Edward Garcia (Eddie) is a health policy leader and social connection expert with more than 25 years of experience advancing healthcare and social services systems in the United States and globally. He is the Founder and Vice Chair of the Foundation for Social Connection and Co-Founder and Board Member of the Global Initiative on Loneliness and Connection, a global partnership spanning 35 countries in collaboration with the World Health Organization and the European Union and other multinational organizations. Throughout his career, Eddie has led multi-stakeholder initiatives focused on transforming health and social care systems, drawing on his experience serving in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the U.S. Congress from 2006 to 2016. He currently serves as a Founder and CEO at fwd Health Partners, where he advises organizations on improving care delivery and outcomes for vulnerable populations. Eddie holds a Master of Health Science in Public Health from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and is based in Washington, DC & NYC.

Soledad O’Brien is an award-winning journalist, philanthropist, and founder of Soledad O’Brien Productions, a media production company dedicated to telling empowering and authentic stories on a range of social issues. In 2026, Soledad and SO’B produced the Oscar nominated HBO documentary short "The Devil Is Busy,” the official selection at 14 film festivals, winning 3 audience awards. She was Executive Producer of the Oscar and BAFTA nominated documentary feature film "The Perfect Neighbor," which earned the Best Director award at Sundance, debuted as the number one–streamed documentary on Netflix and won 5 Critics Choice Awards and the Cinema Eye. SO’B has also produced The Rebellious Life of Rosa Parks for Peacock, Black and Missing for HBO, and many other films. O’Brien’s reporting work gained her admission to the Broadcasting and Cable Hall of Fame, and won her ten Emmys, three George Foster Peabody Awards, the Alfred I Dupont Award, and many others. She anchored and produced "Matter of Fact with Soledad O'Brien," a national Hearst political magazine, was a founding anchor at MSNBC, anchored at NBC’s “Weekend Today,” anchored CNN’s morning show for more than a decade, as well as its documentary films In America unit and was a correspondent for HBO RealSports.

Soledad has a national impact through her podcasts, social media, speeches, and books, including her critically acclaimed memoir “The Next Big Story,” and her 1.4 million followers on social media. She has given Congressional testimony on media disinformation.

Her passion for supporting young people is realized by way of her foundation, PowHERful, which has helped dozens of young women get to and through college. Soledad lives between New York City and West Palm Beach with her husband Brad, and her four children.