Interviewed by Monserrath Hernández, Nathalie Martinez and Rodrigo Vázquez. Irene Cepeda is a woman dedicated to serving the Latinx as well as all minority groups in education in Southern Nevada. As a Las Vegas native, she grew up alongside the Latinx community here and is a proud Latina from Nicaraguan roots. She is dedicated to uplifting the Latinx community through her work with the Latino Youth Leadership Conference and college access specialist at Nevada State College. Now, as representative of District D on the Clark County School District Board of Trustees, she seeks to tackle the issues the district faces from acts of White supremacy to a lack of funding for English Language Learner families.

Judge Jack Lehman is living the life we should all strive for - a wonderful family, a work ethic that has allowed him to serve others while enjoying a magnificent life and above all a great love affair with his beautiful artistic wife, Lou Lou. From Chemnitz, Germany, at the beginning of the Nazi reign to a prominent citizen of Las Vegas, Lehman lives an extraordinary Las Vegas life. Born in Germany in the late 1920s, Jack and his sister were sent to the United States in 1935 and after a series of living situations including a orphanage in New York, they were adopted by the Lehman family in Lake Arrowhead, California. As a young boy, he wanted to become a lawyer. After a degree from Berkeley, two tours of military duty, a stint in radio broadcasting, and serving as the Director of the Nevada Department of Economic Development, he entered law school at USC. Lehman's career in the legal field began at the largest law firm in the city - Lionel Sawyer and Collins - and then into private practice and on to the bench as a District Court judge appointed by Governor Richard Bryan. In February 2008, he was honored by judges and friends statewide as the founder of Nevada's Adult Criminal Drug Court Program commonly known as "drug court." Washoe County District Judge Peter Breen said it best, "The state is a much better place because of Jack. All those people came back from the abyss of addiction because of Jack."

Hughie and Greta Mills spent their childhoods in Charlestown, West Virginia. Fate would bring them together years later in New York City. They married in 1954. Both Hughie and Greta talk about achieving a better life through education and perseverance. He became an educator and she a librarian. In 1989, the couple relocated to Las Vegas, seeing the weather and retirement lifestyle here to their liking. During this interview they describe their lives, individually and as a couple, and how they embraced life and living in Las Vegas as a retired, African- American couple.

Dennis Ortwein arrived in Las Vegas in 1956. He shares many details about growing up in Montana, his parents and siblings, his education, and the moment in time when he was offered an opportunity to work in Las Vegas. He also lays out the path his singing career took, starting with school plays, duets with his sister, and high school quartets. Once in Las Vegas, Dennis taught for a while, served as principal, and was involved in creating programs that helped integrate schools. He also talks about his church choir work, entertainment in early Las Vegas, above-ground testing at the Nevada Test Site, and anti-nuclear protests. Dennis served as lab school and student teaching coordinator in Nigeria. He offers several anecdotes and stories about the time he and his family spent there. After retiring early (age 53), Dennis acted as consultant to the Esmeralda County school board, executive director for the National Conference of Christians and Jews, and wrote a book. He is currently enjoying his singing career by appearing at conventions, in musicals, and at weddings and memorials.

Fourth-generation Nevadan, Las Vegas native, and great grandson of Mormon pioneer Edward Bunker, Richard W. Bunker knows Southern Nevada as few others do. For example, when Richard Bunker speaks of water, he talks about his father's family leaving their home after the completion of Hoover Dam because their little town of St. Thomas was submerged in the rising waters of Lake Mead; he recalls swimming at the Old Ranch pool, the Springs, and the Mermaid pool; he shares stories of hiring Pat Mulroy, mentoring her, and encouraging her to apply to lead the Las Vegas Valley Water District; he mentions the Dunes and its two fresh-water wells, the Sanitation District and wastewater treatment. Few others have actively shaped Southern Nevada as Richard Bunker has through his lengthy career as a lobbyist (1973–2000); assistant manager for City of Las Vegas (1973–77); Clark County Manager (1977–79); member and Chair of the Nevada Gaming Control Board (1980–1982); executive director (1988-1990) and

Born of humble beginnings to a sheep farming family in Cyprus, Greece, Stavros Anthony embodies the legacy of the American spirit and ability to reach as far as one can to achieve personal greatness. His family came to the United States in 1955 and moved to Kansas City, Missouri, where his father started working in the restaurant business as a cook until 1967. Moving to Detroit proved to be a benefit for the family, as his father became the executive chef for the Grosse Point Yacht Club, one of the most exclusive clubs in the country. He went from sheep herding, to peeling potatoes, to the executive and afforded his family a typical middle class lifestyle. He graduated from high school in 1975 and attended Wayne State University, earning is B.A. in criminal justice and starting his career in policing with the university’s police department. Upon graduating in 1980, he faced a frozen job industry in Detroit due to a very bad auto recession. He applied for and secured a position as a po

With a liveliness of a man decades younger, Harry Kogan looks at his 100th birthday with cheer and satisfaction. Born March 11, 1916 to poor Russian immigrant parents in the Jewish ghetto of Philadelphia, Harry vividly recalls walking to school shoeless, with no hat or no raincoat. A treat would be his mother handing him ten-cents to go to the theater and enjoy a silent movie. After graduating from high school in 1933, Harry quickly took one of the rare jobs available in a garment manufacturing company where he worked his way into being a skilled and valued fabric cutter-a job that paid $35 a week. Harry was raised with two brothers and lived in Philadelphia for the first 91 years of his life before moving to Las Vegas. One of his brothers learned the refrigeration business while enlisted in the Navy and after the war formed a commercial refrigeration business named Kogan Brothers. Harry is a philosophical and philanthropic man. He was slow to retire and traveled the world, took classes and donated to his favorite causes; among which are the Boys Town Jerusalem and the Jewish Federation of Las Vegas. He sat for this interview to honor his Jewish roots, to share his life experiences and spending the past years in Las Vegas.