Stephen P. Grogan started his professional career in Denver, Colorado where he worked in news media and government services. Before moving to Las Vegas, Grogan was active in the passage of Limited Stakes Gaming in Colorado and served as the first Executive Director of the Colorado Gaming Owners Association. He has spent the latter part of his career in casino gaming. He founded the Grogan Casino Report in the 1990s which tracked the expansion of casino gaming nationwide.

Jerry Duane Morlan (1938-2000) was born and raised in Victorville, California. He worked as a letter carrier for the U.S. Post Office from 1960 to 1965 before his eight-year tenure as an industrial photographer at Teledyne Semiconductor in Hawthorne, California. After Teledyne, Morlan was a successful general supervisor of the graphic arts department of leading toy manufacturing company Mattel, continuing to work as a photographer and sometimes acting as a consultant for the Yankee Photo Products company.

Mercedes Maharis is the former director of Nevada CURE and co-author of the Spartacus Project Report. She began teaching meditation in the Nevada state prison system in 1997. This led to Maharis advocating for inmates’ rights and the beginnings of the Nevada chapter of CURE. They presented the Spartacus Project Report to state leaders and at the December 5, 2000 Board of Prison Commissioners meeting. She co-authored the Spartacus Project Report along with Donald Hinton, Sr., a prisoner advocate whose son was incarcerated at the Indian Springs prison.

Gus Mancuso (Ronald Bernard Mancuso), a talented impresario, was born in Spangler, Pennsylvania in 1933. Gus grew up in Hastings, Pennsylvania as the youngest of nine children. His father, an immigrant from Italy, Joseph Mancuso, owned multiple businesses and his mother, Josephine Ceranni toiled as a stay at home mother. Despite his father’s businesses, the family struggled financially. By the eighth grade Gus moved to Rochester, New York, where his mother joined him, after his parents separated.