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.

Naveen Mahadevan (Co-Coordinator): Naveen Mahadevan is a second year graduate student in photojournalism at School of Journalism, University of Missouri-Columbia. He holds a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering and has always had a passion for photography. It was during a chance meeting with a photojournalist that he realized that photojournalism was his true calling. Naveen dreams of doing meaningful stories back home in India once he finishes his MA at Missouri.

Benjamin Hoste (Screencast Producer): Benjamin Hoste is a second year graduate student in photojournalism at the Missouri School of Journalism. As an undergrad he studied mathematics and worked in the film industry before picking up photography, attending the 62nd Missouri Photo Workshop, and ending up at the University of Missouri. Benjamin Hoste is from Los Angeles.

Rita Reed (Director): Rita Reed has served as Director of the College Photographer of the Year competition for the past 11 years. She is a Professor on the photojournalism faculty at 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. Ryan has been involved in the improvement of the user experience of the cpoy.org website since 2006. 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.