Alfredo Corchado is the Border-Mexico Correspondent for the Dallas Morning News, where he covers U.S. policy in Latin America. He is based in El Paso and Mexico City.

Born in Durango, Mexico, Corchado grew up in California and Texas. He worked as a farm laborer alongside his parents, who were members of the United Farm Workers. The recipient of numerous awards and honors for his courageous journalism, he is the author of Midnight in Mexico: A Reporter’s Journey Through a Country’s Descent into Darkness. His new book, Homelands, is forthcoming in 2018.

Corchado has also worked for the Dallas Morning News in Cuba and Washington, D.C. Before joining The News, Corchado worked in public radio on the border and for the Ogden Standard-Examiner in Utah, the El Paso Herald-Post and The Wall Street Journal.

His reporting has earned him The Maria Moors Cabot award, presented by Columbia University, and the Elijah Parish Lovejoy prize, presented by Colby College. He was a finalist for the Center for Public Integrity award in Washington for his reporting on Ciudad Juarez and the rise of a Mexican paramilitary group known as the Zetas.

Corchado is a leading reporter on immigration and the drug-related violence that continues to dominate the border region and threaten Mexico’s national security and border communities. He served as a 2010 scholar at The Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington and was a Nieman Fellow in 2009 at Harvard University. He was also a visiting fellow at the David Rockefeller Center at Harvard, and a USMEX fellow at the University of California, San Diego.

Edward Alden is the Bernard L. Schwartz senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), where he specializes in visa and immigration policy, and U.S. competitiveness. Alden is the author of the new book Failure to Adjust: How Americans Got Left Behind in the Global Economy, which examines the federal government’s failure to respond effectively to competitive challenges on issues such as trade. He is the director of the CFR Renewing America publication series and coauthor of the study “A Muslim Travel Ban and the U.S. Economy.”

Additionally, Alden is coauthor of the 2013 CFR report “Managing Illegal Immigration: How Effective is Enforcement,” which examines U.S. efforts to prevent illegal immigration to the United States. Alden’s previous book, The Closing of the American Border: Terrorism, Immigration, and Security Since 9/11, was a finalist for the Lukas Book Prize for narrative nonfiction in 2009. He was previously the project codirector of the 2011 CFR-sponsored Independent Task Force Report U.S. Trade and Investment Policy and the project director of the 2009 CFR-sponsored Independent Task Force Report U.S. Immigration Policy. Alden previously served as the Washington bureau chief and the Canada bureau chief for the Financial Times, and has won several national and international awards for his reporting

Alden has done numerous TV and radio appearances as an analyst on political and economic issues, including on BBC, CNN, Fox News and PBS NewsHour. He is also the winner of numerous academic awards, including a Mellon fellowship in the humanities and a MacArthur Foundation graduate fellowship.

Paola Avila is the Vice President of International Business Affairs at the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce, where she specializes on advocacy of domestic and international public policies that enhance economic prosperity through a secure and efficient border, trade and robust international business and political relationships.

Avila previously served as Deputy Chief of Staff for the Mayor of San Diego from 2000 to 2005, where she advised on economic development policy and binational affairs. Avila later started her own public affairs consulting businesses assisting large and small companies with economic development opportunities such as reducing supply chain barriers. Avila then served in Senator Ben Hueso’s office advising him in several policy areas, including economic development.

Avila serves on the Board of Directors of Civic San Diego, the Foundation for the Children of the Californias and on the IBWC Citizens Forum. Avila’s past community involvement includes Executive Board Member of the Mexican American Business and Professional Association. Avila is also the winner of numerous awards, including Latino Leaders Magazine’s 2014 San Diego’s Most Influential Latinos, Cross Border Leader by San Diego Magazine at their 2015 Latino Impact Awards and, most recently, South County EDC’s Regional Leadership Award.

Art Acevedo was sworn-in as Chief of the Houston Police Department (HPD) on November 30, 2016.

Chief Acevedo leads a department of 5,200 sworn law enforcement officers and 1,200 civilian support personnel with an annual general fund budget of $825 million in the fourth largest city in the United States.

Chief Acevedo believes good communication is vital for a successful community and steadily works to strengthen the bond between the community and its police department. A proponent of community policing, Chief Acevedo refers to the proven practice as “Relational Policing,” an opportunity to forge a relationship with each citizen an officer comes in contact with.

The first Hispanic to lead the HPD, Acevedo brings a unique understanding to the concerns of the diverse communities in the City of Houston. Born in Cuba, he was 4 years old when he migrated to the United States with his family in 1968. Acevedo grew up in California and earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Public Administration from the University of La Verne in California. Acevedo began his law enforcement career in 1986 as field patrol officer in East Los Angeles with the California Highway Patrol. He rose through the ranks and was named Chief of the California Highway Patrol in 2005. Acevedo most recently served nine years as Chief of the Austin Police Department.

Chief Acevedo holds various leadership positions with the Major Cities Chiefs Association and the International Association of Chiefs of Police. He is married to Tanya Born Acevedo and is the father of Melissa, Matthew and Jake.

Sarah Goldfeder specializes in the North American political and economic environment at the Earnscliffe Strategy Group in Ottawa, Canada, with experience in immigration and an understanding of market labor issues. Goldfeder previously served as Special Assistant to two U.S. ambassadors to Canada from 2012 to 2015, helping to foster bilateral relationships and providing practical short- and long-term advice on managing the economic and political dynamics in North America. In this role, she was in large part responsible for managing the ambassadors’ relationships with Canada’s opinion makers, business leaders and government officials.

Goldfeder worked for 15 years in the U.S. federal government. Prior to her arrival in Ottawa, she was posted to Tijuana, Mexico, as a Foreign Service Officer. Goldfeder is a fellow at the Canadian Global Affairs Institute.

Arturo Sarukhan is an international strategic consultant based in Washington, D.C. Sarukhan served as the Mexican ambassador to the United States from 2007 to 2013. The grandson of Armenian and Catalan refugees in Mexico, Sarukhan worked as a career diplomat in the Mexican Foreign Service for 22 years, including in the U.S. Embassy of Mexico at the onset of negotiations with the U.S. Congress over the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). He received the rank of ambassador in 2006.

Sarukhan also has served as Consul General in New York City, foreign policy coordinator in President Felipe Calderón's 2006 presidential campaign and transition team, and Chief of Staff for Policy Planning and Deputy Assistant Secretary for Inter-American Affairs in Mexico's Foreign Ministry (SRE).