PHOTOJOURNALIST, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

As a photojournalist with The Associated Press, I've been a witness to our times for over 45 years. I believe that the job of a photojournalist is to show people what they can't see on their own. Based in the AP’s Washington Bureau, I have covered the White House, presidential travel, and political campaigns. For the last 12 years, I have focused on the divided and divisive political atmosphere in Congress. Many of my highlight assignments have taken me far from politics and presidents: war in the Middle East and the Balkans, the invasion of Panama, terror in Haiti, and the anguish of Africa.

INDEPENDENT PHOTOGRAPHER

Based in the DC area, Jocelyn has combined her passion for photography and her fascination with politics. The political arena has allowed her to work with sitting presidents, hit the campaign trail, and shoot influential business and political leaders during moments historical and mundane.

Inspired by photographers from the Farm Security Administration, Jocelyn sought out to document history. Jocelyn's documentary work responding to disasters, with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, has spanned almost 30 years and is part of the historical record in the National Archives.

Jocelyn studied photography at Parsons School of Design in Paris, France, and began her career working at newspapers in her home state of Massachusetts. Jocelyn’s work has appeared in publications worldwide including Time Magazine, The Guardian, USA Today, Newsweek, The New York Times Magazine and Rolling Stone Magazine.

PHOTO EDITOR, SMITHSONIAN MAGAZINE

Donny is a photo editor with Smithsonian magazine, where he collaborates with photographers on projects related to the environment, history, and the arts.

THE WASHINGTON POST

Max Becherer is a national photo assignment editor at The Washington Post. Before joining The Post, Becherer was a photo editor for five years at the Times-Picayune/New Orleans Advocate, where he contributed visuals to a series of stories about a Jim Crow-era law that allowed non-unanimous juries for criminal cases. The series won the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for local reporting and helped change the law in Louisiana. Before arriving in New Orleans, Becherer covered the Middle East and Central Asia for over a decade, producing still images, video and written content from Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Libya and Egypt as a photojournalist.

PHOTOJOURNALIST

Susan Biddle is a former Washington Post staff photographer. She began her career photographing for the Peace Corps and later worked as a staff photographer for the Topeka Capital-Journal and the Denver Post. Biddle left the Denver Post to become a White House photographer documenting the Presidency during the end of the Reagan administration and the entire George H. W. Bush administration. She has also freelanced and her work has appeared in Time, Newsweek, U.S. News and World Report, Life, National Geographic and other publications worldwide. She has participated in various book projects including Day in the Life of America, Day in the Life of Thailand, Hong Kong - Here Be Dragons, Day in the Life of the American Woman and America at Home. Biddle has won awards with the White House News Photographers Association and National Press Photographers Association. She has been a judge for various contests as well as a teacher on various workshops and study-abroad programs.

SENIOR PHOTO EDITOR, SCIENCE MAGAZINE

Now the senior photo editor at Science magazine, Charlie has worked as a photographer, photo editor, and director of photography at big city and small town newspapers, major magazines, commercial photo agencies and the world’s largest news gathering organization. Along this journey, he’s seen the Twin Towers collapse, bounced on Bill Gates’ trampoline, watched SCUD missiles fall on Saudi Arabia, journeyed to five Olympic Games, and experienced weightless flight with a plane full of queasy schoolteachers.

LITTLE BLACK DOG PRODUCTIONS LLC

Douthitt was Photography Managing Editor for Science magazine from 2014 to 2022. He directed a staff of three photography editors, providing images for Science’s print and digital publications, working with the organization’s senior editors to create engaging visualization of complex science and environmental topics. Before joining Science, Douthitt was National Geographic Magazine’s Managing Editor for Special Editions. During his National Geographic career, he was a designer, writer, photographer, picture editor, digital media developer and department manager. While at Geographic, Douthitt managed major initiatives including a special issue on water, a series of issues on key 21st century issues including population, biodiversity and climate. He created EarthPulse, an organization-wide environmental campaign. He wrote for National Geographic’s magazine and website, including authoring the December 2006 cover story on the Cassini Saturn mission. He taught science journalism and photojournalism at the Corcoran School of Art, George Washington University.

THE EXPOSURE GROUP

Sharon Farmer has been a photojurnalist since student days at The Ohio State University as 0ur Choking Times photographer/managing editor. 13 years freelance at Washington Post, adjunct photo instructor @American & Howard Universities, Official White House Photographer/Director of White House Photography, exhibitor, lecturer. Photography work is my full time business.

