and State Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania. This position included responsibility for staff coordination, legal and consular affairs. Between 2015-2020, she served as Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Lithuania to the EU. These years were marked by the migration crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic.

From 2009-2015, she worked as an advisor and chief foreign policy advisor to the President of the Republic of Lithuania Ms. Dalia Grybauskaite. She was responsible for foreign policy coordination, inter-institutional relations, as well as the role of sherpa/EU advisor, and in this respect took a leading position in preparing and coordinating the Lithuanian presidency of the EU Council in 2013. In 2014, she was awarded the State Decoration Order "For Merit to Lithuania" Commander's Cross.

Congressman Jason Crow represents Colorado and its Sixth Congressional District in Congress.

Former Army Ranger and Bronze Star recipient Jason Crow grew up working class — he worked minimum-wage jobs during high school and enlisted in the National Guard and worked construction to help pay his way through school.

After graduating, Jason joined the active duty Army and served in the Army’s storied 82nd Airborne Division and in the elite 75th Ranger Regiment, deploying to both Iraq and Afghanistan. Even when he rose to the rank of Captain, Jason always remembered what it was like to march in the boots of an Army private. For Jason, this is the essence of servant leadership — always putting the needs of those you lead ahead of your own — and it continues to drive his approach today.

When Jason returned home, he looked for ways to continue to give back. Jason struggled to get his veterans benefits and knew others were having similar challenges transitioning from service to civilian life, so he went to work helping veterans across Colorado. As an attorney, Jason was named Denver’s Pro-bono Lawyer of the Year for work helping service members transition from military to civilian life.

Now Jason has taken his servant leadership to Congress, where he represents Colorado and serves on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and House Armed Services Committee, on which he is the Ranking Democrat of the Intelligence and Special Operations Subcommittee.

From lowering costs and fighting corruption to combatting the climate crisis and preventing gun violence, Jason is focused on putting working families, Colorado, and our country ahead of politics and partisanship.

Born the son of immigrants and raised by a single mom, Ruben knows what it means to live the American Dream. After growing up poor and working every job he could find to help support his mom and three sisters – at a pizza joint, construction sites, and a meat-packing plant – Ruben became a first-generation college student, graduating from Harvard University.

Motivated to give back to the country that had given him such opportunities, Ruben enlisted in the Marine Corps and deployed to Iraq in 2005 as an infantryman, serving with Lima Company, 3rd Battalion, 25th Marines. His company saw some of the worst fighting of the Iraq War, losing 22 Marines and Navy Corpsman to enemy action in eight months.

Following his experience in Iraq, Ruben committed to ensuring that servicemen and women are never sent into harm’s way without a plan for winning the fight and securing their well-being. Ruben was elected to the Arizona House of Representatives in 2010 where he pushed to expand Medicaid and worked across the aisle to secure in state tuition for all veterans.

In 2014, he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. Over his ten years in the House, Ruben fought tirelessly for hardworking Arizonans – distinguishing himself as the highest-ranking Latino on the House Armed Services Committee and defending Arizona’s water supply and natural beauty as a member of the House Natural Resources Committee.

In November 2024, Ruben was elected to the U.S. Senate. He was sworn in on January 3, 2025, with the promise to fight for all Arizonans.

Ruben lives in South Phoenix with his wife, Sydney, sons Michael and Cooper, and daughter, Isla.

His Excellency Urban Ahlin has been the Ambassador of Sweden to the United States since September 2023.

Ambassador Ahlin most recently served as Sweden's Ambassador to Canada. Prior to that, he was a member of the Swedish Parliament, representing the Social Democratic Party. Following the 2014 parliamentary election, Ambassador Ahlin was elected Speaker of the Swedish Parliament, Sveriges Riksdag, for the period 2014-2018.

Ambassador Ahlin first became a member of Parliament in 1994. Since then, he has worked on foreign policy in numerous capacities. He was Chair of the Committee on Foreign Affairs between 2002 and 2006, and later Deputy Chair from 2006 to 2014. He has also been a member of the War Delegation, the Swedish Defence Commission, and a member of the Committee on European Affairs.

As part of his work for the Social Democratic Party, Ambassador Ahlin served as the party’s Foreign Policy Spokesperson and has also been a member of the party’s Executive Board.

In addition, Ambassador Ahlin is one of the founding members of the first pan-European think-tank, the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR), which was established in 2007.

Ambassador Ahlin is a teacher and graduated from the University of Karlstad with a Master of Science. He is married and has two daughters