The Honorable Troy A. Carter, Sr. is serving in his first term as the Congressman from Louisiana’s 2nd Congressional District, encompassing most of New Orleans, Jefferson Parish, and River Parishes including St. Charles, St. James, St. John the Baptist, Ascension, Assumption, Iberville, as well as portions of East Baton Rouge and West Baton Rouge Parish.

Congressman Carter currently serves on two House Committees, the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, one of the largest committees in Congress that has jurisdiction over all modes of transportation, and the Small Business Committee, which has direct oversight and consideration over all matters affecting America’s backbone, small businesses.

The youngest of six children, Congressman Carter was raised in Algiers. He is a product of Orleans Parish Public Schools and went on to graduate from Xavier University, earning a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and Business Administration. Additionally, Congressman Carter earned his MBA graduating Summa Cum Laude from Holy Cross University.

Soon after graduating from Xavier University, Congressman Carter served for six years as the Executive Assistant to Mayor Sidney Barthelemy. In 1991, Congressman Carter became the first African American to be elected to the Louisiana House of Representatives from the 102nd District in Algiers, where he served as the youngest ever floor leader representing the City of New Orleans.

In 1994, Congressman Carter was elected to the New Orleans City Council, representing District ‘C’, which includes Algiers, and the historic French Quarter, again becoming the first African American elected to the position. After a hiatus from public office, Congressman Carter was elected to the State Senate for Louisiana’s 7th District, where he served as the Senate Minority Leader for the Democratic Caucus. During his time as a Legislator, Congressman Carter authored and co-sponsored hundreds of bills.

As a Louisiana state legislator, Congressman Carter championed large-scale infrastructure projects, economic development, and efforts to decrease homelessness drastically. He has also worked as a staunch advocate for criminal justice reform, women’s health care, and civil rights and equality on behalf of the LGBTQI+ community. As a Congressman, he actively continues his work to address the issues above and several others, including COVID-19 relief for individuals and small businesses, environmental justice reform, and reducing student debt.

Congressman Carter is a proud husband to wife, Brigadier General Andreé Navarro-Carter of the United States Army, and father to sons Troy Jr. and Joshua. They live in Algiers, New Orleans, where Congressman Carter was born and raised.

The Honorable Congressman Troy A. Carter, Sr.  has enjoyed a series of historic firsts including:

• 1st African American elected to the Louisiana State House from District 102

• 1st African American elected to the New Orleans City Council representing District C

• 1st African American elected to the Louisiana State Senate from District 7

• 1st Congressman elected to Louisiana’s 2nd Congressional District from the Westbank

• 1st Congressman whose spouse is a General Officer in the United States Army

Chris Brunson is the Vice President of Total Reward, which includes executive compensation, compensation, benefits and wellbeing.

Prior to joining General Mills, Chris was the Vice President of Total Rewards & HR Shared Services at Celanese Corporation, a global technology and materials company which manufactures and sells specialty chemicals and high performance engineered polymers. Before Celanese, he spent four years in a variety of HR leadership roles at The Hershey Company, including roles as the Sr. Director, Total Rewards, Global Benefits and Wellbeing and as the Sr. Director, Talent Management and Organization Design. Chris has also worked for Kohl’s Department Stores in a variety of leadership roles and Hewitt Associates.

Chris holds an Accounting degree from the University of Iowa and a JD from Marquette University Law School. He and his wife live in the Twin Cities with their son and many pets.

Ume Farwa is the Specialist, Brand Communications, at SHRM.

A passionate and multi-tasking business professional with over 13 years of experience, Dedeepya handles the portfolios including Advisory, Research and Academic Partnerships catering to the regions of India, as well as APAC, MENA regions. She further also heads the South Region for SHRM India and is responsible for business development & consulting in the area of Human Capital Management. Prior to this, she has worked with Oracle India as HR Consultant.

