8am

Hannah Riley Bowles is Assistant Professor of Public Policy at the Kennedy School and on the staff of the Center for Public Leadership. She is engaged in research on negotiation and leadership. She is interested in how people negotiate for resources and opportunities to advance into leadership positions and when gender differences tend to arise in negotiation expectations and performance. She teaches and has conducted case research on leadership in crisis and complex multi-party conflict. Earlier in her career, she was a research associate at Harvard Business School, Strategic Environmental Associates, and Conflict Management Group.

She was a technical advisor to the Minister of Natural Resources, Energy & Mines of Costa Rica and served in 1995 on the Costa Rican delegation to the UN Climate Change negotiations. She was fellow at the Argentinean National Institute of Public Administration, the West German Parliament, and Oxford University's Forestry Institute. Bowles is the faculty director of Women & Power, the Kennedy School's executive program for women leaders from the public, private and non-profit sectors. She won the Kennedy School's 2003 Manuel Carballo Award for Excellence in Teaching. She has a DBA from the Harvard Business School, an MPP from the Kennedy School, and an AB from Smith College.

8:30am

John R. Whitaker is the Iowa State Representative from the 90th District and is an assistant majority leader. He has served in the Iowa House of Representatives since 2003.

Whitaker currently serves on several committees in the Iowa House - the Administration and Rules committee; the Natural Resources committee; the Public Safety committee; the Transportation committee; and the Agriculture committee, where he is vice chair. His political experience includes serving as Assistant Majority Leader of the Iowa House and serving as Van Buren City Supervisor.

Whitaker was re-elected in 2006 with 7,827 votes, running unopposed.