INDEPENDENT PHOTO EDITOR

Jill Foley is an Independent Photo Editor based in the DC area. Previously, she was a Senior Photo Editor for National Geographic Books. She has also edited for National Geographic Newsstand Special Editions, The New York Times, AARP, Discovery Communications, Smithsonian Magazine, and Education Week. She is a graduate of Boston University's Masters in Photojournalism program, an alum of the Kalish Visual Editing Workshop, and is a member of Women Photojournalists of Washington (WPOW).

VIDEO PRODUCER AND DIRECTOR, TINY DESK CONCERTS, NPR

Kara Frame is a video producer and director for NPR Music's Tiny Desk Concerts series. Prior to her work on the music team, she crafted documentary style explainer videos about housing segregation in Baltimore, MD, motherhood in a refugee camp in Lesbos, Greece, and food deserts in Washington, D.C. Kara is open to photo and video reviews.

DOCUMENTARY PHOTOGRAPHER

Michelle Frankfurter is a documentary photographer and educator. Her book, Destino chronicling the migrant journey across Mexico by freight train was published by FotoEvidence in 2014.

STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER, THE BALTIMORE BANNER

Jessica Gallagher is an award-winning staff photojournalist for The Baltimore Banner, a non-profit local digital news organization. She focuses on long-form photo stories and essays, including The Banner's ongoing coverage of the overdose epidemic in Baltimore.

Joseph (J.M.) Giordano is an award-winning photojournalist based in Baltimore and co-host of the photojournalism podcast, 10 Frames Per Second with Molly Roberts. His book, We Used to Live At Night (Culture Crush Editions) chronicles 25 years of the city at night.

His work has been featured on NPR, ProPublica, Al-Jazeera, GQ, Architectural Digest, Taste, The Observer New Review Sunday Magazine, The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Daily Mail, Washington Post, The Baltimore City Paper, i-D Magazine, Discovery Channel Inc., Rolling-Stone. His work, from the Struggle Civil Rights series is in the permanent collections at the Reginald Lewis Museum.

This year he was short-listed for the National Gallery's Outwin Boochever Portrait Prize and will be featured in American Photography Annual 40 for his second book 13-23 (Nighted Life Press), covering a decade of Baltimore's homicide rate. His international photographs covering the collapse of the steel industry are the subject of a solo show at the Museum of Industry in Baltimore. He is at work on his next book Trumpland (Nighted Life Press), due out in October.

DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT

Gupta is a versatile photo editor, artist and educator. As director of photography for U.S. News and World Report he has over 10 years of experience working with visual journalists to cover current events around the globe. as an artist, his photographic works have been exhibited widely and held in the permanent collections of the Sainsbury Center for Visual Art, the Library of Congress, and the Smithsonian’s Asia Pacific Center. As an educator, he lectures on creative approaches to photojournalism and fine art photography and teaches multimedia storytelling at Georgetown University.

PHOTOJOURNALIST, FOUR-TIME PULITZER PRIZE WINNER

Carol Guzy was born in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and lived there until 1978 when she completed her studies at Northampton County Area Community College, graduating with an Associate's degree in Registered Nursing. A change of heart led her to the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale in Florida to study photography. She graduated in 1980 with an Associate in Applied Science degree in Photography.

She interned at The Miami Herald and upon graduation was hired as a staff photographer. She spent eight years there before moving to Washington, DC in 1988 where she became a staff photographer at The Washington Post through 2014. She is currently freelance.

She is the first journalist to receive a fourth Pulitzer Prize. She has been named Photographer of the Year for NPPA three times and nine times for WHNPA and has earned many other prestigious awards in her chosen profession. She specializes in long-form documentary projects and news stories, both domestic and international.

NORTH AMERICAN DEPUTY PHOTO DIRECTOR FOR AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

Eva Hambach, currently based in Washington, DC, is the North American Deputy Photo Director for Agence France-Presse (AFP), an international news agency headquartered in Paris, France. Over the past 20 years in this position, she has been the lead photo coordinator and assignment editor for breaking news, daily politics, and major entertainment & sports events occurring in the United States, Canada and the Caribbean.

