Special Agent, U.S. Secret Service
Tory Green, a native of Huntsville, Alabama, was raised by a single mother in a housing project with his three brothers. To help build a better future for her sons, Tory’s mother enrolled him and his brothers in Big Brothers Big Sisters. Although Tory was first placed on the wait list for a male mentor, he immediately he became engaged in the program activities. Then at the age of 11, his Big Brother Roy came into his life.
Roy showed Tory that a life existed outside of his neighborhood. He demonstrated what it meant to work hard and be a good man. Roy involved Tory in life events, like weddings and births, which Tory reciprocated. More importantly, Roy instilled in Tory that you can really accomplish your goals and dreams.
In 2009, Tory gave the State of Scouting address to a Joint Session of Congress and was given the opportunity to meet with President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama in the Oval Office.
Roy has supported Tory into adulthood, as he started his career path in law enforcement in Huntsville, Alabama; graduated college; became a member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc.; and ultimately becoming a Special Agent with the United States Secret Service.
Judge, U.S. Circuit Court
Judge Wilkins was appointed to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on January 15, 2014. A native of Muncie Indiana, he obtained a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology in 1986 and a J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1989. Following law school, Judge Wilkins served as a law clerk to the Honorable Earl B. Gilliam of the United States District Court for the Southern District of California. In 1990, he joined the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia, where he served first as a staff attorney in the trial and appellate divisions and later for several years as Special Litigation Chief. In 2002, he joined the law firm of Venable LLP as a partner, handling white-collar defense, intellectual property and complex civil litigation matters. During his tenure with the Public Defender Service and in private practice, Judge Wilkins served as the lead plaintiff in Wilkins, et al. v. State of Maryland, a landmark civil rights lawsuit that inspired nationwide legislative and executive reform of police stop-and-search practices and the collection of data regarding those practices. Judge Wilkins also played a key role in the establishment of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture (opened in September 2016 on the National Mall), serving as the Chairman of the Site and Building Committee of the Presidential Commission whose work led to the Congressional authorization of the museum and the selection of its location. As a practicing lawyer, he was named one of the “40 under 40 most successful young litigators in America” by the National Law Journal (2002) and one of the “90 Greatest Washington Lawyers of the Last 30 Years” by the Legal Times (2008). In 2019, Judge Wilkins received the Harvard Law School Association Award and the Washington Bar Association Charles Hamilton Houston Medallion of Merit. On December 27, 2010, Judge Wilkins was appointed United States District Judge for the District of Columbia, where he served until his appointment to the D.C. Circuit.
Commissioner, Los Angeles Police Department
Steve Soboroff is a businessman and philanthropist who has been serving as a Los Angeles Police Commissioner since August of 2013. Soboroff previously served as President of the Los Angeles Recreation and Parks Commission between 1995 and 2000. After serving on the L.A. Harbor Commission and as Senior Advisor to Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan, Soboroff ran for Mayor of Los Angeles in the 2001 election and placed third.
In September 2011, Soboroff was appointed by the California Science Center to be the Senior Advisor to the museum in its project with NASA to bring, and permanently exhibit, the Space Shuttle Endeavour. He was Chairman of the Center for the Study of Los Angeles at Loyola Marymount University, and was a Senior Fellow and member of the Advisory Board at UCLA’s Luskin School of Public Affairs.
As the former Chairman and CEO of Playa Vista, one of the nation’s most significant multi-use real estate projects, Mr. Soboroff and his team oversee all aspects of the Playa Vista community. Described by the Los Angeles Times as “L.A.’s Urban Model,” the sustainable development provides critically needed housing, commercial office space and neighborhood shopping, while adding parks, preserving the environment and restoring hundreds of acres of wetlands.
Soboroff has a strong track record for creating, improving and protecting open space and park land for city residents. As president of the L.A. Recreation and Parks Commission, he reinvigorated the city’s park system to better meet the recreational needs of the people of Los Angeles. In addition, Steve was the driving force behind bringing Staples Center to Los Angeles and helped spearhead the Alameda Corridor Project.
