Miriam Lord is the Associate Register of Copyrights and Director of Public Information and Education for the United States Copyright Office. She’s an expert copyright attorney and one of four legal advisors to the Register of Copyrights. She oversees the authoritative copyright information the Office provides to the public through strategic communication and education programs and initiatives at all levels.

Before joining the Office, Lord was the Director of the Global Intellectual Property Academy at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office within the Office of Policy and International Affairs, providing domestic and international intellectual property capacity-building and technical assistance for education policy and programs. Previously, she was the Director of the Philadelphia Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts, providing pro bono legal assistance to artists, start-ups and creative nonprofits.

Emmy® award-winner, ASHLEY IRWIN, has written music for over 1,000 hours of film and television, and more than 3,000 commercials. He relocated from his native Australia to the U.S.A. in 1990 after a successful career in theatre, records, advertising and television. Known for his collaborations with Oscar® winners Clint Eastwood and Bill Conti, Ashley has arranged and composed music for 22 Academy Awards shows, several Emmys® and Grammys®, as well a slew of other TV variety shows. He was Musical Director for the inaugural Screen Actors Guild Awards and for the American Giving Awards, both for NBC. He is an official APRA AMCOS Ambassador, is co-chair of Music Creators North America, and has been president of the Society of Composers & Lyricists for the past 12 years. 

Attorney Charlie Sanders is one of the music industry’s leading international rights advocates for music creators.   Licensed to practice in New York, California, Washington, D.C. and before the U.S. Supreme Court, he currently serves as outside counsel to the Songwriters Guild of America, and as a principle advisor to Music Creators North America, Fair Trade Music, the International Council of Music Creators, and the Native American Music Association.  He is also the longtime chair of the Congressionally-chartered National Music Council of the United States.  Sanders previously served as a copyright fellow at NYU School of Law, and has subsequently taught music history and law as an adjunct professor at NYU for over 25 years and counting.  Between 1986-2004 he served as Executive VP and counsel to the National Music Publishers Association.  He is also a former studio musician, a platinum and Emmy award-winning producer and former Recording Academy/Grammy board member, and the former chair of the music community’s leading social outreach charity, WhyHunger.  

Sanders was also an editor of the celebrated textbook “This Business of Music,” and has produced major concerts from venues ranging from Carnegie Hall to the United Nations General Assembly. 

Finally, Sanders is equally well-known in the US and international snow sports community, serving as chair of the US Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame.  He was elected as a member of the renown Explorers Club in 2018 for accomplishments including becoming one of the first persons ever to ski mountaineer on all seven continents, including back country ski descents in Antarctica, the Himalayas and the Arctic.  His books tracing the history of the US 10^th Mountain Division in WWII and the history of snow sports and environmentalism at Dartmouth College (“The Boys of Winter” and “Passion for Skiing” respectively) each won national book awards from the prestigious International Skiing History Association, and resulted in his recent election as president of the North American Snow-Sports Journalists Association. 

Maimouna Youssef also known as Mumu Fresh is GRAMMY-Nominated, Indigenous Music award-winning, 3 X Washington Area Music award (WAMMIE) winning, Urban World Music Video award-winning, Musical and Cultural Ambassador for the US State Department, former elected governor of the DC chapter of The Recording Academy, co-creator of the Recording Academy’s “Best Song for Social Change” award, IMAN central roster artist and an Ambassador of The Black Music Collective. 

Mumu Fresh has performed on two separate NPR Tiny Desk concerts which both surpassed 1 Million views each. She has toured internationally as a critically acclaimed singer, Emcee, songwriter, activist, workshop facilitator and now audio engineer who’s been called a “quadruple threat” by The Roots’ Black Thought, a musical “Quasar” by Indie rap legend TechN9ne, & “groundbreaking” by Oscar-winning artist, Common.

While touring 6 continents, Mumu Fresh has built a relationship with over 275K engaged fans who have shared and streamed her recorded music millions of times in at least 192 countries throughout the world to date.  Mumu Fresh has shared the stage and or collaborated with the likes of Dave Chappelle, Amy Schumer, The Roots, Salaam Remi, D Smoke, Sting, Lalah Hathaway, Anderson Paak, Bruno Mars, Femi Kuti, Angelique Kidjoe, Nas, Jill Scott, Ed Sheeran, Common, Busta Rhymes, Method Man, Raphael Saadiq & Tobe Nwigwe just to name a few. 

For information, visit Patrick Amory’s LinkedIn page.

Shannon Sorensen joined NMPA in 2017 and serves as Senior Vice President, Legal & Business Affairs. Shannon handles a range of legal matters including copyright infringement litigations, CRB proceedings, and model license and settlement agreements. Shannon also advises on NMPA’s domestic policy initiatives and spearheads NMPA’s involvement in Copyright Office matters. She is responsible for NMPA’s international policy portfolio, advocating for music publishers’ interests abroad. She serves on the Board of Directors of the Copyright Alliance and as Regional Chair of North America for the International Confederation of Music Publishers. Shannon previously served as Vice President, Government Affairs and Counsel. In that role, she was one of NMPA’s primary lobbyists who helped to secure the unanimous passage of the Music Modernization Act, the largest copyright reform bill passed in decades, which was signed into law in 2018. 

Todd Dupler serves as Chief Advocacy & Public Policy Officer for the Recording Academy® where he oversees the Advocacy division focused on championing creators’ rights and elevating important policy issues that stand to affect the music community. He’s also responsible for orchestrating cross-departmental efforts to advance the overall advocacy goals of the Recording Academy and coordinating state and local advocacy with the Academy’s 12 regional Chapters.  

Dupler previously served as the VP of Advocacy & Public Policy and Acting Chief Advocacy & Public Policy Officer for the Recording Academy since December 2021, leading the Academy’s team in Washington, D.C., and coordinating all the Academy’s advocacy and government affairs efforts. Dupler was instrumental in expanding the Academy’s state and local advocacy work, resulting in new pro-music laws in multiple states, including California’s landmark Decriminalizing Artistic Expression Act. He also relaunched and reinvigorated the Academy’s signature advocacy programs, GRAMMYs on the Hill and District Advocate. Under his leadership, these initiatives supported the passage of the PEACE Through Music Diplomacy Act, which was signed into law at the end of 2022. Joining the Academy in 2012, Dupler has helped secure legislative achievements such as the Music Modernization Act and the Better Online Tickets Sales Act, and launched the GRAMMY® Fund for Music Creators, the Academy’s political action committee.  

Dupler has over 25 years of experience in Washington, D.C., and extensive knowledge of Capitol Hill and the legislative process. Prior to joining the Academy, he served on the legislative staffs of two members of Congress and a United States senator, including serving as the legislative director to the chairman of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property and the Internet. In this role, Dupler helped facilitate negotiations to reform copyright law, and was a liaison to stakeholders in the creative industries. In addition, he was also a presidential appointee at the U.S. Department of Labor and has experience in state government. Dupler is a member of the State Bar of Texas and serves on the board of the Copyright Alliance. He also previously served on the board of the Texas State Society of Washington, D.C. He holds a J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center and bachelor of arts degree in history and political science from Baylor University.