Eva works with a dedicated group of staff editors and photographers in Washington, DC, New York and Los Angeles and helps generate stills, B-roll, drone images, bylines and datelines for the omnipresent global news deadlines. Over the years, she has built a reliable network of freelancers throughout her assigned region and has given many photographers the opportunity to showcase their coverage throughout the worldwide print & online distribution system of AFP Photos. She is always on the lookout for new talent and opportunities to expand the network.

Eva holds a BA from La Sorbonne in French/German & English linguistics and a MA from AU in Broadcast Journalism. She also is a jazz aficionado, jazz musician portraitist and supporter of the arts.

PHOTO EDITOR /NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC

Julie Hau is a photo editor at National Geographic, where she commissions and curates the departments pages of the magazine and works with photographers and creatives to create visual content for print, the website and social platforms.

REUTERS/SENIOR STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Evelyn is a senior staff photographer based in Washington, DC and past President of the Women Photojournalists of Washington. Before joining Reuters in 2021, she freelanced in more than 70 countries based out of Jerusalem, Nairobi, and Washington, DC for outlets including The New York Times and The Washington Post. This year, Evelyn was part of the team that won the Breaking News Photography Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the Israel-Hamas war. Previously her images from January 6th were part of the Washington Post’s coverage of the January 6th insurrection at the U.S. Capitol which received the Pulitzer Prize for public service. In 2020, Evelyn won first prize in World Press Photo and Pictures of the Year International in 2020 and was nominated for the World Press Photo of the Year. In addition to her regular Washington beat, Evelyn has been covering abortion access across the United States.

INDEPENDENT PHOTOJOURNALIST

Shuran Huang 黃舒然 (she/her) is a Cantonese photographer based in Washington, D.C. Her photography focuses on politics, immigration, human rights, and diaspora experiences. Shuran’s work has been published in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, TIME Magazine, Vogue Magazine, National Public Radio, ProPublica, National Geographic, The Guardian, The Economist, The New Yorker, NBC News, CBS News, Netflix, A+E Networks, and more. She holds a Master’s degree in Photography from Syracuse University and a Bachelor of Arts in International Journalism from Hong Kong Baptist University. Shuran is an adjunct professor at Sacred Heart University and an alumna of the XXXV Eddie Adams Workshop, New York Portfolio Review, and The International Women's Media Foundation’s Gwen Ifill Fellowship. Her work has been exhibited at Photoville and the Bronx Documentary Center. Shuran speaks English, Mandarin, Cantonese, Korean, and Spanish.

FREELANCE PHOTOGRAPHER

Olga Jaramillo, born in Colombia, is an independent visual storyteller based in the Washington D.C. metropolitan area. With a background in economics, she transitioned into photography, bringing her social awareness and experience in Latin American socioeconomic development into her visual work.

Through photography, short films, and text, she explores the intricate relationships between identity, culture, and migration. Olga’s most recent work focuses on the intergenerational impact of migration on the families of migrant mothers from Central America.

She holds a master’s degree in New Media Photojournalism from the George Washington University’s Corcoran School of the Arts and Design, a master’s degree in Economics from The London School of Economics and Political Science, a diploma in Economics from Birkbeck University, London, and a bachelor’s degree in Economics from Universidad del Valle, Colombia.

Her multimedia documentary project "Dos Mundos," begun in 2019, was awarded the Women Photojournalists of Washington's inaugural Butterfly Grant in 2024.

PHOTOGRAPHER

Karen Kasmauski’s career began with the Virginian Pilot newspaper as a staff photographer, winning numerous honors including runner up for Newspaper Photographer of the Year and placing in the Robert F. Kennedy Awards. Karen then began freelancing for National Geographic Magazine, photographing 25 major stories. Geographic awarded her their prestigious Photographer in Residence position, leading to her first book IMPACT: From the Front lines of Global Health. That book, and a follow-on, NURSE: A World of Care were both nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in community service. Her most recent story on Black Midwives, Saving Lives was accepted by the prestigious Communication Arts Photography Annual. Her work with two colleagues on the history of Japanese War Brides is an exhibit with Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Services.
Karen holds undergraduate degrees in Anthropology and Religion from the University of Michigan. She was awarded a Knight Fellowship at Ohio University.

