Cheri Bustos was born in Springfield, Illinois, into a family that taught her the importance of hard work, caring for others and public service. After spending nearly two decades in investigative journalism, Cheri worked in communications for one of the nation’s largest non-profit health care systems before deciding to run for City Council in East Moline. In 2012, she ran for Congress and was elected to represent the hardworking families of the 17th Congressional District. 

She currently serves on the House Appropriations and Agriculture Committees and is a senior member of House Democratic Leadership.

Advocating for women and families is a significant part of Cheri's life and career. Five years ago, she read a Washington Post piece that reported over 69,000 women were suing Sterling, Inc. for sexual harassment, sexual assault and sexual discrimination. This case inspired her to introduce the Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act, which gave survivors of sexual assault or harassment the freedom to choose how they pursue justice. The bill received strong bipartisan support in both the House and Senate and became law on March 3, 2022.

Milkah Kihunah is CARE’s Director for Global Advocacy on Gender Equality. In this role she supports and coordinates advocacy, policy analysis and capacity-building strategies with staff and partners to advance Women’s Voice and Leadership, address Gender-based Violence (GBV) and promote girls’ education.  She has 20 years’ experience implementing research, advocacy and community-based programming on women’s rights, peacebuilding and humanitarian response in various countries in Africa and Asia. Apart from CARE, she has worked previously with organizations such as Equality Now, the International Commission of Jurists and UNHCR. She holds an MA in International Development from Yale University and a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Nairobi. She is based in Washington DC.

Tanuja Gupta has been an engineering program manager at companies like Google, Barnes & Noble.com and Broadway.com for the last 20+ years. She was also one of the lead organizers of the global Google Walkout in 2018, when thousands of Google workers walked off the job in response to the company’s poor handling of decades of sexual misconduct. Tanuja and group of organizers spun out to form Googlers for Ending Forced Arbitration, demanding the company end their use of forced arbitration, a practice that silences victims of harassment and discrimination. The group's education and activism campaigns were followed by Google's decision to end forced arbitration in March 2019. She has been a key advocate for HR 4445, bringing together survivors of sexual harassment around the country to end forced arbitration.