Stephen M. Kohn is one of the nation’s leading whistleblower attorneys. A founding director of the National Whistleblower Center, he is the author of eight books on whistleblower law, including The New Whistleblower’s Handbook: A Step-by-Step Guide to Doing What’s Right and Protecting Yourself. He is a practicing whistleblower attorney and serves pro bono as the Chairman of the Board of the National Whistleblower Center. Stephen is a partner in the whistleblower law firm Kohn, Kohn & Colapinto. His primary litigation focus includes representing international whistleblowers under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, tax fraud whistleblowers, qui tam reward laws, the False Claims Act, SEC whistleblowers, and IRS whistleblowers. In 2012, the firm obtained the largest qui tam whistleblower reward given to a single individual in history ($104 million to UBS whistleblower Bradley Birkenfeld), and he represents Danske Bank Whistleblower Howard Wilkinson.

Siri Turner is the Executive Director of the National Whistleblower Center. Turner served as an Associate Attorney and Policy Counsel at Kohn, Kohn and Colapinto, the nation’s leading whistleblower law firm, where she worked closely with anonymous whistleblowers, legislators, and regulators. Turner was the recipient of the highly prestigious and competitive Estelle S. Kohn Memorial Fellowship awarded by Northeastern University School of Law and was elected to be the Commencement Speaker for her Class at Northeastern University School. She graduated summa cum laude from the College of New Rochelle, School of New Resources, with a B.A. in Liberal Arts focused on the Social Sciences. Turner has been published in Columbia’s Blue Sky Blog and The National Law Review. She also serves as an Editor & Legislative Correspondent at Whistleblower Network News.

Jane Turner was a highly decorated, 25-year veteran Special Agent with the FBI. She served in the most difficult investigatory positions and was the first woman named as the head of an FBI resident agency.

She led the FBI’s highly successful programs combating crimes against women and child sex crime victims on North Dakota Indian Reservations. In retaliation for exposing FBI failures within its child crime program, Turner was removed from senior resident agent position. Turner successfully fought her removal and won a historic victory for all FBI whistleblowers before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. She challenged her retaliation in federal court, and won a unanimous jury verdict in her favor, obtaining the largest compensatory damage award permitted under the law for federal employees.

Dr. Tommie “Toni” Savage was a highly respected contracting officer at the Army Corps of Engineers who blew the whistle on a pattern and practice of illegal contracting activity at the Army Corps of Engineers’ Huntsville, Alabama Support Center. In 2006, she reported her concerns that this activity resulted in millions of dollars of contracting fraud in the Army’s “Ranges Program.” 

After her disclosure, Dr. Savage experienced heavy retaliation as she was removed from her position, denied performance awards, subjected to harmful gossip, faced hostility from the Huntsville Command, and endured insensitive and racist statements. As a result, the hostility she faced at work caused her serious and documented psychological injury, culminating in an inability to work and her subsequent termination in 2009.

Chuck Grassley was first elected to the Iowa state legislature in 1958 and served there until Iowans sent him to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1974. In 1980, Grassley was elected to the U.S. Senate, where he has developed a reputation for bipartisanship and pragmatism. This approach to legislating consistently earns Grassley high marks as one of the Senate’s most effective and collaborative lawmakers. In each post, serving Iowans has always been Grassley’s guiding light and primary objective. Over the course of his time in Congress, Senator Grassley has led the effort to protect and empower whistleblowers through strong legislation meant to encourage whistleblowing and protect whistleblowers from retaliation. He is also a founding member and current Chairman of the Senate Whistleblower Protection Caucus.

Ron Wyden began his political career in Congress in 1981 as a representative and became Senator in a 1996 special election. He serves on the Committees on Finance, Budget, Intelligence, and Energy & Natural Resources. He is Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee and a senior member of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee. He is a founding member and Co-Chair of the Senate Whistleblower Caucus. Wyden has shown strong support for whistleblowers throughout his time as a legislator.

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Ángeles is a fully trained and licensed lawyer in Mexico. She holds an LL.M. from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. She serves as the Executive Director of the Transparency, Anticorruption, and Digitalization Initiative at the School of Social Sciences and Government, and as an Administrative Law and Anti-corruption professor at the Tecnológico de Monterrey. Also, Ángeles is a Senior Advisor at the National Whistleblower Center. 

Ángeles was a member of the Selection Commission for the Citizen Participation Committee within Mexico’s National Anticorruption System for the term 2021-2024.  

Renowned for her expertise, she has been invited as a speaker to numerous national and international forums. One of Ángeles’ notable accomplishments is co-creating #WhistleblowingCorruptionCoronavirus, a project recognized by the Paris Peace Forum 2020 as one of the 100 initiatives to build a better world post the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Carlos G. Guerrero Orozco is a consultant and litigation attorney based in Mexico City. He is a partner at López Melih y Estrada, a Mexican law firm, where he also leads the anti-corruption litigation and compliance for private sector companies practice (focused on reparations of harms suffered as a consequence of corruption).

He is co-founder of Derechos Humanos y Litigio Estratégico Mexicano (D.L.M.), a Mexican non-profit. He holds a law degree from the Escuela Libre de Derecho in Mexico City and a master’s degree in government and public administration from the Instituto Universitario de Investigación Ortega y Gasset in Madrid.