PHOTOGRAPHER, FILMMAKER, AUTHOR

Amanda Lucidon is an award-winning photographer and filmmaker. She is a New York Times best-selling author and motivational speaker with Penguin Random House Speakers Bureau. 

Lucidon served as an Official White House photographer responsible for documenting First Lady Michelle Obama and President Barack Obama from 2013 to 2017. She is one of only a few female White House photographers in history. In 2018, the John F. Kennedy Center appointed Lucidon as a Turnaround Artist, highlighting the importance of the arts in underserved schools. 

Lucidon is the author of Chasing Light: Through the Lens of a White House Photographer and Reach Higher: An Inspiring Photo Celebration of First Lady Michelle Obama. She has also instructed more than 10k students through her CreativeLive class: Documentary Photography: Creating a Life in Storytelling.

Lucidon is the co-founder of  Grounded, an organization of artists creating immersive experiences to inspire hope and healing through collaboration.

PHOTO EDITOR, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

Dan Lyon is a visual journalist, editor, and educator based in New York City. He recently joined The Wall Street Journal as a photo editor, working across their world news, economics, and domestic politics desks.

ASSISTANT CHIEF OF BUREAU FOR AP WASHINGTON

Pablo Martinez Monsivais, Assistant Chief of Bureau in Washington. Pablo has been an integral part of the AP photo staff for more than two decades. He joined the AP in 1998 in Washington, forging a career that has spanned 5 presidencies and taken him to all 50 states and over 70 countries. Following the Sept. 11 attacks, Pablo embedded with the 101st Airborne during deployment into Afghanistan, and in 2003, was part of President George W. Bush’s surprise Thanksgiving visit to Baghdad. He has covered major sporting events including the World Series, NBA Finals and NHL Stanley Cup in addition to World Cup Soccer, NCAA and MLS tournaments. With fellow AP photo staff, he won a Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography for coverage of President Clinton’s impeachment and has received awards from World Press Photo, the WHNPA and the NAHJ. Prior to the AP, Pablo worked as a staff photographer for the Chicago Sun-Times. He is a graduate of Columbia College Chicago and was honored as the Alumni of the Year in 2009. He lives in Washington with his wife Jessica and son Luca.

DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY, THE WASHINGTON POST

Robert Miller is the Director of Photography at The Washington Post. He is an experienced leader with a keen eye. He excels at managing daily and enterprise journalism in all its forms. Before his recent promotion he served as a Deputy Director of Photography at The Post, overseeing photography for National, International, Financial, Metro and the Investigative departments. Robert began his career at The News & Observer in Raleigh, N.C., where he worked as a staff photojournalist and rose to become the Director of Photography and Multimedia. He joined the Post in 2008.

FREELANCE PHOTOGRAPHER

Lianne Milton is an Chinese American journalist, documentary photographer, and educator. Her work investigates environmental issues, human rights, and cultural narratives in contemporary society.

For two decades, Lianne has photographed throughout Latin America and Southeast Asia for international publications, travel magazines, and NGOs such as ActionAid, Open Society Foundations, UNICEF, and UN Women. From 2013-2019, she was based in Brazil where her photographic work brought global attention to the Zika crisis, drought in the northeast, elections, and security issues in the favelas.

In 2014, she was a Sony Global Imaging Ambassador in South America. Selected awards and exhibitions include the Alan Hagman Grant, IWMF fellowship, Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting grant, Yves Rocher Foundation Environmental Photography Award, Photo Festival La Gacilly, Visa Pour L’Image, and Photoville. She holds a BA in Journalism from San Francisco State University and an MFA in Studio Arts from University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Lianne is an adjunct professor of photography in Philadelphia and continues to work on longform projects in Brazil.

FREELANCE VISUAL STORYTELLER

Jackie is a freelance photojournalist and writer based in New York City. She creates a wide range of work from fashion and portraiture to editorial assignment work and intimate storytelling.

Most of her previous long-form work has documented modern families overcoming adversity. Her photographs explore the complex evolving nature of family, and demonstrate its increasing fluidity, begging the question: what is family in America today? In 2022 Jackie was a winner of Young Guns 20, an award for creative professionals under 30 globally, she was also listed on “The 30: New and Emerging Photographers to Watch''.

In 2022 she was selected for the Leica Mentorship program in collaboration with VII Photo Agency. Her clients include TIME Magazine, National Geographic, NPR, Smithsonian Magazine, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post and more.

