Trenton Almgren-Davis is a second year graduate student studying photojournalism at the University of Missouri. Trenton, from Saint Louis, graduated Saint Louis University with a degree in Communication December 2019. He has worked as a photo editor, staff photographer, and Education reporter for the Columbia Missourian. Additionally, he has experience in botanical photography as an intern for the Missouri Botanical Garden. He also works on the side as a Mid-Missouri wedding photographer.

Tanishka R. is an India-born visual journalist based in the American Midwest. She is a first-year graduate student in Journalism at the University of Missouri. She aspires to use her training in sciences and journalism to communicate meaningfully about environmental issues. She was also the coordinator for 78th Pictures of the Year International (POYi). 

Elizabeth Underwood is a second year Photojournalism Graduate Student at the University of Missouri. Originally from Manhattan, Kansas, she came to MU in 2016 to get her bachelor’s in Convergence Photojournalism and a minor in Russian. She started volunteering with CPOY in 2019 and POY in 2020 before later becoming a social media coordinator and later coordinator for the competitions. She has previously worked as a staff photographer, editor and Assistant Director of Videography for the Columbia Missourian and freelanced for the Jefferson City News Tribune, Missouri Independent and NJ Advance Media. Her passion lies in covering the intersection of community and sports photojournalism.

Ciara McCaskill is a fourth-year student at the University of Missouri majoring in photojournalism. From the small town of Leavenworth, KS, McCaskill has taken her skills to the Columbia Missourian where she is currently a general assignment photographer. This is her second year working with the CPOY staff.

Aleigha Hornaday is a first-year student at the University of Missouri, majoring in Journalism on the photojournalism track. Aleigha is part of the The Maneater photo section and joined the CPOY staff as an archivist this year. 

Jackie Bell is a Professor, Professional Practice, on the Photojournalism and Documentary faculty at the Missouri School of Journalism, where she has taught for 21 years. Prior to joining the faculty, she was an Assistant Professor at the University of Montana and an Instructor at the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale. She has 15 years of combined experience as a staff photojournalist for The Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel, The Tennessean, The Arizona Daily Star and a chain of magazines in Tel Aviv, Israel. She has worked on national stories as well as international projects in Haiti, Cuba, Israel, and much of Latin America and the Caribbean. She has an MA in Photographic Communication from Ohio University and undergraduate degrees in Spanish Literature and Communications from the University of Michigan.

Liv Paggiarino is a third-year graduate student at the University of Missouri; she is currently writing a thesis to wrap up her Master's degree in Visual Editing and Management. She has worked as a staff photojournalist, photo editor and assistant director of photography at the Columbia Missourian, and a staff photographer at the Jefferson City News Tribune, but dabbles in other interests, including design and social media engagement. While not behind a camera or computer screen, she enjoys reading history books, looking for sea glass along the shores of her native Southern California, and playing the occasional nerdy game of Dungeons and Dragons. 

Madi Winfield is a first-year graduate student studying Newsroom Management at the University of Missouri. She currently works as the Assistant Director of Photography at Vox Magazine and as a photographer for Sporting KC. She graduated from MU this past August with her Bachelor’s in Visual Editing and Management. In her (limited) free time, she likes reading speculative fiction, going on road trips, and cheering on the Pittsburgh Penguins.