Dr. Jeffrey Wigand is known widely as a “tobacco crusader” for his courageous act of coming forward and exposing the truth about the tobacco industry.  Wigand chose to “expose the power that this corporate giant has on the media and the lengths it will go through to suppress the truth and cover up its fifty years of deceit, lies to the public, and disregard for public health and safety.” He was portrayed by Oscar nominee, Russell Crowe, in the highly acclaimed movie, The Insider .  Former Vice President for Research and Development at Brown & Williamson (Tobacco Corporation), he became a key witness in tobacco litigation and caught the attention of the American public when featured on "60 Minutes."  Founder of Smokefree Kids, Inc., he is the recipient of numerous awards including the American Heart Association's Hero of the Year Award and the American Lung Association's Exceptional Achievement Award.  Full Bio

René Hicks, a comedy club veteran performing in clubs across the U.S. and internationally, uses her comedy to make a difference in people's lives. The first African-American woman nominated for an American Comedy Award for “Best Female Stand-Up,” and vastly popular on the college campus circuit, René is a two-time recipient of the coveted National College Comedian of the Year Award. She has appeared on numerous television shows, including Comedy Central's “The World Comedy Tour” and “Premium Blend,” ABC's “Politically Incorrect,” Showtime's “Full Frontal Comedy,” and NBC's “Comedy Showcase” with Louie Anderson. A nationally ranked, all-American distance runner while in college, René is now a lung cancer survivor – a non-smoker who contracted the disease from exposure to secondhand smoke. Full Bio

Vincent DeMarco is a long time advocate for public health causes including reducing teen smoking and gun violence and expanding health care access. As National Coordinator of Faith United Against Tobacco, he is working to mobilize faith leaders across the country to help reduce smoking. As President of the Maryland Citizens' Health Initiative, he is working to guarantee quality, affordable health care for all Marylanders. And, as an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, he is working to educate public health students from around the world on effective methods of advocating for public health policies. He has been recognized for his work by organizations such as the Baltimore Sun which declared him “Marylander of the Year” in 1988 and the Central Maryland Ecumenical Council which awarded him its 2002 “Ecumenical Leadership Award.” He is married to Molly Mitchell, who is the Coordinator of the Mid-Atlantic Public Health Training Center at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Molly and Vinny have two teenaged sons and they all are members of the Baltimore Homewood Friends' Quaker Meeting.

Dr Robert Shepard is a Family Practice physician in Helena, Montana. He was a leader in persuading the local hospital to go smokefree in the early 1980s. He led the first attempt in Montana to increase the tax on cigarettes through the initiative process in 1990. He served on the initial Montana Tobacco Use Prevention Program tax Governor's advisory committee and as its chair in its final year. He was the leader in the campaign for the Helena Smokefree ordinance and participated in three recent successful initiatives in Montana to raise the tobacco tax, use Master Settlement dollars for tobacco prevention, and to set aside money from tobacco taxes for health care. He is co-author of the landmark Helena Heart Attack study. Together with Dr. Richard Sargent, Dr. Shepard has given presentations on secondhand smoke in 25 states. In September 2006 they received the American Cancer Society's highest award for advocacy, the Ted Marrs Award, at the ACS Celebration on the Hill in Washington. He has been in private practice and has served as the medical director of a health plan. He is married and has two children, neither of whom smoke.

Dr. Patsy Vargo has served Montana 's Hi-Line as a Family Physician for the past 23 years.  Her job description covers everything from emergencies and in-patient care to deliveries and nursing home care. In addition to generally serving and as a Family Physician she is involved in Well Baby checks, gynecological concerns, counseling on health maintenance, diabetes, tobacco cessation, hypertension and obesity. She was trained at the University of Colorado , and is board-certified in Family Medicine. She belongs to the American Academy of Family Physicians and Montana Medical Association. Dr. Vargo is married to OB/GYN doctor, Don Joyner and has three wonderful young adult children.  In her spare time she is active in her church, and enjoys community-oriented projects. She loves to fly fish, hike, downhill ski and swim. Dr. Vargo is convinced that Montana is the greatest place to live, work and raise children, and that is why she strongly believes in making Montana smokefree.

Bethany Hemlock is a Pennsylvania native who earned her BA in Biology at Slippery Rock University in Slippery Rock, Pennsylvania and her Masters of Public Health (MPH) in Epidemiology/Biostatistics at the Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences in Bethesda , Maryland .  In 2007, Bethany left her research position at the University of Maryland 's Shock Trauma Center to come work for the Montana-Wyoming Tribal Leader Council's Rocky Mountain Tribal Epidemiology Center in Billings , Montana .  She will soon take over as the Center's Director.  Her collaborative work with American Indian tribes in Montana and Wyoming has helped build tribes' public health capacity for disease prevention, particularly cancer prevention. As an epidemiologist, she knows the importance of quality data for developing useful interventions and influencing policies such as clean indoor air legislation.  In her spare time, Bethany enjoys being outdoors with friends, talking long distance to her family, and experiencing Montana 's beauty.  She is active in her church, plays the guitar, and has created her own balcony-style farming method. 

Jodi L. Radke is the Director of the Rocky Mountain/Great Plains Region with the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. Prior to Jodi's work with CFTFK, she worked both statewide and regionally with the State of Colorado on substance abuse prevention and the tobacco control movement for six years. She recently completed a professional three-year fellowship with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, “Developing Leadership in Reducing Substance Abuse”, where she was able to work both nationally and internationally on tobacco control. Jodi holds a graduate degree from Regis University in Nonprofit Administration. She is an alumni of the Americorps VISTA program, and, most recently, was a candidate for the State House of Representatives for the State of Colorado , District 51, in 2006.

Bruce W. Adkins received a B.S. in Medical Sciences from Alderson Broaddus College in Philippi , West Virginia , and a M.S. in Human Resource Management (with a health care administration emphasis) from the University of Charleston (WV). He practiced twenty-five years as an orthopedic and surgical physician's assistant, scrubbing-in on thousands of cancer and tobacco-related surgeries, before coming over to the public health arena. He has been the Director of the Division of Tobacco Prevention for the West Virginia Bureau for Public Health for the past six years. Bruce is also trained and adept at auricular therapy and acupressure massage therapy. He is also has taken adjunct training in bioterrorism preparedness (which lends it self well to tobacco prevention!). Full bio