FEATURES ASSIGNMENT PHOTO EDITOR, BLOOMBERG

Monteleone is the Features Assignment Photo Editor for Bloomberg News, producing multimedia original stories for the global audience. Previously, Ms. Monteleone was the North American Deputy Photo Editor for Bloomberg News, overseeing photo and video news assignments. While at Bloomberg News, she has lead the expansion and diversification of the roster of freelance photographers in North, South and Central America. Prior to Bloomberg, she worked for ABC News, T: The New York Times Style Magazine, The New York Post, and W Magazine. Ms. Monteleone has been a guest speaker at The International Center of Photography, Parsons School of Design, The Women Photograph Workshop, The Eddie Adams Workshop and Zoom Photo Festival Saguenay. She has served on the nominating committees of World Press Photo 2023 (North and Central America Juror), World Press Photo 6x6 Global Talent Program, Diversify Photo, The Women Photograph X Getty Grant, Photoville - The Fence, and The Eddie Adams Workshop student selections. Ms . Monteleone serves on the Documentary Advisory Committee for the Social Documentary Network (SDN). Marie Monteleone studied photography at Parsons School of Design in New York. She lives and works in New York, United States.

FREELANCE PHOTOJOURNALIST

Rosem Morton, is a documentary photographer, registered nurse and safety consultant based in Baltimore, Maryland. She is a National Geographic Explorer and an International Women’s Media Foundation Next Gen Fellow whose work focuses on daily life amidst gender, health, and racial adversity. Rosem is the recipient of the Leica Women Photo Award and the Visa d'or Daily Press Award and has been recognized by the Pictures of the Year International, the World Press Photo 6x6 Talent, The 30: New and Emerging Photographers to Watch and Baltimore Sun’s 25 Women to Watch. Rosem has written and photographed stories for National Geographic, the Washington Post, NPR and CNN, among others.

ASSISTANT PHOTO EDITOR / STAFF PHOTOJOURNALIST AT THE BALTIMORE BANNER

Kaitlin Newman is a staff photojournalist and assistant photo editor at The Baltimore Banner, a non-profit local digital newspaper based in Baltimore, MD. She covers a wide range of assignments, but primarily focuses on breaking news, politics, crime and investigative work.

She is the professor of photojournalism at Towson University, from which she obtained a Master’s Degree in journalism.

FREELANCE PHOTOGRAPHER

Lucian Perkins,, a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner, worked as a staff photographer for The Washington Post for twenty-seven years. While at the Post, Perkins covered many of the major events of the time here in the U.S. and abroad, including Russia and the former Soviet Union since 1988, the first Palestinian uprising, and the wars in the former Yugoslavia, Iraq, and Afghanistan.

He co-founded “InterFoto,” an international photography festival in Moscow, Russia, from 1995 to 2005 and published two books: Hard Art, DC, and Runway Madness. He has also filmed and edited numerous short documentaries, including his first full-length one, The Messengers, which follows two young volunteers who are transformed by the residents of Joseph’s House, a local hospice for homeless HIV/AIDs patients.

Currently, Perkins is an independent photographer and filmmaker concentrating on multimedia projects and documentaries while continuing to pursue his love for the still image.

PHOTO EDITOR, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC

Cameron Peters is a photo editor at National Geographic. Previously, she worked as Curator and Program Manager at Visura. In 2021, she was awarded the Director’s Fellowship to study Documentary and Visual Journalism at the International Center of Photography. Prior to ICP, Cameron worked as a Multimedia Producer for the Coastal Resilience Lab at FAU’s Center for Environmental Studies where she led the development of their multimedia content strategy and science communication. Cameron graduated from Kenyon College with a BA in English and a minor in studio arts.

PHOTOGRAPHIC MANAGING EDITOR, SCIENCE MAGAZINE

Petersen is the managing photography editor at Science Magazine in Washington, DC. She has been at Science for eight years and leads the three-person photo team. She transforms complex research into compelling photographs for the magazine’s covers, news features, online news, and social media. She hires freelance photographers for single and multi-day assignments around the world. She regularly writes for the Science Visuals blog, telling behind-the-scenes stories and discussing photo-relevant challenges. She loves connecting with other science geeks, outdoor lovers, and self-proclaimed nerds. She is a suffering extroverted, introvert and is probably having a hard time socializing in person again, so please come say, “Hello!” She lives in DC with her partner, where they drink copious amounts of hot tea, are always working on a jigsaw puzzle and indulge in all things hygge.

