We are excited to announce the judges for the Make a Better World Photo Contest [12]. The panel consists of experts in the fields of photojournalism, communications and international development. They will decide the winners in two categories: Grand Prize and Best in an IREX Focus Area. Check out their biographies below.
• Allison Shelley, award-winning freelance photojournalist
• Jeanie Adams Smith, Associate Professor of Photojournalism, Western Kentucky University
• Josh Nesbit, Co-founder and Executive Director, Medic Mobile
• Roman Raifeld, Director of Communications, BOTA Foundation
• Tom Murphy, international development blogger
Photo submission ends May 15, 2012 and winners will be announced the week of June 25, 2012.
Award-winning freelance photojournalist
Most recently based in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Allison Shelley’s documentary work has appeared in publications such as Time magazine, The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, among others. She is co-founder and co-director of the Women Photojournalists of Washington (WPOW) [14], a former staff photographer for the Washington Times, and prior director of photography for Education Week newspaper.
Supported by the White House News Photographers Association project grant, she is currently working on a global project examining maternal health issues affecting young women. See Allison’s work: http://allisonshelley.com/ [15]
Associate Professor of Photojournalism, Western Kentucky University [17]
Jeanie Adams-Smith joined Western Kentucky University’s premier photojournalism program in 2002 after a 10 year career at the Chicago Tribune [18] as the national and foreign picture editor. She has published three photo documentary books and has won several international awards, including a first place win in Pictures of the Year International [19] for her work on children of divorce.
She is the mother of a beautiful 8-year-old daughter Abigail and has been married to her best friend David for 15 years. Jeanie’s work: http://jeanieadamssmith.com/ [16]
[20]Co-founder and Executive Director, Medic Mobile [20]
Inspired by volunteer village health workers in rural Malawi, Josh Nesbit started Medic Mobile to improve the efficiency of the care of health workers around the world. Medic Mobile builds mobile applications for community health volunteers and distributed web applications for clinicians and managers. The Medic Mobile team has worked in 16 countries across Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, and Latin America.
Josh was recently featured as DevEx’s Top 40 under 40 [21] and Forbes’ Top 30 Entrepreneurs [22]. Follow Josh on Twitter: @joshnesbit [23]
Director of Communications, BOTA Foundation [24]
Roman Raifeld is the Director of Communications for the BOTA Foundation, Kazakhstan’s largest independent not-for-profit NGO whose mission is to improve the lives of children and youth suffering from poverty in Kazakhstan. It accomplishes this through improved health, education and social welfare programs.
Prior to joining BOTA, he was a successful journalist working at popular radio stations, newspapers, and magazines that included Russkoe Radio, Esquire Kazakhstan, Caravan, and RBK Central Asia.
During the last four years, he has been a jury member for the reality TV show – Superstar [25] and a regular commenter for Eurovision.
A "View from the Cave" Blogger
Tom Murphy is the founder and writer of the popular development blog 'A View From the Cave [27]' and the chief blogger PSI's 'Healthy Lives [28]' blog.
He is the co-founder of the Development and Aid World News Service [29], a daily service that provides humanitarian news aggregation and distributes grants to journalists in developing countries.
Tom also blogs for the Huffington Post, where he shares and challenges the latest ideas on international and domestic aid and development. Follow Tom on Twitter @viewfromthecave [30]
As stated in the Photo Contest Rules [31], decisions of the judges will be final and binding. Please do not contact IREX and the judges about the status of photo entries.