Denny Simmons has been working for 21 years at the Evansville Courier & Press and The Gleaner (Henderson, Ky.), serving as visuals coach/photographer. Past positions include picture editor at the News Sun (Waukegan, Ill.), picture editor at the St. Joseph (Mo.) News-Press, and photographer at the Jacksonville (Ill.) Journal-Courier. Simmons was named NPPA's Best of Photojournalism Photographer of the Year (Smaller Markets) in 2008 and Runner-Up 2018 and was inducted into the Scripps Hall of Fame in 2011. He has also been Indiana POY thrice and currently serves as its president. He was awarded the title of College Photographer of the Year for work done in 1992 while attending the University of Missouri. Simmons is married to Penny and they have two kids in college and two dogs on their couch.

Lisa Krantz is a staff photographer at the San Antonio Express-News and an adjunct professor at Texas A&M University-San Antonio. She recently completed a year-long fellowship with the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard, studying the relationships between photojournalists and the people they photograph during times of sustained trauma. In 2018, Lisa was named a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Feature Photography for the story of Rowan Windham, a 10-year-old who inspired others with his positive outlook on life despite battling a rare, incurable disorder. She was also a finalist in 2015 as part of a team entry on the Central American immigration crisis. Her work has been recognized by Pictures of the Year International (POYi) including the Community Awareness Award, second place Newspaper Photographer of the Year in 2019 and third place Newspaper Photographer of the Year in 2010 & 2015. She has twice received both the ASNE Photojournalism Award and the Scripps Howard Award for Photojournalism. World Press Photo, NPPA's Best of Photojournalism and PDN Photo Annual have also recognized her work. Krantz has a psychology degree from Florida State University and a MA in photography from Syracuse University. Previously she worked at the Naples (FL) Daily News.

Mallory Benedict is a Photo Editor on the History and Culture desk for National Geographic Magazine, commissioning original photography across print, digital, and mobile platforms. She uses the past to understand present-day issues in her work, including stories on the legacy of the Suffrage movement and the Stonewall Riots. She also works on stories related to social justice and geopolitics, and in 2020 has worked on stories about the national protests against police violence and systemic racism, as well as the political upheaval in Hong Kong. Her work has been recognized by the American Society of Magazine Editors, Society of Publication Designers, National Press Photographer’s Association, and Pictures of the Year International. Benedict is also the Programs Manager for Women Photograph, an initiative designed to elevate the work of women and non-binary photographers around the globe. Benedict graduated from the University of Missouri’s School of Journalism where she studied photojournalism, anthropology, and political science.

After earning his undergraduate degree in mathematics and a master’s degree in math education, Chikwendiu became a high school math instructor. During his first year of teaching, Chikwendiu’s Spring Break included a visit to The Washington Post, where multiple-Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer and editor Michel du Cille saw Chikwendiu’s portfolio. Inspired by du Cille’s suggestion, Chikwendiu spent his first summer break as an independent photographer for the Lexington (Ky.) Herald-Leader, which turned into a fulltime staff photojournalism position. Three months later, the Kentucky News Photographer Association (KNPA) named Jahi the 1998 Photographer of the Year. After two years of covering the rich cultural landscape of Kentucky, he joined The Washington Post, where he’s been a staff photographer since 2001. Since joining the Washington Post, Chikwendiu has covered a wide range of stories that include DC’s broken school system, the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq and the country’s adjustments following the 2012 US military pullout, AIDS and poverty in Kenya, genocide in Darfur, cluster bomb victims in South Lebanon, and the 2011 formation of the world’s newest country, South Sudan. Chikwendiu spent three months in Africa covering the Barack Obama inauguration from the Kenyan village of the US president’s father and other stories in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Kenya, and South Sudan. In 2014, Chikwendiu spent over a month in Missouri covering issues surrounding the fatal shooting of unarmed, Black teenager Michael Brown by Darren Wilson, a police officer for the city of Ferguson, Missouri. In the past year, Chikwendiu has covered issues of immigration, the economic recovery of Ferguson, unemployment in Omaha, voter suppression in rural Georgia, and the effects of governmental collapse in Venezuela on the neighboring island-nation of Trinidad. Chikwendiu’s work has been recognized by local, national, and international organizations - Kentucky Newspaper Photographers Association, Atlanta Photojournalism Seminars, World Press Photo, Days Japan International Photojournalism Awards, National Association of Black Journalists, White House News Photo Association, Nat’l Press Photographers Assoc, Virginia News Photographer Association, Overseas Press Club, Harry Chapman Media Awards, Pictures of the Year International, Northern Short Course, Southern Short Course, the Kentucky Governor Arts Awards, and the Scripps Howard Awards for Journalism… — but his heart always comes back to the question of how to best evolve as a storyteller and how to best raise the next generation of visionaries.

