Monica Almeida is an independent photojournalist and educator based in Los Angeles with over 30 years of experience working for major metropolitan newspapers in New York and Los Angeles, and is currently teaching photojournalism at California State University, Long Beach. She served as a staff photographer for The New York Times for 24 years, and was the sole Los Angeles Bureau Photographer photographing a wide variety of major news, feature, political and entertainment stories throughout the western U.S. She has covered presidential campaigns since 1992 and 20 Academy Awards ceremonies. Born in East Los Angeles, Almeida began her career as a photo intern and freelance photographer at the Los Angeles Times, where she was on a team of journalists that produced a Pulitzer Prize-winning series on Southern California’s Latino community. She moved to New York City in 1986 to work as a staff photographer at the New York Daily News and joined the staff of The New York Times in 1992 where she was on a second Pulitzer Prize-winning team for the series, “How Race is Lived in America” in 2001. In addition to teaching, she continues to work as a freelance photographer for national publications, non-profit and civic organizations.
Cara Owsley is a national award-winning visual journalist/director of photography at the Cincinnati Enquirer. In 2018 The Cincinnati Enquirer won a Pulitzer Prize in the local reporting category. The story ""Seven Days of Heroin"" was recognized by the Pulitzer board ""for a riveting and insightful narrative and video documenting seven days of greater Cincinnati's heroin epidemic, revealing how the deadly addiction has ravaged families and communities."" Owsley was a photojournalist and photo editor for the project. Before working for The Enquirer, Owsley was a staff photojournalist at The Times-Picayune in New Orleans, The Sun Herald in Biloxi, Mississippi, and The Repository in Canton, Ohio. Owsley has been in the industry for 25 years. Owsley is a single mother with one daughter who is a junior in college. Cara serves on the board of the Greater Cincinnati Pro Chapter Society of Professional Journalists and the board of the Visual Task Force with the National Association of Black Journalists. "
"Servant leadership describes the life of REV. KENNY IRBY. He dutifully balances his roles as The St. Petersburg Police Department’s first Director of Community Intervention & Juvenile Outreach and senior pastor of the 126 year-old congregation at Historic Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church. He’s also the co-creator and president of Men & Women In the Making initiative, an innovative role modeling and academic enrichment program for minority youth in need. that launched in 2015. Rev. Irby is an independent visual consultant, diversity trainer and former senior faculty member at The Poynter Institute for Media Studies where he created the internationally recognized Photojournalism program in 1995 and the nationally recognized Write Field WrapaRound Program, in partnership with The Tampa Bay Rays, and a group of local partners in 2011. The American Graduate Project celebrated his effort as one of the Top 10 programs in the nation for redirecting the dropout to prison pipeline in 2014. In 2016, after leaving his *20+ year post, Irby was honored by the National Press Photographers Association as the first *John Long Ethics Award* recipient, the Tampa Bay Association of Black Journalist (TBABJ) with their *Griot Drum Award *for lifetime achievement and in 2018 he was honored with the *Flame of Distinction: *Igniting Vision Acquisition Award at the 35th Westcoast Center’s Men’s Conference. Kenny travels widely heralding the need for justice ministry, talking across difference and amplifying the voices of the visual journalists and is a frequent teacher, lecturer and content judge. His expertise and contributions have been recognized with numerous distinctions: *The Sprague Award* for lifetime achievement awarded by the NPPA, chair of the jurors’ panel for the coveted Pulitzer Prize* in the photojournalism categories and served as a juror for the Hearst Collegiate Journalism Awards— to name a few. His board labor includes: National Press Photographers Foundation, Vice Chair for Cross & Anvil Human Services and a Trustee for the Foundation for a Healthy St. Petersburg. "
Deb Pastner is Director of Photo and Multimedia at the Star Tribune in Minneapolis. During her tenure as Director, the photo and video team’s work has been recognized by POYi, Best of Photojournalism, SND, the Edward R. Murrow Awards, ONA, the World Press Awards and the Midwest Emmys. Pastner has served as a Pulitzer Prize juror, as well as a POYi and SND judge. Before coming to Minneapolis, Pastner was a photographer at newspapers in Massachusetts, Washington and Michigan. She is a graduate of Wellesley College and attended the Missouri School of Journalism.
