Kristan Lieb (Co-Coordinator): A native of St. Louis, MO and a photography graduate of Columbia College Chicago, Kristan Lieb is in her second year of graduate school at the University of Missouri. She has photographed scores of live performances, a live birth and a March on Washington. After realizing that her photographic interests leaned toward the journalistic, she decided to pursue her passion more seriously by working towards a masters in photojournalism at Missouri.

Stuart Palley (Co-Coordinator): Stuart Palley's interests include long-term documentaries, disaster aftermath, environmental issues and news. Recently recognized as an Emerging Photographer by American Photo Magazine, Stuart is an avid explorer, traveling to Japan this past summer to cover the long-term effects of the 2011 earthquake and tsunami. His favorite photography project to date has been Answering Adversity, a Young Photographer's Alliance project in which students across the United States found Americans creatively making ends meet in the Great Recession.

Hye Soo Nah (Volunteer): Hye Soo Nah is in her second year as a graduate student in the photojournalism program at the University of Missouri. As an undergraduate, she studied journalism and mass communication in Seoul, South Korea. During her senior year, Hye Soo took an elective course on the basics of photojournalism, and realized that photojournalism was her true passion. Hye Soo is interested in multimedia storytelling and is currently working on her Master's project.

Rita Reed (Director): Rita Reed has served as Director of the College Photographer of the Year competition for the past 10 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 Producer): Brett Slaughter graduated from the Missouri School of Journalism's Photojournalism sequence in May 2005. He is a self-taught web programmer, learning Internet technologies and programming during his time at the University of Missouri. Since graduating, he has recognized that his talents as a nerd outweighed his talents as a photojournalist, and as a result has given up photojournalism in favor of pursuing a career in Information Technology, Systems Administration, and Web Development and Programming. He continues to devote a portion of his time to the continuing mission of the College Photographer of the Year program and is always seeking ways to use the web to enhance the contest experience for students worldwide.

Ryan Gibbons (Asst. Web Producer): Ryan Gibbons is a graduate of the photojournalism program at the University of Missouri. For the past five years Ryan has helped to improve the user experience of the cpoy.org website. His professional interests range from user interface design to environmental and wildlife photography. Originally from Phoenix, Arizona, Ryan has worked at NPR in Washington, DC and he currently divides his time working as a photo editor and web designer in Southeast Asia and the United States. In his spare time, Ryan is an avid outdoorsman and scuba diver.