Soledad O’Brien is an award-winning journalist, philanthropist, and founder of Soledad O’Brien Productions, a media production company dedicated to telling empowering and authentic stories on a range of social issues. This year, she served as Executive Producer of the HBO documentary short "The Devil Is Busy," now streaming, as well as "The Perfect Neighbor," which earned the Best Director award at Sundance, and is currently the number one–streamed documentary on Netflix. O’Brien’s work has been recognized with ten Emmy awards, five Critic’s Choice Awards, three George Foster Peabody Awards, and many others. Her passion for supporting young people is realized by way of her foundation, PowHERful, which has helped dozens of young women get to and through college. Soledad lives between New York and West Palm Beach with her husband Brad, and her four children. 

Rose Arce is Vice President of Soledad O’Brien Productions which aims to elevate untold stories in marginalized communities. She is a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, and four-time Emmy Award-winning producer. She is producer of the Cinema Eye and DOC NYC Short List Film The Devil is Busy (HBO) and Executive Producer of The Perfect Neighbor (Netflix) which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and won 5 Critics Choice Awards including Best Documentary in 2025. She is Director of War on La Radio (Scripps TV) winner of 4 Silver Tellys, and The End of Affirmative Action (CBS/Paramount +) which won a Gold Telly for Social Impact. She also directed Pandemic in Seattle (Hearst and PBS) winner of the Silver Telly. While at CNN, she produced episodes of the Black in America and Latino in America documentary series, Her Name was Steven, Beyond Bravery: The Women of 9/11 and Rescued. 

She spent 15 years at CNN reporting documentaries and covering breaking news around the world, including being one of the few on-air reporters live from Ground Zero while the 9/11 attacks unfolded, then went on to cover the war in Afghanistan. She has reported and produced live from conflict zones and natural disasters around the world, and pivotal historic events including 5 presidential elections. 

Previous to CNN, she was a producer at CBS News and WCBS, where she was honored with several awards for her investigative reports on abortion and policing. She began her career as an award-winning print reporter, covering police and education for the NY Daily News, most recently at New York Newsday where she shared the Pulitzer Prize for spot news reporting with her colleagues. She is the author or co-author of four books, including the Next Big Story and Latino in America.  She has taught journalism at Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism (now Craig Newmark). She has worked for diversity in media for decades through her leadership roles with the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, the National Lesbian Gay Journalists Association, San Francisco State University, Unity: Journalists of Color, the Radio Television News Directors Association, the Heising-Simons Foundation Mosaic Awards and the Sydney Hillman Awards. She is a graduate of Barnard College/Columbia University and lives in New York with her partner and daughter.