Janet Jarman is a photojournalist and documentary filmmaker. Since 2003, she has been based in Mexico, where she focuses on topics such as human rights, birth justice, immigration, and environmental issues. She recently finished her first feature-length documentary titled Birth Wars with a grant from the MacArthur Foundation and is currently working on a book about the same topic. Jarman’s work has been published in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, GEO, National Geographic and Smithsonian Magazine, amongst others. She has also worked for numerous foundations and NGOs. Her photographs have been featured at Visa Pour l’Image, Perpignan and have received many international photography awards. In 2015, she was the Producer of POY Latam (Pictures of the Year Latin America). She was a reportage judge of Pictures of the Year International (POYi) 2016, and she was part of the jury for the FNPI Premio Gabo in 2018. She was also invited to be a judge of POY Latam 2019. Jarman began her career in South Florida after graduating from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She worked as a staff photographer at The Miami Herald, and later obtained a master’s degree in environmental issues at the University of London.

Jen Tse (pronounced "see", pronouns she/her) is a Senior Photo Editor at National Geographic, curating the daily editorial newsletters from across Nat Geo desks and platforms. She first joined National Geographic as the Senior Photo Editor for bookazines, diving deep on a range of subjects including dog psychology, human memory, Yosemite, and the Titanic. In 2017, she was Newsweek's acting Director of Photography. Prior to Newsweek, she worked for TIME Magazine, NOOR Images, and 500px. She worked as a visual journalist and editor in Toronto, Berlin, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, and Bangkok before moving to New York in 2015. In 2018, she was the recipient of the National Press Photographers Association’s Magazine Picture Editor of the Year award, and in 2017, she received an American Society of Magazine Editors’ Next Award. She has served as a jury member for competitions including the FotoEvidence Book Award with World Press Photo and the Turkish Photos of the Year Competition. She received her bachelor's degree in Journalism from the Ryerson University School of Journalism in Toronto, and diplomas in photojournalism and multimedia journalism from the Danish School of Media and Journalism in Aarhus, Denmark. Currently, she lives in Brooklyn, NY.

“If you learn to shoot with your heart, you’ll move people’s souls!” A good friend & mentor said that to Eric Seals years ago. It’s something he still thinks about working as a photo & video journalist at the Detroit Free Press where he’s been since 1999. Over the years Eric has covered many events for the Free Press from the Intifadas in Israel/Palestine, 5 months in the war on Iraq & many sports from the Olympics in Rio, Beijing and South Korea to several Super Bowls, World Series, College Football National Championships & NBA Finals. Eric has been recognized for his photo and video storytelling with a national Edward R. Murrow award, a national Webby Award, multiple Michigan Press Photographer Association Multimedia Photographer of the Year awards, several POYi awards & nine regional Emmys. Teaching is a big passion for him. He coaches at various workshops from the NPPA Multimedia Immersion at Syracuse University, the Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, Florida, Missouri Photo Workshop, University of South Carolina Workshop, the Western Kentucky University’s Mountain Workshops and the Lens Collective at the University of Mississippi. He has also judged & spoke at several national & state contests including the Northern Short Course & the Atlanta Seminar on Photojournalism. Eric embraces the “Reach One, Teach One” philosophy & enjoys mentoring others around the country interested in this amazing profession of ours!

Kat Duncan is the Interim Director of Innovation at the Reynolds Journalism Institute at the Missouri School of Journalism. In this position she runs the Student Innovation Competition, the flexible fellowship program, manages the innovation lab staff & student journalists and produces the monthly web series Innovation in Focus. She founded the Women in Journalism Workshop which is now in its fourth year. She also leads partnership projects with organizations and newsrooms who want to partner to build tools, create innovative content or help their newsroom use emerging tech. Duncan came to RJI from the San Francisco Chronicle, where she served as a photo and video editor, video producer and photographer. She led the Chronicle newsroom in producing mobile video and ran the visual intern program. While at the Chronicle she won Photo Editor of the Year (team category) in NPPA’s annual Best of Photojournalism contest and received many awards for her visual work from the National Press Photographers Association. Previously, Duncan worked in visual journalism positions at newspapers in Utah, New York and Texas. She led visual teams at these newspapers, created mobile video training and worked as staff photographer and videographer. She earned a master’s degree in photojournalism from Boston University and a bachelor’s degree in fine arts from the University of California, Irvine with a minor in digital media.

Tim Matsui is a visual journalist and independent filmmaker who began his career as a news photographer working for agencies and wires then self-produced and pitched features for domestic and international publications. Along the way, he learned how sexual violence impacts individuals and communities, used multimedia to create dialog about its lasting effects, and created a non-profit to support the work. This work transitioned into human trafficking for labor and sex, both international and domestic, culminating in a feature documentary: The Long Night. Tim continues to produce both stills and motion, is a proven director, producer, and cinematographer who understand the importance of community engagement, impact campaigns, and how they can affect public policy. He is a recipient of first place prizes at World Press Photo, Pictures of the Year International, and Best of Photojournalism. He was also recognized by the Overseas Press Club, and has won grants from the Open Society Foundations, Fledgling Fund, Alexia Foundation, and the Fund for Investigative Journalism. He was also nominated for two National News & Documentary Emmy Awards and was a finalist for the Stanford Knight Journalism Fellowship.