Emma Shade is a U. S. Army Signal Officer from Georgia. She currently serves as Desk Officer at the Defense Intelligence Agency covering Sub Saharan Africa. Emma speaks French and Arabic, which she used in her assignments in N'Djamena Chad as the Chief of the Office of Security Cooperation and at SETAF-AF in Vicenza, Italy as the Sub Saharan Africa Desk Officer. She completed her IRT at the U. S. Embassy in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Alex Shade is from Ridgewood, New Jersey. A graduate of the Citadel Military College, he commissioned as a U.S. Army Armor Officer, where he served for two years before transitioning to Military Intelligence.  An Arabic and German speaker, he currently serves on the Joint Staff J5 on the Israel Desk. Previous assignments include Army Attaché in N'Djamena, Chad, including nine months as Acting SDO/DATT, North Africa Desk Officer at SETAF-AF in Vicenza, Italy, and he completed his IRT at U. S. Embassy in Rabat, Morocco.