LiPo Ching (Co-Coordinator): LiPo Ching received his B.F.A. in film from New York University and spent the last 10 years in Los Angeles working in Film and Television as a producer, director, editor and writer. His experience in the industry was eclectic and varied, ranging from an N.E.A. funded musical art film, to a low budget feature for Playboy TV, to a documentary about HIV+ kids for an Academy Award nominated producer and director, to a Disney Sitcom, and so on. While freelancing in film, he had the opportunity feed his photography interest by interning and freelancing with Newspapers and Magazines such as New York Newsday and Creative Screenwriting Magazine. This year, he started the MA Photojournalism program at MU and is Co-coordinating CPOY as his Research Assistantship.

Jim Yates (Co-Coordinator): Jim Yates studied old books and archaic languages in college and received his B.A. in 1998. He has worked as a freelancer for the Associated Press, a foreign expert for Peking University and an Overseas Correspondent for The Commission magazine. He has also worked in landscaping, roofing and shade-tree mechanics. Before beginning graduate studies in August, Yates completed an internship at the Birmingham (AL), Post-Herald. Yates was reared in Indiana and has photographed in 28 countries, survived automotive break-downs in 12 U.S. states and slept on six mountains.

Rita Reed (Director): Rita Reed has served as Director of the College Photographer of the Year competition for the past four years. She is an Associate Professor in the Photojournalism sequence of the Missouri School of Journalism. Prior to joining the University of Missouri faculty, Reed worked as a photojournalist for the Star Tribune in Minneapolis. She was the 1993 recipient of the NPPA/Nikon Documentary Sabbatical Grant.

Brett Slaughter (Web Administrator): Brett Slaughter has been an undergraduate at the University of Missouri since 1999. A sergeant in the Army, Slaughter took a year off school to serve in Iraq. He is a self taught web-programmer, learning Internet technologies and programming during his time at MU. He is responsible for maintaining this website year-round, and was responsible for developing the online registration form, new this year. This is his second year serving as the CPoY Web Administrator.