Active in Big Brothers since 1968, Mr. Soboroff served as its President and then Chairman Emeritus, and continues to support Big Brothers Big Sisters. Mr. Soboroff’s company, Soboroff Partners, received the “Los Angeles Beautiful” Award for restoration of retail buildings on Montana Avenue and in Malibu. A successful real estate executive who was honored locally as Harvard Business School’s “Business Statesman of the Year,” and was given the “Lifetime Achievement Award” by the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, Mr. Soboroff holds Bachelor and Masters Degrees in the Dept. of Finance, Insurance and Real Estate from the University of Arizona.
Past General President, Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity
Mark S. Tillman is a committed supporter of mentoring. He is a three-time mentor with Big Brothers Big Sisters for over twenty years to Littles Devon, Crispin, and Elijah He is a recipient of the organization’s Community Impact Award. He has been honored as a “Person of the Week” by the local ABC affiliated news station WXYZ and the 100 Black Men of Metro Detroit for his dedication to mentoring.
Mark served as the 34th General President of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. Under his leadership, Mark supported the development of young boys into responsible and productive adults. Throughout his administration, Alpha Phi Alpha focused on the mission of developing leaders” and the organization received a one-million dollar grant to support the mentoring of young men.
Professionally, Mark has over thirty years of information technology experience. He is currently a senior IT project manager with Michigan Medicine in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Mark is a native of New Orleans, Louisiana and a graduate of Dillard University. He is married to Velicia, his wife of over twenty-five years.
Private Wealth Estate Specialist & Chief of Research, Olshan Realty
Emily Chen Carrera is Chief of Research at Olshan Realty and manages the Private Wealth Real Estate Services, providing brokerage expertise along with research and consulting capabilities. She co-founded the Olshan Luxury Market Report, a weekly real-time snapshot of the New York City residential real estate market, which became the industry standard and revolutionized how the market is analyzed and evaluated in real-time. Chen was previously a vice president in Institutional Sales at Goldman Sachs and a senior consultant in the Capital Markets Group at PwC.
President Biden appointed Chen as a Commissioner to the President’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders. The Commission will advise the President on ways the public, private, and nonprofit sectors can work together to advance equity and opportunity for every Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander community.
A former National Big Sister of the Year, Chen serves on the boards of Big Brothers Big Sisters of America and the Big Brothers Big Sisters of America Charitable Foundation. She also sits on the Board of Directors of the Beau Biden Foundation. Chen is on the Women & Science Committee at Rockefeller University, the Creative Council at The Shed and the Advisory Board of The Imagine Society. She was named a Tiffany & Co. Hometown Hero for her work supporting health care professionals and first responders during the COVID-19 pandemic. Chen is the past president of the American Friends of The Royal Foundation of The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. She was previously a Director and Advisory Council Co-Chair of The Catholic Big Sisters and Big Brothers of New York City (now Bigs & Littles NYC Mentoring).
A graduate of Georgetown University, Chen is a recipient of the John Carroll Award. Named for Archbishop John Carroll, the first Catholic bishop in North America and founder of Georgetown University, this award is conferred upon alumni whose achievements and record of service exemplify the ideals and traditions of Georgetown and its founder. She is Co-Founder and Executive Producer of Stand Up For Georgetown, which has raised over $1 million to benefit the Georgetown Scholars Program for first-generation and low-income students. Chen served on the University’s Board of Regents and the Advisory Board of the McDonough School of Business.
Former President Emeritus, Do It Best Corp.