May-Ying Lam is a freelance photographer based in Houston, Texas. She joined The Washington Post's online photo team in 2011 and later became a features and magazine photo editor. She is interested exploring how visual innovation can intersect with traditional photojournalism.
Darhil Crooks is a Creative Director at Apple based in Cupertino, CA. Prior to Apple, he was Creative Director at The Atlantic Magazine in Washington D.C. where he led the art department of the 163-year-old publication. In his time at The Atlantic he oversaw redesigns of both the magazine and website which were recognized by ASME as website of the year as well as magazine of the year. Previous to his time at The Atlantic, Crooks served as Creative Director of Ebony Magazine in Chicago where he oversaw the first cover-to-cover redesign in the magazine’s history. He also served as Art Director at Esquire Magazine and Men’s Journal in New York City. Crooks studied graphic design at the School of Visual Arts in New York City.
Kirk McKoy is a Photo Editor/senior photographer at the Los Angeles Times for the past 34 years. Originally from the lowcountry of Charleston South Carolina area. McKoy is a graduate of the University of Maryland with a degree is Graphic Design and Photography. Kirk is now working at The Los Angeles Times' Washington, D.C., bureau as the East Coast photographer, editor and correspondent. And, before the transfer I was the Senior Photo Editor for the Feature Section of the Times. I was responsible for the photography in all of the Non-News section: Real Estate, Daily Calendar, Sunday Calendar, Home, Travel, Food, Image, Book Review, The Guide, The Envelope and Wheels.
Nicky Quamina-Woo is a Black + Native Hawaiian documentary photographer dividing her time between Southeast Asia, the African continent and New York City. Her fascination with the tenacity of the human spirit deeply influences her approach to image-making. Woo's documentary work explores the transmogrified effects of long-term trauma within communities often precipitated by the legacy of colonization. The ways in which collective suffering and its myriad embers can change the underlying ethos of groups to form something new; Adaptation not only as a means of survival but morphology that integrates and syncretizes with each culture. Nicky’s desire to examine these shifts is intrinsically linked to her ethnic heritage, whose parallels inspire her to dig deeper in search of human fortitude, compassion and healing. Nicky is the recipient of the Nikon-Marilyn Stafford FotoReportage grant in 2020 as well as an awardee of the inaugural Reuters Storytelling grant for her work on a Tanzania based project about the intersection of western medicine and witchcraft. In her time as an independent, her clients have included CNN, The Washington Post, Human Rights Watch, Der Spiegel, Bloomberg, Apple, Reporters Beyond Borders, The Guardian, Vogue Italia and Marie Claire magazines.
"Suzette Moyer is a senior design editor at the Washington Post, helping lead a team responsible for the visual presentation of the newsroom’s most ambitious stories across the newspaper and digital platforms. She also oversees visuals for the Washington Post Magazine. Previously, she led design teams at the Tampa Bay Times in Florida, the Hartford Courant in Connecticut and the Bremerton (Kitsap) Sun in Washington state. She also art directed Bay magazine, a successful luxury magazine in southwest Florida. Moyer co-directed the virtual reality film “12 seconds of gunfire: The true story of a school shooting” that debuted at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2019. The movie was also recognized by the Vienna Shorts Festival, Marché du Film Cannes and more than 15 other organizations. Moyer has been recognized with numerous awards from the Society of News Design, Society of Publication Design and National Press Photographers Association. In late 2020, she won the Majeri Award for Graphic Journalism by Ball State University. The journalism department chair said Moyer “has led design teams in setting the gold standard for innovation in graphic journalism.” In 2020, she also co-founded wandermag.design, an online magazine showcasing women artists and photographers from aRound the world."
Susan White is a New York City based photography director and creative consultant. She recently co-curated the last exhibition for the Annenberg Space for Photography in Los Angeles, "Vanity Fair: Hollywood Calling - The Stars, The Parties, The Powerbrokers." Susan was the Photography Director of VANITY FAIR magazine for more than 25 years. She has worked with many of the industry’s leading photographers, covering a wide array of subject matter. Following her time at VF, Susan consulted on photography projects at The Culture Trip, WeWork and Netflix Queue magazine and is contributor to AirMail News.