CHIEF PHOTOGRAPHER, WASHINGTON NEWS BUREAU, HEARST TELEVISION

Award-winning photographer and editor, David Postovit is the Chief Photographer and Technical Operations Manager of Hearst Televisions Washington News Bureau. With experience spanning decades in the news industry David has had a front row seat to history with coverage of events both national and international.

Beginning his career as a freelance still photographer while still in high school in New Orleans, LA., David worked for production companies, record labels and photography studios providing exciting images as well as a technical expertise in the use of equipment related to the still industry. David moved to television videography at the request of a friend and his career path took off from there. Highlights of “a lifetime behind the lens” include multiple national political conventions, sit downs with presidents, super bowls, and hundreds of sporting events across the United States. Internationally, highlights included a Royal Wedding, Olympic coverage, ordinations at the Vatican as well disaster and triumph in Central America and the Caribbean.

Arriving to the Hearst Television Washington News Bureau in December of 2005, David was previously the chief of photography at Hearst Televisions, NBC station in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina. Prior to WDSU in New Orleans, David was the Chief of Photography for KATC in Lafayette, LA.

RETIRED PHOTOGRAPHER AND PHOTO EDITOR

Bob Reeder was a staff photographer and photo editor at no less than seven newspapers in the US, including 16 years at the Washington Post.

After taking a buyout at the Post, the Arizona State University alumni worked for two years at Politico and has since taught several years in a study abroad program in Europe (Italy and Norway) and at the Corcoran. His most famous student, Craig Hudson, is a regular in the Washington Post and via Reuters.

POLITICS PHOTO EDITOR AT BLOOMBERG

DC and Politics photo editor at Bloomberg News

ASSOCIATE PHOTO EDITOR, AARP

Deja is a visual storyteller currently working as the Associate Photo Editor at AARP. In her personal practice, she is charged with highlighting the experiences of those whose voices go unheard and lives unseen. It is her hope that through extensive research, collaboration, and creative media, she is able to expose these unique narratives in an effort to add to the history of humanity.

Deja believes documentary storytelling helps us process the world around us by being able to sit with the behaviors, events, and ideologies that helped shape where we are today.

In 2021, she created a docu-series called Black & Dangerous where she followed 6 individuals sharing personal experiences through video, journal entries and poetry in an effort for them to reclaim the power in their voice and stand firm in their identities.

INDEPENDENT PHOTOGRAPHER

Alyssa Schukar (she/her) is a Washington, D.C.-based visual journalist, writer, and educator. She's a co-director of the 75-year-old Missouri Photo Workshop and a co-founder of Chicago’s Prism Photo Workshop. During nearly a decade of assignment work, she has met deadlines on helicopters and in blizzards, in the middle of Black Lives Matter marches and from the belly of the U.S. Capitol. She’s documented communities surrounded by heavy industry in Indiana, hurricane devastation worsened by climate change in Texas, the Standing Rock challenge to the Dakota Access Pipeline and the children of the opioid crisis in Ohio. The people she has met through her work influence her understanding of the world, and they motivate her to study and name the larger forces that affect communities’ everyday lives. Alyssa is a native of the Great Plains, an avid reader and a fan of big open spaces. She’s also a very proud auntie.

SENIOR PHOTO EDITOR, THE NEW YORK TIMES

Marisa Schwartz Taylor is a senior photo editor at The New York Times based in the Washington Bureau. She covers government, politics, and how policies affect people.

SENIOR PHOTO EDITOR, THE NATURE CONSERVANCY

Alex Snyder is Director and lead judge for the annual Global Photo Contest. He is Senior Photo Editor for The Nature Conservancy, producing over 20 features for Nature Conservancy Magazine including recent pieces on Northwest India agriculture and California’s disappearing kelp forests—the latter publishing in tandem with a short documentary film he helped produce titled, “A Disappearing Forest.” Prior to his work at TNC he served as the photographer for Peace Corps documenting volunteer stories in 15 countries. He also serves as the Communications Director for The Photo Society–a group of over 200 National Geographic photographers where he is the host of their monthly virtual talk "The Photo Society Presents."

DEPUTY DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY, THE WASHINGTON POST.

