Ruben Barrales is senior vice president of external engagement at Wells Fargo. Previously, he was president and CEO of the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce, and of Joint Venture: Silicon Valley Network. He served in the White House as deputy assistant to the president and director of intergovernmental affairs for President George W. Bush. In 1992, he became the first Latino elected to the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors. He serves on the Public Policy Institute of California’s Statewide Survey Advisory Committee and was on PPIC’s board of directors from 2007 to 2019. He currently serves on the PPIC Statewide Leadership Council. He has served on the California Speaker’s Commission on State and Local Government Finance and on the California Commission of Local Governance for the 21st Century. He received a BA with a joint major in political science and administrative studies from the University of California, Riverside.

Sarah Bohn is vice president and director of the PPIC Economic Policy Center and senior fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California, where she holds the John and Louise Bryson chair in policy research. She is also a member of the PPIC Higher Education Center. As the founding director of the PPIC Economic Policy Center, she leads research and engagement to inform California policymaking to support greater opportunity and upward mobility for workers, families, and businesses statewide. A labor economist, her research focuses on the job market, workforce skills, and the role of education and government programs in upward mobility. Her other areas of expertise include immigration policy, poverty measurement, income inequality, and career technical education. Her work has been published in major academic journals, including the American Economic Review, Demography, American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, and The Review of Economics and Statistics. Previously she served as vice president of research at PPIC. She holds a PhD in economics from the University of Maryland, College Park.

Tani Cantil-Sakauye is president and CEO of the Public Policy Institute of California, where she holds the Walter and Esther Hewlett Chair in Understanding California’s Future. From 2011 to 2022, she served as the 28th Chief Justice of California and led the judiciary as the chair of the Judicial Council—the constitutional policy and rule making body of the judicial branch—the first person of color and the second woman to do so. Before she was elected statewide as the Chief Justice of California, she served more than 20 years on California appellate and trial courts and was appointed or elevated to higher office by three governors. Earlier in her career she served as a deputy district attorney for the Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office and on the senior staff of Governor Deukmejian, first as deputy legal affairs secretary and later as a deputy legislative secretary. She holds a BA and a JD from the University of California, Davis.

Cindy Chavez is supervisor for Santa Clara County District 2, representing more than half a million people in the San Jose area. She is a member of the CalTrain board of directors and is chair of the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority board of directors. She also represents Santa Clara County on the Metropolitan Transportation Commission. Governor Gavin Newsom appointed her to the California Board of State and Community Corrections, which works with local corrections systems and assists efforts to reduce recidivism. She successfully mobilized the effort to stop selling leaded gas at Reid-Hillview Airport after a lead study revealed the airport was poisoning residents with a goal of decommissioning the airport by 2031. Working with the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s office, she created a working group to begin a fentanyl public awareness campaign and distribute Narcan to all school districts. She is responsible for the majority of affordable housing in Santa Clara County after crafting the $950 million affordable housing bond passed by voters in 2016. The county is ahead of schedule in building the projects, having so far funded more than 4,400 homes throughout the county, many of which are now in operation or nearing completion. Her visionary policies include making COVID vaccines available to all county residents; bringing improved services for physically and sexually abused children to the new Children’s Advocacy Center; more comprehensive help and resources for foster youth, including housing at a new HUB; expansive, structural changes to digital and broadband services for students in disadvantaged areas; and health care for all children. Working with county nonprofits, she is leading an unprecedented movement to get a 400 percent increase in funding for survivors of sexual assault, human trafficking, and gender-based violence. She is a graduate of San Jose State University.

Paul Granillo is president and CEO of the Inland Empire Economic Partnership (IEEP), one of the most recognized statewide organizations focused on galvanizing cross-sector leadership in order to build a stronger regional economy through a triple bottom line framework. IEEP has a strong policy focus and works in Washington DC, Sacramento, and locally to insure that San Bernardino and Riverside Counties issues are well-represented. He has put a special focus on leadership training for the next generation of the region’s public and private sectors. He sits on many national and statewide boards, including UnidosUS and the Statewide Leadership Council of the Public Policy Institute of California. He is chair of the Regional Economic Association Leaders of California, the Campaign for College Opportunity, and Mobility 21, a coalition that brings together public, business, and community stakeholders to pursue regional solutions to Southern California transportation challenges. He serves on the board and is past chair of the California Stewardship Network, which develops innovative regional solutions to the state’s most pressing economic, environmental, and community challenges. He has also served as past chair of the California Economic Summit and is a member of its steering committee. In 2018, he was named Regional Steward of the Year by the California Economic Summit for his work on behalf of businesses and residents of the Inland Empire, and was also honored for that work by the California State Legislature. He was named 2022 Business Advocate by the California Hispanic Chambers of Commerce. Additionally, he serves on the Southern California Association of Governments’ Global Land Use and Economics Committee, the Leonard Transportation Center, and Californians Dedicated to Education Foundation, and is past president of the board of trustees of the Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Art & Culture of the Riverside Art Museum. He received a B.A. in history from California State University, San Bernardino, a Master of Divinity from St. John’s Seminary in Camarillo, and a Licentiate in canon law from the Catholic University of America in Washington, DC.

Kai Ryssdal is the host and senior editor of Marketplace, the most widely heard program on business and the economy—radio or television, commercial or public broadcasting—in the country. He also co-hosts the spinoff podcast Make Me Smart with Kimberly Adams. Before hosting Marketplace, he was host of the Marketplace Morning Report, a seven-minute business roundup, as well as the weekend program Marketplace Money. He speaks regularly with CEOs of Fortune 500 companies, start-up entrepreneurs, small business owners, and everyday participants in the American and global economies. Before joining Marketplace, he was a reporter and substitute host for The California Report, a news and information program distributed to public radio stations throughout California by KQED. Before his career in broadcasting, he served in the United States Navy and the United States Foreign Service. He’s received a BA in history from Emory University and an MA in national security studies from Georgetown University.