Austin Handle, known as “Officer ASH” on TikTok, is a former Dunwoody Police Officer and 2019 UWG graduate. In mid-2020, he exposed corruption and misconduct in his police department, leading to his termination but gaining a social media following of over 200,000 and sparking discussions on ethics and transparency with his “Rogue Blue” videos. After his police career, Austin joined Team Rubicon, aiding in global disasters and humanitarian crises, including typhoons in remote Alaska and medical training in Honduras. His story, featured in USA Today and other media, highlights his bravery and commitment to justice. He is a founding board member of the Lamplighter Project, a nonprofit supporting whistleblowers in policing by removing barriers, preventing retaliation, and promoting ethical officers. The project has aided officers across 25 states. His transition from whistleblower to a national voice was highlighted in a congressional briefing titled “Breaking The Blue Wall of Silence.” Austin serves as Vice-Chair of the Lamplighter Project and remains a Georgia Certified Peace Officer.

Ed Pierson is the Executive Director of The Foundation for Aviation Safety, a non-profit organization dedicated to informing the public about critical issues involving aviation safety. He is the Boeing 737 MAX Whistleblower.

Mr. Pierson served as a Senior Manager at Boeing’s Renton, Washington 737 factory, overseeing teams that supported the manufacturing of Boeing’s 737 MAX airplanes. In this capacity, he led the Industrial Engineering and Shipside teams in final assembly and the P-8 Poseidon Shipside team.

Prior to working at the 737 factory, Mr. Pierson spent five years as a Senior Flight Operations Manager within Boeing’s Flight Test and Evaluation division, where he had responsibility for flight test scheduling, flight dispatch, and tower operations. He served 30 years in the military in a combination of active and reserve roles.

Lindsey Gulden is a data scientist formerly employed by ExxonMobil. In 2019, together with a colleague, she blew the whistle on ExxonMobil’s fraudulent $10-billion overvaluation of an oil and gas asset in the Permian Basin. Rather than correct the fraud, ExxonMobil fired both Lindsey and her colleague in 2020. With the support of the National Whistleblower Center and their attorney, Neil Henrichsen, Lindsey and her colleague filed a complaint with the US Department of Labor (DOL) alleging illegal retaliation under the Sarbanes Oxley Act (SOX). After a lengthy, thorough investigation, the DOL found probable cause that ExxonMobil had violated SOX in the firings. As a trained climate scientist, Lindsey is currently working to accelerate the energy transition and combat climate disinformation.

Dr. Jeffrey Wigand, the former Vice President of Research & Development at Brown and Williamson, a major tobacco company, became a pivotal figure in exposing the tobacco industry’s practices. He courageously blew the whistle on their deliberate tactics of concealing the truth, manipulating research, and engineering cigarettes to addict users swiftly and maintain addiction.

Dr. Wigand’s revelations marked a turning point as he emerged as the highest-ranking former executive to address public health and smoking concerns. His pivotal testimony played a crucial role in state attorneys general litigation, leading to a historic settlement exceeding $206 billion, as well as in the Department of Justice’s RICO litigation against the tobacco industry.

Hampton Dellinger is the head of the Office of Special Counsel. Mr. Dellinger graduated from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor and Yale Law School. After being confirmed by the Senate in October 2021, Mr. Dellinger served in the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) as an Assistant Attorney General overseeing the Office of Legal Policy. In both government and private practice, Mr. Dellinger has represented whistleblowers and other clients challenging government activities, and he is an experienced litigator and legal advocate.

Shanna Devine serves as the inaugural Director of the Office of the Whistleblower Ombuds. In that capacity, she is responsible for advising the House community on best practices for working with whistleblowers from the public and private sectors. 

Prior to joining the House, Shanna was already partnering with Congress in a bipartisan capacity to strengthen working relationships with whistleblowers. Her experience began in 2008 with the Government Accountability Project, a nonprofit whistleblower support organization. As legislative director, she led campaigns that resulted in bipartisan passage of landmark whistleblower laws, including Congress’ unanimous passage of the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act of 2012.

John Hinman has served as the Director of the IRS Whistleblower Office since May 2022. In this role, he leads the strategy, oversight, and execution matters of the IRS Whistleblower Program. Prior to this position, John served for 5 years as the Director of Field Operations, Transfer Pricing Practice in the IRS’s Large Business & International Division. In this position, he oversaw field operations of the IRS specialists who focus on complex transfer pricing issues of multinational business enterprises. John began his IRS career as a revenue agent in 1982 and began focusing on international tax compliance in 1986. He is a Certified Public Accountant and a Chartered Global Management Accountant.    

Michael E. Horowitz was sworn in as the Inspector General of the Department of Justice (DOJ) on April 16, 2012, following his confirmation by the U.S. Senate.  Mr. Horowitz was previously confirmed by the Senate in 2003 to serve a six-year term as a Commissioner on the U.S. Sentencing Commission. 

As Inspector General, Mr. Horowitz oversees a nationwide workforce of more than 500 special agents, auditors, inspectors, attorneys, and support staff whose mission is to detect and deter waste, fraud, abuse, and misconduct in DOJ programs and personnel, and to promote economy and efficiency in Department operations.

Director of the CFTC Whistleblower Office, Brian Young, comes to the CFTC from the Department of Justice (DOJ), where he was the acting director of litigation for the Antitrust Division. He oversaw criminal prosecutions brought under the Sherman Act as well as civil mergers and antitrust conduct litigation. Prior to this, he served for 11 years in various roles in the Fraud Section of the Criminal Division, culminating in his appointment as chief of the Fraud Section’s Litigation Unit, where he helped oversee the litigation activity of approximately 150 white-collar prosecutors.