Sandra M. Stevenson is an award-winning writer, visual editor and curator in the photography department at The Washington Post. As deputy director of photography, she manages a portfolio that includes international, climate, and health and science issues. Prior to joining The Post, Stevenson was at CNN, where she managed a team of picture editors who curated the home screen, edited stories and newsletters, as well as special projects. Before CNN, she was at the New York Times, where she oversaw digital photo editors on the news desk, and worked on visual content for Race/Related and the Gender, in addition to exclusive projects such as "Overlooked" and “This Is 18.” After receiving a BA in English from Syracuse University, Stevenson spent four years working at NBC – first as a page and then working on various news programs. From there, she became the program coordinator for the Black Filmmaker Foundation. During her time there, she held a deep commitment to helping people of color enter the film industry at various levels. Stevenson then returned to the news industry, by taking on a position at the Associated Press, where she spent eight years moving up from photo assistant to overseeing photo news coverage for Latin America and the Caribbean. She also took time to work on and an advanced degree in multimedia from University of Toulouse in France. Stevenson was a contributing writer in the book "Unseen: Unpublished Black History from The New York Times Photo Archives." She was the picture editor and co-curator on the book "This Is 18."

VISUAL INFORMATION SPECIALIST

Erin is a Visual Information Specialist on the Senate Photographic Services team, carrying out Official Senate Photographer duties as well as helping to spearhead a new video initiative within the department.

Prior to the Senate, she spent 12 years with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers as a videographer/photographer/editor, where she traveled through the US and Canada telling stories through video and stills of the 820,000 union members working in electrical construction, utility work, broadcasting, government, railroad, and more.

A proud graduate of the Missouri School of Journalism, she earned her master’s in Photojournalism in 2011, where she researched presidential and political imagery and messaging. She’s an alumni of multiple MPW workshops (’08, ’09, and ’10) as both an attendee and student volunteer, and the Kalish Workshop in 2022. She lives in Arlington with her husband, two kids, and elderly dog.

FOUNDER, SWAIN DOMAIN

Bethany Swain is a distinguished video photojournalist and educator who made her mark at CNN, earning accolades and becoming the first woman named Video Photographer of the Year by WHNPA. As a Journalism Faculty member at the University of Maryland and later the Director of Video Production, Bethany passionately mentored aspiring visual journalists. She launched Swain Domain, a production company that uses video, photo, and more to craft cinematic, authentic and memorable stories. Her leadership roles have included WPOW, NPPA, WHNPA and more.

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY

Sana Ullah (she/her) is a Senior Program Officer at the National Geographic Society (NGS) in Washington, D.C. where she works closely with the Storytelling Grants Program and helps manage projects by NGS Explorers. She often hosts internal and external grant writing workshops, provides 1:1 support and mentorship to emerging storytellers, and sits on the jury for various photo competitions.

Aside from NGS, Sana is a trained multimedia journalist with over a decade experience in creating and producing visual content. She has worked for Discovery, the Smithsonian Institution, and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). Her visual work has a heavy focus on women, People of Color, and/or Muslims. She is mostly known for her project, Places You'll Pray: a community engagement photo series of Muslims praying in locations outside of a mosque or designated prayer area(s).

PHOTO EDITOR, THE WASHINGTON POST

Maya Valentine is a photo editor at The Washington Post working on the Features, Well+Being and Health/Science teams.

SENIOR EDITOR FOR WIDER IMAGE AND SPECIAL PROJECTS, REUTERS

Maye-E Wong is based in New York as Reuters’ Senior Editor for Wider Image and Special Projects. She runs the agency’s long-form storytelling team that takes on visually-led projects from the ideation stage all the way through to publication, and also represents the agency at photo festivals where she shares her storytelling skills and experience with the new generations of photographers.

Prior to Reuters, Maye-E spent two decades at The Associated Press, initially based in her native Singapore and then New York City, as one of their go-to photographers for a remarkable range of assignments, including the Rohingya refugee crisis in Cox’s Bazaar, political unrest in Thailand and Hong Kong, natural disasters, Black Lives Matters in the US, and more than 35 trips to North Korea.

Her own photography has won multiple awards and she was a recipient of grants from the Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting and the IWMF. She served as juror in the 2017 and 2018 World Press Photo contests and sits on the Advisory Board of POY Asia.