Honorees

Baroness Caroline Cox
British born Lady Cox was created a Peer of the Realm in 1982 at the recommendation of then prime minister Margaret Thatcher. During her parliamentary career she has been involved in innumerable charitable activities and has been a vocal supporter of Israel and human rights.

In 2003 she founded the Humanitarian Aid Relief Trust (HART), which works to provide lasting change through aid and advocacy for those suffering oppression and persecution, but who are largely neglected by the international media. Lady Cox travels regularly to HART-funded aid and advocacy programs in Nagorno Karabagh, East and West Burma, East Timor, India, Nigeria, southern Sudan and northern Uganda.



Nitsana Darshan- Leitner
Nitsana Darshan-Leitner is an Israeli lawyer, human rights activist and founder of Shurat Hadin Israeli Law Center. She is known for her legal activism, especially campaigns to sue terror organizations and terrorists on behalf of victims. She is also a media personality appearing in the press, on radio and television including Israeli talk show programs, Voice of Israel Radio, CNN, the BBC, European television, the Jerusalem Report and many American and Canadian publications. Ms. Darshan-Leitner is the mother of six, and married to Israeli attorney Avi Leitner.

Cyrus Nowrasteh
Cyrus Nowrasteh was born in Boulder, Colorado of Iranian descent and grew up in Madison,Wisconsin. A much in demand writer, Mr. Nowrasteh has written for film md televison including such productions as 10,000 Black Men Named George, The Day Reagan Was Shot and La Femme Nikita. He wrote and produced the engrossing The Path to 9/11, an account of the events leading up to the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.

Most recently he was the co-writer (with wife Betsy) and director of The Stoning of Soraya M., a drama portraying the plight of a woman falsely convicted of adultery in Iran. The film has won many international awards including the Audience Award for Best Feature at the 2009 Los Angeles Film Festival, the 2009 Ghent Film Festival’s Canvas Audience Award and Outstanding Foreign Motion Picture at the NAACP Image Awards.

Master of Cermonies

Sonja Schmidt
Sonja Schmidt’s creative spirit, love for television and her prodigious and uncommon wit, led her to the world of television in 1998. Her writing and producing contributions led to receiving an Emmy nomination as well as winning the prestigious NAACP Image, Prism Awards. Her resume includes Fox’s In Living Color and NBC’s Hidden Hills, popular children’s programs include C‐Bear and Jamal, City Guys, The Famous Jet Jackson, and Disney’s That’s So Raven and Cory in the House. She has successfully optioned her first screenplay and this year created and sold a family television pilot entitled All About Glory to cable channel BET.

With her experience in children’s programming as well as being a mother of two, Sonja tackled the world of children’s literature in 2008 writing the first of her Deb & Seby book series which ranked #2 on Amazon’s “Hot New Releases” and immediately received accolades from contemporaries Andrew Breitbart, Dennis Miller and more.

Adding stand‐up comedy to her repertoire in 2009, Sonja writes and performs political satire regularly at comedy clubs in across the United States with the comedy troupe Right to Laugh. In addition to speaking regularly at major conventions, political clubs, frequently appearing on radio and television interviews, she’s been busy writing, producing and starring in her weekly political commentary internet show Sonja Schmidt’s – Left Exposed on PJTV.com.

Sonja Schmidt resides in Canyon Country, with her husband and two golden retrievers. She looks forward to joining the KHTS radio lineup as well as returning to Carousel Ranch as a volunteer, and continuing to contribute op‐eds to The Signal Newspaper.