William Payne's career has encompassed many venues: Boat building, magazine editor, marketing and sales, M&A, consulting and investment banking. Mr. Payne is the Chairman of the Board to Payne Whittington Insurance Services Inc., and is the President and CEO of W. C. Payne Enterprise Inc. Bill has dedicated his life to world commerce and peace. A long time member of The Middle East Institute, Mr. Payne has been involved in creating good will and understanding throughout Africa, and the Middle East, and is a long time friend of Morocco. Mr. Payne is a graduate of San Francisco State University, and holds a BFA degree in design.

Fatina Salaheddine, Publisher and C.E.O. of Al-Sahafa Newspaper. Born and raised of immigrant Lebanese parents in Akron, Ohio, Fatina speaks fluent Arabic, English, and French -- and can converse well in Spanish, Italian and Greek. She is the founder and CEO of Nonabel Entertainment, and is the publisher and CEO of Al-Sahafa Newspaper Corporation ( www.al-sahafa.us). Al-Sahafa is Ohio’s only statewide monthly Middle Eastern newspaper.  Published in English, Al-Sahafa has a broad range of topics and reaches a large national and international audience.

Fatina says that print media is an amazing medium to reach persons across the world. She is “determined to initiate and open dialogue about the Middle East to help bridge the gap of tolerance and acceptance each month, by providing news with the “Arab” viewpoint - reminding readers that; there is always the other side to every story told!" Fatina loves meeting new people: “When you meet a new person, you discover a new language, a new country, new sounds in music, new tastes in food, and most importantly a new culture and way of thinking about life.”

Rev. Richard Cizik is the Vice President for Governmental Affairs of the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) and one of the most prominent Evangelical lobbyists in the United States. In his position with the NAE, Cizik's primary responsibilities are setting the organization's policy on issues and lobbying the White House, Congress, and the Supreme Court. Cizik also serves as NAE's national spokesman and edits a monthly magazine, NAE Washington Insight. Since 2003, Cizik has been the national leader in a type of environmentalism he calls "creation care", and regularly appears in national media to promote the need for evangelicals to join the fight against global warming. Since 2004 he has also been the most visible evangelical proponent for dialogue with the Muslim world, and has made trips to several Islamic nations, especially Morocco, to reach out to moderate leaders there.

Dr. Augustin is a regional specialist on the Middle East. He has been awarded four Joseph J. Malone Fellowships for intensive studies in Arab and Islamic culture and has traveled extensively in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman and the United Arab Emirates.

He is the author of Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, published by Grolier Publishing Company. He has served as an educational consultant for the U.S. State Department, the U.S. Department of Defense and the National Geographic Society, as well as State Director of the Texas Committee on U.S.-Arab Relations from 1991-1997.

Born in the desert of West Texas, Doug has been a camel aficionado since his days as a zookeeper. His love of these extraordinary animals has taken him as far afield as the Sinai, where he traveled with the Bedouin. He is passionate about the historical use of camels in the US in the 1850-60's, and has only the group of camels in the world devoted to the perpetuation of this quirky bit of history.

Read about Doug’s relationship to camelback trekking on his Web Site: www.texascamelcorps.com

A native of the Pacific Northwest, Becky R. Izen lives outside Los Angeles, California. She currently works for MSSP - Jewish Family Service of Los Angeles (Multipurpose Senior Services Program) as a database specialist and also does double duty as the network specialist, webmaster, and web programmer.

Having grown up as a horse lover, she discovered camels about three years ago and has been hooked on them ever since. Her website, www.AllCamels.com, has evolved from a extensive list of camel-related links to one of the most prominent camel-related websites in the world, now receiving tens of thousands of hits each month, and welcoming visitors from over 110 countries.

Born and raised in central Kentucky, Dennie has a deep respect for his roots, while at the same time being attached to cultures outside America. He is a multifaceted artist, accomplished as a photographer and musician -- on guitar, trumpet, and Djembé drums. Professionally Dennie is the founder of Show Tech and Light Box, two award-winning multimedia production companies in Louisville, KY. Moreover, he has created CD-ROMs, designed web sites, and produced multi-projector shows on horse racing. One of his greatest achievements was a 12-projector show on college students in Daytona Beach that premiered the Nikon Road Show. In his spare time he has worked on humanitarian endeavors involving the Dalai Lama, and is putting together a project to beam holographic projections into clouds.

Clovis Maksoud is one of the world's best recognized and highly respected spokesmen for the Arab point of view. A Lebanese national, Dr. Maksoud served from 1967-1979 as the Senior Editor of Al-Ahram and then Chief Editor of Al-Nahar Weekly. Ambassador Maksoud was appointed as the League of Arab States' Chief Representative to he United Nations and the United States in 1979. On August 15, 1990, he submitted his resignation from the League in the aftermath of Iraq's invasion of Kuwait.

A lawyer, journalist and diplomat, Dr. Maksoud is the author of several articles and books, among them: "The Meaning of Non-Alignment," "The Crisis of the Arab Left," "Reflections on Afro-Asianism," and "The Arab Image." He has been the Chairperson and Convener of many conferences on environment and development, human rights, population, and disarmament.

Hailing from Morocco, Hamid has been living since 1985 in America, where he obtained his M.A. in Anthropology from Memphis State University in 1992. He became an American citizen in 1988. Owner of Sarah Tours, one of the most successful operators of premium tours to Morocco, Portugal and Spain, Hamid is also the co-founder of the renowned Sacred Music Festival, now entering its 8th season in his hometown of Fes. He is an avid and eloquent spokesmen for the need of better communication between Americans and Arabs.

Living in Dubai with his wife and partner Renate, Dr. Wernery counts among his specialties the diagnosis of diseases in camels, falcons, poultry, horses, small ruminants, and cattle. He is also known for the determination of hematological and biochemical reference values of racing camels, falcons, and horses in tropical climates. He has published three books in his professional field, and is a member of the Royal Society of Medicine in England.