2026 Wisconsin Economic Summit

Hillary Mintz joined Waukesha County as public information officer in 2023 after more than a decade of working as a trusted journalist at WISN 12 News in Milwaukee. Mintz is an Emmy Award-winning journalist and 2022 recipient of the Wisconsin Broadcasters Association’s “Best Live On-Scene Reporting” award in a large market. Now serving as PIO and press secretary for the Waukesha county executive, she oversees communications across multiple county departments to keep residents informed. She has also received certification from the Federal Emergency Management Agency as an advanced public information officer and serves as an adjunct professor in the Criminal Justice program at Waukesha County Technical College teaching “Media Relations for Law Enforcement.” She is also president of the Public Relations Society of America Southeastern Wisconsin Chapter.

George Packer is nationally recognized author and staff writer for The Atlantic.

In his latest book, “The Emergency,” a gripping novel that illuminates the crises of our time, Packer tells the story of a surgeon setting out into the countryside seeking human connection and community in a fallen empire. This page-turner takes us deep into the heart of our troubled moment and asks what we owe each other in a divided world.

In his book “Last Best Hope,”  selected as one of The New York Times’ 100 notable books of the year, Packer explores four narratives: Free America, which imagines a nation of separate individuals and serves the interests of corporations and the wealthy; Smart America, the world view of Silicon Valley and the professional elite; Real America, the white Christian nationalism of the heartland; and Just America, which sees citizens as members of identity groups that inflict or suffer oppression. In lively and biting prose, Packer shows that none of these narratives can sustain a democracy. To point a more hopeful way forward, he looks for a common American identity and finds it in the passion for equality—the “hidden code”—that Americans of many persuasions have held for centuries.

In his 2016 book “The Unwinding,” a National Book Award Winner, Packer explored the rise of populism, institutional collapse, and the unraveling of the American Dream. In 2019, “The Unwinding” was named one of the “Top 50 Nonfiction Titles of the Past 25 Years” by Slate. Packer’s recent book “Our Man: Richard Holbrooke and the End of the American Century” offered a vivid saga of the ambition, idealism, and hubris of Richard Holbrooke, one of the most legendary and complicated figures in recent American history.

Packer is the 2019 recipient of the Hitchens Prize, given in memory of the late Christopher Hitchens to a journalist or author who demonstrates a deep commitment to the pursuit of truth and free expression without concern for professional or personal consequences. He has published four other works of nonfiction: “The Assassins’ Gate: America in Iraq,” “Interesting Times: Writings from a Turbulent Decade,” “Blood of the Liberals,” and “The Village of Waiting.” He is also the author of novels “The Half Man” and “Central Square” and a play, “Betrayed.” Packer is the editor of  “The Fight Is for Democracy: Winning the War of Ideas in America and the World” and of a two-volume edition of George Orwell’s essays. He has been a Guggenheim Fellow and a Holtzbrinck Fellow at the American Academy in Berlin.

A starting defender on the 1999 FIFA Women’s World Cup championship team and the 2004 and 2008 Olympic gold medal teams, Markgraf is a National Soccer Hall of Fame inductee and NCAA Silver Anniversary Award winner. She played soccer professionally for 12 years, represented Team USA 201 times, and became the 10th woman in FIFA history to reach 200 international appearances.

After retiring, Markgraf earned master’s degrees in kinesiology and educational psychology, and her research has been published in the Journal of Applied Sport Psychology. A former general manager of the U.S. Women’s National Team, she now lives in Milwaukee with her husband and three children, dividing her time between volunteer work, public speaking, and her role as a psychotherapist for a community mental health organization. She is also the founder of The 99ers, an organization representing her teammates from the historic 1999 World Cup win, whose continued impact on female athletes will be featured in a Netflix film releasing in 2027.

Thomas Kemp, Ph.D., is chair and professor in the Department of Economics at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire.

He has held visiting appointments at Ateneo de Manila University, Philippines; Kobe University, Japan; Jinan University, China; and Vietnam National University, Vietnam. He is an affiliated faculty member of the Surf/Skate Studies Collaborative at San Diego State University and serves as secretary/treasurer for the Association for Evolutionary Economics (AFEE). He currently teaches environmental economics, the history of economic thought, and macroeconomics. Kemp earned his doctorate in economics in 2002 from Colorado State University and his bachelor’s degree in 1995 from Carthage College. His ongoing research interests include non-market valuation, institutional economics, and the economics of skateparks and skateboarding. His academic work has been published in a variety of journals including the Appraisal Journal, Journal of Economic Analysis, Journal of Economic Issues, Review of Social Economy, and Forum for Social Economics. He is the author of the books “Progress and Reform: The Economic Thought of John R. Commons” (2009) and “Basic Macroeconomics” (2016, 2023).

In his spare time, Kemp can be found with his family, on a skateboard, or wasting time and money on old Lambretta motor scooters. He reports that life is good despite the concrete being very, very hard.

Vivek Swaminathan is the CEO of Cardamom, a Madison-based technology-forward health IT professional services company serving healthcare providers, payers, and health IT organizations nationwide.

Born, raised, and now back in Madison, Swaminathan is a proud Badger alum and Asian American and brings more than 20 years of experience in health IT, with leadership roles at Epic, Paradigm, and Nordic prior to founding Cardamom. Known for his strategic mindset, servant leadership style, and results-focused approach, he has successfully grown software and professional services businesses from startups to late-stage organizations. He is passionate about improving health outcomes while reducing costs and is equally committed to the community and giving people opportunities to thrive.