Her areas of interest include Knowledge Management, Diversity and Inclusion, Competency Assessment & Development, Organization Development, Research and HR Analytics. She has been involved in the project design, content generation and implementation of consultancy projects in the above areas. She is experienced in using Quantitative and Qualitative research methods for diagnostic purposes including identifying relevant variables, designing questionnaires and using various statistical methods for analysis. She co-authored papers/ book chapters in the areas of Diversity and Inclusion and further has contributed extensively to various articles/interviews in leading newspapers. Dedeepya is a Mechanical Engineer from Jawaharlal Technological University (Kakinada, A.P) followed by an MBA from Indian Institute of Science (IISc, Bangalore, India). She is a certified SHRM Senior Certified Professional ( SHRM SCP), Level -1 Hogan Assessor, SHRM PMQ and is certified in Job Evaluation by KornFerry – Hay. Along with her work, Dedeepya is passionate about painting, dancing and sports.  

Kevin Harrington, chairman and founder of As Seen On TV, Inc., is widely acknowledged as a pioneer and principal architect of the infomercial industry.

In 1984, Kevin produced one of the industry's first 30-minute infomercials. Since then, he has been involved with over 500 product launches that resulted in sales of over $4 billion worldwide with 20 products that reached individual sales of over $100 million.

Kevin founded Quantum International, Ltd. in the mid 1980s, which merged into National Media Corporation in 1991. Under his leadership as President, National Media reached $500 million in annual sales, distributing in over 100 countries and 20 languages. This company's success has been chronicled in a case study at Harvard/MIT for over a decade.

Kevin was also CEO of several other entrepreneurial companies including HSN Direct, a joint venture with Home Shopping Network, in 1994 and Reliant International Media in 1997. Reliant International Media was sold in 2007.

In 2011, Kevin's company As Seen On TV, Inc. acquired the web property AsSeenonTV.com. AsSeenOnTV.com represents a highly trafficked catalog of direct response products with over two million customers, 700,000 email registrants and hundreds of thousands of unique visitors each month.

Throughout his career, Kevin helped to establish two of the most important and recognized global networking associations: the Entrepreneur's Organization, or EO (formally known as the Young Entrepreneurs' Organization) and the Electronic Retailing Association, or ERA. Today, the EO has 113 chapters in 38 countries. The ERA represents the $125 billion electronic retailing industry and is comprised of over 450 member companies and subsidiaries that use the power of electronic retailing to sell directly to consumers via television, radio, Internet and wireless media in over 100 countries worldwide.

Due to his extensive resume, Kevin was selected as an investor "Shark" on the ABC television series Shark Tank produced by Mark Burnett. The show gives budding entrepreneurs the chance to pitch their products to a panel of acclaimed judges in hopes of turning their ideas into a successful business reality. He has a book entitled "Act Now: How I Turn Ideas into Million-Dollar Products" that chronicles his life and experiences in the DRTV industry.

A self-made serial entrepreneur and vocal advocate for women, Cindy defies convention. In her industry, in her companies, in her outcomes. Her work today in The Pink Ceiling/Pinkubator continues to break barriers by investing in and mentoring other women to get to her same outcomes. She’s on a mission to make women really rich. You cannot miss Cindy. Everything she touches turns to pink.

Over a distinguished 24-year career in healthcare, in only the last 10 years she has built and sold two businesses for more than $1.5B. First Slate Pharmaceuticals, which redefined long acting testosterone treatment for men then Sprout Pharmaceuticals which broke through with the first ever FDA-approved drug for low sexual desire in women — dubbed “female Viagra” by the media. After selling the company for $1B in 2015, she successfully fought to get the drug back and launch it on her own terms.

Cindy has made waves, and made her own success, creating mission driven companies that deliver big. Her results have become a widely covered business success story featured in major media outlets. She is most proud of helping others take command. The profoundly positive impact those companies have made in people’s lives is what keeps her coming back for more.