Don Wolf served for more than 25 years as president and CEO of what would become Do it Best Corp. and helped grow it into a multi-billion-dollar international home improvement co-op. He began his career at Hardware Wholesalers Inc. (HWI) in 1947, advancing in the company’s ranks through leadership roles in the purchasing, marketing and sales departments. He was appointed CEO in 1967, when the co-op consisted of one distribution center serving 12 states with $35 million in annual sales. By the time he retired in 1992, Wolf’s leadership and vision had helped the co-op grow to more than $1.2 billion in sales, with six distribution centers serving the entire continental United States and several foreign countries. Wolf played a key role in laying the groundwork for the merger between HWI and Our Own Hardware that led to the creation of Do it Best Corp. in 1998.
Wolf played key development, leadership and mentoring roles for a number of nonprofit and charitable organizations in Fort Wayne and throughout the state of Indiana. In 1972, he co-founded and served as the first president of Big Brothers of Greater Fort Wayne and later served as president of the national board of Big Brothers Big Sisters of America from 1977-1980.
In addition, he founded Study Connection in 1989 in partnership with Fort Wayne Community Schools. Today, this program trains and provides approximately 1,000 volunteer tutors each year to help students with homework while building their confidence and self-esteem.
He received an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Purdue University and an Honorary Doctorate of Humanities from Vincennes University. Wolf was also named the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette Newspaper Citizen of the Year in 1991 and, that same year, was awarded the Pathfinder Award for service to youth by Indiana Youthlinks. In 1993, he was named Indiana Business Leader of the Year by the Indiana State Chamber of Commerce.
On September 11, 2019, Don Wolf passed away at the age of 90. Wolf is survived by his wife Ginny, as well as their four children, Donna, Lisa, Rebecca, and Rick, and numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
NBC Nightly News Sunday Anchor and NBC News Senior National Correspondent
Kate Snow is the anchor of NBC Nightly News Sunday and an award-winning Senior National Correspondent for NBC News. Her reporting appears across all platforms of NBC News and MSNBC. She currently contributes regularly to Nightly News with Lester Holt, TODAY, and Dateline NBC.
She also hosts NBC News’ The Drink with Kate Snow, a digital series and podcast where she speaks with innovators and influencers and dives into their success stories. In 2019, Snow created and hosted Relentless with Kate Snow, which aired on Oxygen and featured stories of crime survivors who were relentless in their pursuit of justice for a family member. From 2015-2017, Snow anchored a weekday news program on MSNBC, which featured newsmakers and fast-paced political coverage.
Snow is perhaps best known for insightful stories that make an impact, including her reporting on mental health, for which she was honored for by the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. In 2019, Snow won an Emmy for her 2018 exclusive sit-down with Andrea Constand, who broke her 13-year silence about the case that led to Bill Cosby’s conviction. That Dateline hour followed Snow’s 2015 Dateline special with 27 Bill Cosby accusers in one room, which also won both Emmy and duPont awards. Additionally, her 2015 series about transgender children was called a “phenomenon,” as millions of people watched a video about 5-year-old Jacob that went viral on social media, and millions more watched stories on Nightly News and TODAY. Her Emmy-winning 2014 series, “Hooked: America’s Heroin Epidemic,” put a human face on a public health crisis, prompted congressional hearings and legislative action, and was praised by drug policy organizations.
Snow has also covered politics throughout her career, including six presidential elections, the White House and Congress. She has interviewed a wide range of newsmakers, from President Obama to Bono; Jeff Bezos to Ringo Starr. She pointedly questioned President Bill Clinton in his first interview after his wife lost the 2008 nomination. But she can just as easily sing a tune with Rick Springfield.
Prior to joining NBC News in 2010, Snow was the anchor of the weekend edition of ABC’s Good Morning America for six years. Previously, she was a White House correspondent for ABC News and a Congressional Correspondent for CNN.
Snow is the wife of radio host Chris Bro and proud mom of Zack and Abby. She is a graduate of Cornell University and holds a Master’s degree in international affairs from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service. She works closely with many charitable organizations and serves on the Board of Big Brothers Big Sisters of NYC, recently receiving a Lifetime Achievement Award from the national organization.
Snow is on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok and Snapchat at @tvkatesnow
