Creator	Role
Maurice Cunningham Dr. Maurice T. Cunningham is a political scientist whose work focuses on how dark money influences education policy. Before his retirement, he was a Professor of Political Science at the University of Massachusetts Boston.Before becoming an academic, Cunningham was an Assistant Attorney General in Massachusetts, and he participated as co-counsel in Voting Rights Act litigation.Cunningham is a cofounder and contributor to the political blog MassPolitics Profs. His first book, "Maximization, Whatever the Cost: Race, Redistricting, and the Department of Justice," was published in 2000. His second book, "Dark Money and the Politics of School Privatization," was published in 2021.	Guest
Bianca Bosker Bianca Bosker is an award-winning journalist, contributing writer at The Atlantic, and author of the book Cork Dork.	Guest
Akilah Johnson Akilah Johnson is a reporter. Currently, she is a health care reporter for ProPublica.Prior to working for ProPublica, Johnson covered the intersection of race, politics, youth, and immigration for The Boston Globe, where she shared a Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing. Before her time at the Globe, she covered education and public safety for the South Florida Sun-Sentinel in Fort Lauderdale.Johnson is a graduate of the University of Miami and alum of the John S. Knight Journalism Fellowships at Stanford University.	Guest
Wendi Thomas Wendi C. Thomas is an independent journalist whose work focuses on economic and racial justice. Thomas writes for The Christian Science Monitor and The Undefeated, and is a senior writing fellow with the Center for Community Change.Thomas was a 2016 fellow at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University. She has also taught at the University of Memphis and at Harvard University’s Extension School, where she was invited to develop the school’s first journalism course about race and class.From 2003 to 2014, Thomas was a metro columnist and assistant managing editor at The (Memphis) Commercial Appeal. She was the first black woman to write opinion for the then 162-year-old newspaper. Before that, she was an editor at The Charlotte Observer, an editor and reporter at The (Nashville) Tennessean, and a reporter at The Indianapolis Star.Thomas received her B.A. in Journalism from Butler University.	Guest