film participants
Gov. Steve Bullock
President John Hotham
Steve Bullock is the former Governor of Montana, serving two terms from 2013-2021. He served as the Chair of the National Governors Association from 2018-2019. Before that, he was the Attorney General of Montana, from 2009-2013.
General (Ret.) Wesley Clark
Joint Chiefs of Staff
Retired General Wesley Clark served in the US Army from 1966-2000, culminating with his position as Supreme Allied Commander Europe, where he commanded forces in the Kosovo War. He was valedictorian of his 1966 class at West Point and was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship. He served in Vietnam, where he was wounded. He received the Purple Heart, and was awarded the Silver Star for continuing to command his men after being shot.
Sen. Heidi Heitkamp
Senior Advisors to the President
Heidi Heitkamp is a former Senator from North Dakota, serving from 2013-2019, where she served on the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, and was the Ranking Member on the Subcommittee on Regulatory and Federal Management. Previously, she was the Attorney General for North Dakota from 1992-2000.
Major General (Ret.) Linda Singh
National Guard Bureau
Retired Major General Linda Singh served in the Maryland National Guard from 1981-2019, culminating with her appointment to Adjutant General, Joint Force Headquarters. Previously, she served as the Commander of the Maryland Army National Guard, where she helped lead the response to the 2015 Baltimore riots. During her time in the National Guard, she was deployed to Kosovo and Afghanistan.
Lt. Col. (Ret) Alexander Vindman
Game Consultant
Alex Vindman is a retired United States Army lieutenant colonel and former director for European affairs for the United States National Security Council (NSC) from 2018-2020. He is the director of the Informed American Leadership program at the Vet Voice Foundation. Alex served in the Army for over 20 years, including time in Iraq, where he received the Purple Heart after an IED wounded him in the line of duty,
Sen. Doug Jones
Attorney General
Doug Jones is a former Senator from Alabama, serving from 2018-2021. Before that, he served as the US Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama from 1997-2001. In that role, he prosecuted a number of perpetrators of extremist attacks, including members of the Ku Klux Klan for their roles in the 1963 16th Street Baptist Church bombing.
Gwen Camp
White House Chief of Staff
Gwen Camp has decades of experience in government and the public sector, including time as the Chief of Staff of the Pennsylvania State Treasury and State Director for Senator Robert Casey of Pennsylvania. She received her Masters in Public Administration from Harvard, and currently leads her own public affairs firm, which specializes in coalition building, crisis management, national security, and communications. She is also a senior advisor to the non-profit organization Team Democracy.
David Priess
Director of National Intelligence
David Priess served as a CIA officer during both the Clinton and George W. Bush administrations, where he was an intelligence officers, manager and daily intelligence briefer for FBI Director Robert Mueller and President Bush’s Attorney General John Ashcroft. He is now Director of Intelligence at Bedrock Learning, Inc. and a Senior Fellow at the Michael V. Hayden Center for Intelligence, Policy, and International Security. He is also the author of The President’s Book of Secrets: The Untold Story of Intelligence Briefings to America’s Presidents.
Elizabeth Neumann
Homeland Security Advisor
Elizabeth Neumann served as Assistant Secretary for Counterterrorism and Deputy Chief of Staff at the Department of Homeland Security for the Trump Administration. She previously worked in the George W. Bush White House on the Homeland Security Council from 2003-2006. She authored the newly released book, Kingdom of Rage: The Rise of Christian Extremism and the Path Back to Peace.
Louis Caldera
Secretary of Defense
Lou Caldera served as the Secretary of the Army during the Clinton administration, from 1998-2001. Following his service as a California State Assemblyperson, he returned to Washington to serve as the director of the White House Military Office during the Obama administration.
Peter Strzok
Counter-Intelligence FBI Director
eter Strzok is a former FBI Agent, where worked for 22 years, eventually rising to be the Deputy Assistant Director of the Counterintelligence Division. He led the investigation into interference by Russia in the 2016 elections, as well as the investigation of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server.
Fred Wellman
Red Cell Operative
Fred Wellman is an American political consultant, Army combat veteran, and media personality. He advises political candidates, non-profits, and political action committees engaged in pro-democracy efforts as well as managing his own podcast, newsletter and appearing on national media. He served for over 22-years as an Army Aviator and Public Affairs Officer including four combat tours in Operation Desert Storm and Iraq.
Jack Tomarchio
DHS Secretary of Homeland Security
In 2005 Jack Tomarchio was appointed the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security for Intelligence and Analysis for the George W. Bush administration; in 2007 he was promoted to Deputy Under Secretary for Intelligence and Analysis Operations. In his work at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Tomarchio was the primary senior official in charge of the intelligence directorate’s partnership with state and local governments to build a domestic intelligence sharing network. He also worked closely with other components of the federal intelligence community.
Doug Wilson
White House Spokesman
Doug Wilson served as Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs from 2010-2012 for President Obama. During that time, he served as the Senior Spokesman for the Pentagon and principal Communications Advisor to the Secretary of Defense and Deputy Secretary. From 1997-1999, under President Clinton, he was the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs. He has three times been awarded the Department of Defense Medal for Distinguished Public Service.
