Edward “Ed” Goldman was born March 19, 1951 in Rochester, New York and spent his childhood in Jerusalem, Israel as well as Cincinnati, Ohio. He received his first bachelor’s degree in political science from Columbia University and a second in Jewish Studies from the University of Judaism. Goldman later received a master’s degree in political science from California State University, and then a doctorate in education and higher administration from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, focusing on educational law.

Jerry Fox (1937- ) is a Las Vegas, Nevada businessman who owned Foxy Dog restaurant, several gift shops, Lasting Memories camera company, and Vegas Threadz wholesale embroidery company. He was born December 29, 1937, to Abe and Ellena Fox in Los Angeles, California. The Fox family moved to Las Vegas in February 1955, where Abe opened Foxy’s Delicatessen, the city’s first Jewish deli. After graduating from Las Vegas High School in 1956, Jerry Fox worked at Foxy's Deli for about ten years.

When Fernando Romero (b 1946) started school as a Spanish-only speaker in the barrios of El Paso, Texas, he quickly picked up English, excelled in classes, and proudly claims his Chicano identity. Education came with good and bad teachers, the bad believing they were entitled to pick on the brown-skinned children. These were early lessons for Fernando, who describes his harsher lessons would come when he enrolled at Nevada Southern (known as UNLV today.)

Mary Dale Deacon was born in El Paso, Texas, and grew up in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Her father was a Presbyterian minister. Deacon and her older sister and younger brother all attended grade school and high school in Las Cruces.

Alexander Kuelchel, a survivor of the Holocaust, was born in Berlin, Germany to parents who originally came from Poland. He attended a Christian school until Adolf Hitler came into power, then he was moved to a private school that had a synagogue in the back.

Andrew "Drew" Levy was born in Las Vegas, Nevada, where his family became prominent civic and real estate leaders. His grandfather was Harry Levy, a former Las Vegas City Commissioner, and his father Alvin Levy was a former councilman. Drew is always proud to say that he never left Las Vegas and of partnering with his father in the Levy Realty Company.