As Owner of AK Cranberries, Adrienne Kravitz manages five farms with 800 land acres and 150 production acres. She is responsible for all aspects of the business including exploring new efficiency methods and control systems through technology and growing practices, sales, land acquisition, and operations management. During her fellowship travel, Ms. Kravitz will examine farm stability and sustainability, public private partnerships in existence to assist new and established farmers, and best practices in production.

Read Adrienne's fellowship blog here.

As State Representative of the 200th Legislative District, Rep. Parker represents approximately 60,000 residents in the Northwest section of the city of Philadelphia. Rep. Parker serves on the House Appropriations Committee and the Labor Relations, Liquor Control and Professional Licensure committees. She has led the fight against illegal handguns, along with five other state legislators from across the country, to develop a new coalition aimed at ending their use. On her fellowship, she will examine sustainable community practices, economic development initiatives, and leadership development in politics.

As Deputy Commissioner, Ms. Figueroa is responsible for the oversight of the Division of Community Based Prevention Services (CBPS), including $97 million in contracted services delivered by over 225 private nonprofit organizations. The mission of CBPS is to prevent the abuse, neglect, and delinquency of children and youth, and to prevent the formal involvement of families with the child welfare system. During her fellowship, she will explore methods used to enhance the representation and participation of women in elected positions at all levels of government. She will also examine best practices in political leadership development models.

For the past several years, Diane Mulcahy has split her time between the business and academic worlds. As global knowledge manager for corporate finance practice at McKinsey & Company, she led the practiceÕs global knowledge efforts on capital markets. As an adjunct lecturer and executive in residence at Babson, Ms. Mulcahy teaches entrepreneurship classes in the MBA program and is a portfolio adviser to students who manage and trade a portion of the collegeÕs endowment. Diane was previously a venture capitalist for nearly ten years and has written two books on the venture capital financing of young companies. On her fellowship, Ms. Mulcahy will assess the environment for and relative prevalence of social and business entrepreneurship among women in the Middle East.

Ms. Negretti serves as Founding Executive Director of Oiste, a statewide not-for-profit and political organization focused on civic engagement, leadership development, candidate training, advocacy and political strategy for Latinos in Massachusetts. On her fellowship, she will investigate methods use to foster political and civic engagement within minority communities, especially among women in those populations. Ms. Negretti will also examine best practices in political leadership development.

Lucinda Holt is CEO of ClickEquations, a venture capital-backed search marketing software company that has worked with clients including Comcast, Forbes, and YellowBook. Ms. Holt also serves as director for Monetate Inc., a venture-backed web personalization company, and Semprae Laboratories Inc., a venture-backed biotech company that provides womenÕs sexual health products. On her fellowship, Ms. Holt will examine the impact of globalization on entrepreneurs and the development of Internet models.

Read Lucinda's blog here.

As the Senior Vice President for the Visitor Experience and Human Resources division at the Saint Louis Science Center, Ms. Cortez ensures the delivery of the most memorable learning experience to over 1 million visitors a year. She leads a division of over 100 museum professionals, manages a budget of over $3.2 million, and is responsible for process improvements resulting in record setting visitor satisfaction scores. On her fellowship, Ms. Cortez will meet with leaders in the educational arena, business, as well as science and technology museum leaders to understand how they are partnering to create highly effective education systems.

As Vice President for Coal Technology at Arch Coal, Mr. Shanklin is charged with taking the innovations being developed at universities, national research labs and entrepreneurial ventures and infusing business strategy and capital in a way that provides for a pathway to commercialization. On his fellowship, Mr. Shanklin will meet with executives, non-government, and government officials to cultivate new technical and executive contacts in the coal industry in order to work toward developing global partnerships to find solutions related to climate change, specifically addressing carbon dioxide.

In his position as Vice President for Corporate Planning at Emerson, Mr. Steven Pelch leads strategic planning for this $21 billion global conglomerate. In addition to working with the Division and World Areas on their strategic growth plans, he analyzes acquisition and divestiture opportunities and provides financial and economic analysis to executive leadership. During his fellowship, Mr. Pelch will meet with business leaders, government officials and academia to examine strategic planning, talent recruitment and retention, and dialogue on national energy policy.