Sarah worked as a contributing photographer to National Geographic magazine for 20 years before joining the staff as a senior photo editor in 2004. She became the magazine’s first female director of photography in 2013.

In 2020 she co-founded the Visual Thinking Collective, a community for independent women dedicated to supporting visual storytelling.

Leen works with individual photographers and publishers consulting and editing visual projects and books including the 2020 FotoEvidence and World Press Photo Book Award winner HABIBI by Antonio Faccilongo, The Phoenician Collapse by Diego Ibarra Sanchez—winner of the 2022 Lucie Book Award for Independent Book, We Cry in Silence by Smita Sharma—a winner of the 2023 Lucie Book Award for Independent Book, and A Troubled Home by Anush Babajanyan.

She is also the photo editor of Ukraine: A War Crime by FotoEvidence which was shortlisted for the 2023 Arles Historical Book Award and winner of the IPA Book Photographer of the Year.

Leen is on the Board of Advisors of the Eddie Adams Workshop, on the Board of Directors of the International League of Conservation Photographers and an inductee into the Missouri Journalism Hall of Fame.

IG: @roseleen

Jennifer Fish is a Professor of Women’s and Gender Studies, an author, and a photographer. She has documented the stories of migrant women workers around the world for twenty years, in affiliation with Human Rights Watch, the United Nations, and several policy and nongovernmental organizations. For fifteen years, she taught university courses in Africa and Asia, with a focus on documentary studies of human rights, reconciliation, and social justice movements. From her extensive work with women artists in South Africa, she founded Heartworks Designs—an initiative to express global solidarity through art, adornment, and narrative textiles.

Nicole Limperopulos is an Associate Professor of Education Leadership and a photographer. Over the past 14 years she has taught graduate students who are preparing for leadership in urban school buildings and districts, and has directed leadership fellowships in 16 cities throughout the US. Nicole’s research examines ways in which schools can develop and implement structures that are needed to support youth who are processing experiences with gun violence. Her photography explores the human desire to grasp patterns of living, not merely as an intellectual exercise, but as personal and emotional experiences.

IG: @nicolelimperopulos

Bill will help with setup, tech, operations, and throw in a lecture on editing and sequencing. He is Sarah’s longtime partner.

Bill was creative director at National Geographic magazine for 10 years and Nature Conservancy director of photography for two years. He was named POYi Picture Editor of the Year three times for work at the Columbia Daily Tribune and the Philadelphia Inquirer Sunday Magazine.

Chef Josh Berry holds a lifelong connection to local food, seasonality, farmers and fishermen that leads him to create an unique food style as an authentic ode to his native Maine. With thirty years of experience, he worked in Europe, throughout the US and finally back to Maine where he was awarded Maine's Chef of the Year and was invited to cook at the prestigious James Beard House in NYC. His a passion for food photography serves as a conduit for the expression of his dedication and belief in the collective impact of sustainable food creation and daily celebration.

IG: @chefjoshbmaine

Maggie Knowles is the editor-in-chief of edible MAINE magazine and was the producer and host of Maine's first full length cooking show, Plate the State. The couple is grateful to create intimate and lovely dining experiences with local favorites for those calling Maine their home for a night or forever.

IG: @ediblemaine

Yunghi Kim is a photojournalist who has covered some of the biggest international stories in the last 39 years. She has covered conflicts and in-depth, issue-driven stories all over the world. Her work appears in numerous magazine commissioned assignments for Time, Newsweek, Business Week, U.S. News and World Report, LIFE, Forbes, Fortune, Sports Illustrated, Texas Monthly, and Golf Magazine, People Magazine, Vogue, New York Times, and The New Yorker. Intimate storytelling and the use of photography as voice are central to her most important to her career contributions. She created the first intimate in-depth account of the lives of former South Korean Comfort Women. Her 1992 coverage of the Somali famine was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize that year. Kim has received some of the profession's highest accolades, including World Press Photo Awards. She is one of only two women to receive the Magazine Photographer of the Year award by POYi.

IG: @yunghi.kim

Kathy Moran was National Geographic magazine’s Deputy Director of Photography. As the magazine’s first senior editor for natural history projects, Moran has been producing projects about terrestrial and underwater ecosystems for the magazine since 1990. She was the project manager for the National Geographic Society/Wildlife Conservation Society’s partnership documenting photographer Nick Nichols and Dr. Michael Fay’s trek across Central Africa. The resulting stories were the impetus for the creation of Gabon’s national park system.

Moran has edited several books for the Society, including Women Photographers at the National Geographic, The Africa Diaries – An Illustrated Life in the Bush, Cat Shots, Tigers Forever, Secrets of the Elephants and the upcoming Secrets of the Octopus. She recently curated an exhibition for the Society’s museum “50 Best Wildlife Photographs” which has traveled around the country and internationally.

She was named “Picture Editor of the Year” for her winning portfolios in the 2017 and 2006 POYi competition and the 2011 Best of Photo competition.

She is a founding member of the International League of Conservation Photographer and currently serves on the Board. She is on the advisory committee for Focused on Nature and was recently named Chair of the Jury for Wildlife Photographer of the Year. As a member of Moran Griffin Studio she continues to edit books and photo projects and mentor photographers. She works with the Siena Festival and xPosure Festival in Sharjah, UAE. She lives in Dresden, Maine with her husband and two bad cats.

Mary Virginia Swanson is an author, educator, and advisor who has spent her career helping artists find the strengths in their work, identify audiences, and present their work and advance their professional path. Her background includes exhibiting, collecting, licensing and marketing photographs. She is the founder of Swanstock, a unique agency managing licensing rights for fine art photographers. Her experience includes leading the Ansel Adams Workshop and heading the Special Projects at Magnum Photos. She earned the 2015 Honored Educator award from the Society for Photographic Education, and the FOCUS Award for Lifetime Achievement in Photography from the Griffin Museum. She frequently serves as a judge on contemporary photography and photo book competitions, a portfolio reviewer for industry events, and presents group learning through interactive lectures, group workshops and private mentoring. Her co-authored book with Darius Himes, now in its 3rd edition (Radius Books, 2023) is an acclaimed resource that has helped countless photographers bring their projects to publication with great satisfaction.

IG: @maryvirginiaswanson