Laurie Rubiner is Executive Vice President for Domestic Programs at the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids, the leading advocacy organization working to reduce tobacco use and its deadly consequences in the U.S. and around the world. She has more than 25 years of experience in Congress and the non-profit sector. She was Special Counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee Democratic Staff, Chief of Staff to Senator Richard Blumenthal, Legislative Director to Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton and Legislative Assistant to the late Republican Senator John H. Chafee. She was Vice President for Public Policy and Advocacy at Planned Parenthood Federation of America, inaugural director of the Universal Health Care Program at the New America Foundation, and Vice President for Programs and Public Policy at the National Partnership for Women & Families.

Laurie received her B.A. in English from Barnard College and J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center where she has also served as an Adjunct Professor of Law.

Shana Davis is the senior program director at the Black Women’s Health Imperative, the only national nonprofit created by Black women to help protect and advance the health and wellness of Black women and girls. She has responsibility for leading the strategy and implementation of special projects driven by the CEO and day- to-day management of a multi-million dollar portfolio of programs focused on building capacity and improving health outcomes in the areas of health awareness, access to healthcare, diversity, inclusion, and equity in biomedical research, and anti-tobacco. Previously, Shana was director of global executive communications at the American Cancer Society. She is an innovative and results-driven turnaround communications leader with more than 20 years of experience in reputation management and is a practitioner known for delivering successful high-impact strategies for United Way, Home Depot, Diageo, Young & Rubicam, Girl Scouts, Citigroup, and Hilton Brands.

Alanna Murrell is a Special Projects Manager for Black Women’s Health Imperative. She focuses heavily on Black women’s health, centering health advocacy and equity in environmental justice, reproductive justice, and maternal health. She is multi-faceted communication specialist, conversationalist, and empathic thought-leader amplifying the importance of vulnerable communication, intersectional storytelling, and community building. Her background is in business development, marketing, and communications.

Natasha Phelps, J.D., is the Director of Equity-Centered Policy at The Center for Black Health and Equity. Prior to joining The Center, Natasha worked as a litigation attorney at a private defense firm and as a managing lead senior staff attorney at the Public Health Law Center, where she provided legal technical assistance on commercial tobacco control and equitable public health policy issues to public health professionals and organizations, legal professionals, and advocates throughout the United States. Natasha serves on the board of the Planned Parenthood Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota Action Fund and taught as an adjunct professor at the Mitchell Hamline College of Law.

Gabriel is a Project Specialist at the National LGBT Cancer Network and is based in Salt Lake City, Utah. His work focuses on LGBTQ tobacco initiatives and helping build and organize coalitions. For over 10 years Gabriel has worked in tobacco prevention and cessation and LGBTQ exercise science. He received his Bachelor’s degree in Exercise Science from Augsburg University and is currently wrapping up his Masters of Public Health at Utah State University. Gabriel is passionate about LGBTQ health, reducing health disparities, and increasing scientific literacy. In his free time, Gabriel enjoys reading, cooking, and traveling. Gabriel is a black Ashkenazi Jew that identifies as trans and queer.

Tia Taffer is the VP of Digital Engagement for Truth Initiative. Since joining truth in 2018, Tia has worked on the creation of multiple national prevention and cessation campaigns including, most recently, Depression Stick and Breath of Stress Air. Prior to her joining Truth Initiative, she spent over 15 years managing brands at advertising agencies in Boston. During four of those years, she managed work done for the truth campaign at Arnold Worldwide, including the creation of the Effie award-winning campaigns “Ugly truth” in 2014 and “Unsweetened truth” in 2012, among others.

Mikayla Kitchen is an undergraduate student at the University of Missouri-Columbia. She is studying Public Health with a minor in Leadership & Public Service and a multicultural studies certificate. She is a student research assistant and the Summit Coordinator for the Eliminate Tobacco Use Missouri Initiative. Her interests are found in analyzing health policy and creating sustainable solutions.

Kellen Kruk is a senior at Texas State University where he is pursuing a bachelor’s in political science with a minor in public health. Since 2015, Kellen has been an active advocate for youth tobacco prevention in his community and state. His dedication to protecting his peers awarded him the opportunity to serve as a Say What! Teen Ambassador for multiple terms, as well as the 2019 Regional Youth Advocate of the Year from the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. He was part of the Texas 21 Youth Coalition where he helped educate elected offices about the importance of raising the minimum tobacco sale age to 21.

Anurika Kumar is currently a third year undergraduate student at the University of Virginia with a major in Sociology and a minor in Biology. She is involved in numerous activities across grounds such as Camp Kesem, the Indian Student Association, and the American Cancer Society’s Cancer Action Network student group. She is passionate about advocacy and loves to educate her peers and community members.

Pranusha Amancherla is a 3rd year student at the University of Virginia (UVA). She is a Cognitive Science major with a Neuroscience concentration and Statistics minor. She is passionate about healthcare both in its policy and clinical aspects and this led her to establish a chapter of the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network along with Anurika Kumar at UVA. She hopes to continue exploring and expanding her involvement in this field.

Aria Chalileh is a current freshman attending The College of New Jersey. Aria has been involved in tobacco prevention and awareness since high school, during which she was involved with the Bergen County Youth Tobacco Action Group and served as a Youth Advisory Board Member for the statewide Incor-ruptible.US campaign for three years. Through these organizations, she has worked with other youth from across the county and state on a variety of awareness and prevention campaigns, social media post creations, tabling events, and advocating for change. More recently, Aria has worked as a National Youth Ambassador for the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, a national organization focused on legislative changes aimed at preventing youth addiction to tobacco products. Aria achieved her Girl Scout Gold Award in April 2021, which was focused on ed- ucating over 2,000 middle and high school students on the dangers of vaping through over 45 peer-to-peer presentations and a variety of other activities.

Atanaska (Nasi) Dineva joined CTP as an inaugural Institute of Medicine Tobacco Regulatory Science Fellow in the Office of Health Communication and Education (OHCE). She currently supports the work of The Real Cost ENDS campaign team in OHCE’s Division of Public Health Education. In her previous role as a member of the Research and Evaluation team, she led/co-led formative research for several of CTP’s public health education campaigns, including The Real Cost youth tobacco prevention campaign and Every Try Counts, the Agency’s first-ever adult smoking cessation campaign. Nasi received her MS in Marketing from the Johns Hopkins Carey School of Business.