Lt. General (Ret.) Jeffrey Buchanan
Commander, USNORTHCOM
Retired Lieutenant General Jeffrey Buchanan served in the US Army from 1982-2019, where he last served as Commander, US Army North, which is responsible for homeland defense and support of civil authorities. Previous to that, he served as the commander of the US Army Military District of Washington/Joint Force Headquarters-National Capitol Region. From 2015-2016 he served as Resolute Support DCOS-Operations/Deputy Commander (Operations) for US Forces-Afghanistan (2015-2016). In 2017 he was dispatched to Puerto Rico, to lead all military efforts after Hurricane Maria.
Joe Reeder
General Counsel, DOD
Joe Reeder was Undersecretary of the US Army from 1993-1997, for President Bill Clinton. In that role, he was chiefly responsible for long-range planning, readiness, and financial management of the US Army. He joined the Army in 1970, after graduating from the United States Military Academy, and joined the Judge Advocate General Corps, US Army in 1976, following his graduation from the University of Texas Law School.
Marshall "Will" Williams
Secretary of the Army
Marshall “Will” Williams was the Acting Assistant Secretary of the Army for Manpower and Reserve Affairs from 2018-2021, during the Trump administration, where he was responsible to the Secretary of the Army for the care and policies of the Army’s 1.3 million soldiers and its 300 thousand civilians. He was awarded the Army Distinguished Public Service Medal, was named one of the Defense Department’s Top 25 Executives to Watch, by Washington Exec, in 2020.
Jeremy Sheridan
US Secret Service
Jeremy Sheridan is a former United States Secret Service officer, spanning three administrations from 2010-2022. Before leaving, he served as the Assistant Director in the Office of Investigations.
Doug Gordon
White House Deputy Communications Director
Doug Gordon is a communications strategist and co-founder of UpShift Strategies. Gordon has worked on numerous federal, state, and local campaigns and on Capitol Hill.
Kris Goldsmith
Red Cell Leader
Kristopher Goldsmith is an investigator, writer, founder, and Iraq combat veteran who studies disinformation and domestic extremist movements. He is the Founder and CEO of Task Force Butler, which trains veterans in research and operations to counter extremism, teaching the skills and context necessary to keep veterans and their communities safe as they gather intelligence on dangerous individuals and organizations. He served as a forward observer in the US Army, during deployment in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Chris Jones
Red Cell Operative
Christopher Jones is a Marine Corps veteran who previously was a digital and forensic reporter, focused on white supremacists and their disinformation campaigns. He served in the Marines for four years in the infantry and as a machine gun squad leader in Afghanistan. His work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, USA Today, and The Village Voice.
Janessa Goldbeck
Game Producer
Janessa Goldbeck is CEO of Vet Voice Foundation, a national nonprofit organization with over 1.5 million members that mobilizes veterans to have a voice in our democracy. Goldbeck, a Marine Corps veteran, deployed overseas as a Combat Engineer Officer, managing engineering, logistics, and explosive ordnance disposal missions in support of NATO operations.
Benjamin Radd
Game Designer
Ben Radd is the founder of Fascination Lab, a results-driven strategic educational team hired to develop experiential learning, professional development, and traditional training, including the design and execution of role-playing programs and simulations. He is a lecturer of global studies, international and area studies, and political science in the UCLA College. He is also a Senior Fellow at the Burkle Center for International Relations at the UCLA International Institute, and a Research Fellow with the UCLA Center for Middle East Development.
Eric Schmeltzer
Public Relations Consultant
Eric Schmeltzer has run his own Public Relations firm, since 2004, specializing in non-profit and public issues campaigns.
He began his career as Communications Assistant and Communications Director for Public Campaign, one of the fiercest advocates for campaign finance reform. There, he expanded the group‘s presence in the media, forming new relationships with reporters and organizing press conferences. In 1999, he left that position to become Press Secretary for Rep. Jerrold Nadler. In that position, he took Rep. Nadler from a little-noticed back-bench member of Congress to a frequent commentator in newspapers and television, particularly in the aftermath of the 2000 Presidential election.In 2003, he joined Howard Dean’s Presidential campaign as Press Secretary and Deputy NY Campaign Manager, where he helped develop strategies to leverage Dean’s cutting-edge campaign for media coverage.
David Lapan
DOD Spokesperson
David Lapan is a communication consultant and senior advisor. He most recently served as vice president of communications for the Bipartisan Policy Center, a DC-based public policy think tank. Lapan previously served as press secretary and deputy assistant secretary for media relations at the Department of Homeland Security.
Colonel Lapan (U.S. Marine Corps, retired) has more than 30 years of military service and 20 years of communication/Public Affairs experience at the highest levels of the U.S. Department of
Defense. As a Public Affairs Officer, he served as a spokesman and advisor for several Secretaries of Defense; the 18th Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; the Commander, the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and U.S. Forces – Afghanistan; and for multinational forces during military operations in Haiti and Iraq.