WHNPA Announces Judges for 2026 ‘Eyes of History®’ Contests

Erin Clark is a staff photographer at The Boston Globe, where she focuses on long-form, community-centered visual storytelling across New England. Her work often explores how policy, place, and social systems shape people’s daily lives, with an emphasis on stories that unfold over time.

Clark joined the Globe in 2020 and has reported on a wide range of subjects, including housing insecurity, immigration enforcement, public health, and community life. She is particularly drawn to character-driven projects that pair intimate access with sustained reporting.

Her work has been recognized by Pictures of the Year International, the National Press Photographers Association, the Boston Press Photographers Association, and the Pulitzer Prize.

Adam Gray is a freelance photojournalist based out of New York City, covering news and feature assignments across North America and internationally. He was previously the Chief Photographer for the British press agency SWNS. Born in the North of England he studied History at Newcastle University before starting in photojournalism. He has covered major stories around the world ranging from politics, migration, natural disasters, the effects of conflict, COVID-19, social movements and unrest and the US Capitol Insurrection.

His editorial clients include Getty Images, The New York Times, Reuters, The Associated Press, Bloomberg, Agence France-Presse, De Volkskrant, Le Figaro, and The Times/Sunday Times.

Adam Scotti is a Canadian documentary photographer best known as the official photographer to former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. He began as a volunteer in Trudeau’s office in 2011 while attending McGill University, then held the role of official photographer beginning with the Liberal leadership race in 2013 and through Trudeau’s tenure as prime minister ending in 2025.

Scotti’s work placed him at the center of Canadian political life, documenting everything from high-level international meetings to informal, behind-the-scenes moments that helped shape the public visual record of Trudeau’s leadership. Over more than a decade, he produced an extensive visual archive of contemporary Canadian politics and has become recognized in his own right for his access and distinctive, narrative-driven style.

Dorry Gundy has had a long and successful career working as an editor and producer for television news programs. She is currently a multimedia producer at the Voice of America’s (VOA) Learning English division, where she produces and edits original digital and broadcast video content for English teachers and learners worldwide.

Dorry has been involved in television news gathering, editing, and production for over four decades. She began her career in Cleveland, Ohio, working at two major stations there, WEWS and WKYC, as a film processor and editor. As one of few women film processors and news editors working in the newsroom of a Cleveland television station, she was involved in the industry’s historic transition from film to videotape in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Dorry moved to Washington, D.C. in the early 1980’s and worked at ABC News as a video editor for multiple flagship news shows, including This Week with David Brinkley, World News Tonight, and Nightline.

In the late 1980’s, she started a freelance career as a video editor with international news organizations in D.C., including France’s TFI, Danish TV and the BBC. At the BBC, she participated in and supported another major industry transition from videotape to digital news gathering, production and editing. She became a full-time video editor at the BBC in D.C., covering major news events in North America for over 20 years. In 2009, while at the BBC, Dorry won two WHNPA Eyes of History awards for News Feature Editing and Inaugural Editing.

Dave Wertheimer began his television career in 1980 while still in high school in Milwaukee and has built a distinguished career in broadcast journalism, serving in roles ranging from Chief Photojournalist to News Director at stations across the country. As a freelance cameraman, he has covered major stories around the world, often working in challenging conditions, driven by a passion for strong, ethical visual storytelling.

Over the decades, Dave has judged numerous journalism contests, including previously serving as a judge for the White House News Photographers Association. He also produced the NPPA safety video “Look Up and Live,” a widely used training piece designed to help journalists stay safe during live shots.

An educator and mentor, Dave has been a broadcaster in residence at several universities and provides training for media organizations, including the National Press Photographers Association. He also volunteers with high school journalism programs via the Student Television Network and classes in Black River Falls, Wisconsin.

Dave has earned more than 100 industry awards, including over 20 Emmy Awards, and has led teams to multiple NPPA Station of the Year honors. His work emphasizes leadership, ethics, and storytelling that serves the public.

Now living in Disco, Wis., Dave is a retired visual storyteller who continues to teach where needed and volunteers his time and skills with the teaching and Wisconsin American Red Cross, the Hixton Volunteer Fire Department, and—when called upon—several garage bands. When not working, he can usually be found searching for a truly great slice of pie.

Melissa Young is a retired broadcast news photographer with more than four decades of experience in television journalism. She began her career in local news in Miami before joining ABC News, where she spent 44 years as a broadcast news photographer.

During her tenure at ABC News, she covered Capitol Hill and the White House, documenting presidential administrations from Ronald Reagan through Donald Trump. Her work also took her to disaster zones and war zones, and across the globe, capturing pivotal moments with clarity, accuracy, and humanity.

Now retired, Melissa brings a seasoned eye, deep storytelling instincts, and a lifelong commitment to visual journalism to her role as a judge.

Frank Boldt is a senior editor at CPAC with more than 32 years of experience in television broadcasting in Ottawa. He has worked at CTV and with Global Television’s Parliamentary Bureau, covering Canadian politics at the highest levels. A member of the Canadian Press Gallery, Frank has edited daily news coverage, long-form features, and documentaries. He is also an experienced English-language cameraman, having worked on multiple federal elections and international summits as part of the Canadian broadcast pool.

David McWhinney has spent 46 years in Broadcasting, working for major networks including Al Jazeera, BBC, CNN and EBU. He has spent the last 20 years as a Senior video editor for Al Jazeera in Washington DC covering all major international news stories, editing both in house on Avid, and in the field with Adobe Premiere.

Prior to Al Jazeera, he worked at the BBC as a producer and editor in Washington DC covering 6 US Elections. And prior to his US experience, he was a freelancer with EBU traveling to Europe, the Middle East and Asia, as well as a sound recordist and editor based at the CNN office in London. His editing supported international awards including a cable ace for Christiane Amanpour and Nic Robertson, and Mike Hanna’s 1997 extended news coverage in Rwanda.

He has further editing experience for BBC News in London including daily news shows, Breakfast TV, World and long form for the Corporation’s flagship news and current affairs Newsnight programme.
He also worked at the BBC Newcastle studios in the North East of England as a multi-skilled Technical operator balancing camera operation and sound supervision for regional live news bulletins.

Darren Twiss is a Vancouver, B.C.–based senior camera operator and editor with Global News, contributing to national coverage on Global National. A Jack Webster and RTDNA award winner with nearly 25 years of experience in visual journalism, he has covered major events including the war in Ukraine, the death of Queen Elizabeth II, wildfire coverage across Western Canada and the United States, and multiple Canadian and U.S. federal elections. He is dedicated to capturing compelling visuals and shaping stories that inform and connect audiences.

Jarrad Henderson is a four-time Emmy-winning visual storyteller, media entrepreneur and educator who helps aspiring and professional storytellers share confident narratives that reach the audiences they care most about. He brings over 15 years of visual and investigative journalism experience to Michigan State University, where he is a Professor of Practice in the School of Journalism.

During his 2022-2023 Knight-Wallace Fellowship at the University of Michigan, Henderson founded Pop Up Docs™, a pop-up style storytelling workshop that provides skill-building workshops for aspiring non-fiction filmmakers from underrepresented populations.

His professional work has been honored by organizations such as the Robert F. Kennedy Awards for Excellence in Journalism, the Livingston Awards for Young Journalists, the Sidney Hillman Foundation, the News Leaders Association, the Online News Association, and the National Press Photographers Association.

His leadership experience includes serving as the past Academic Representative for the National Association of Black Journalists – Board of Directors, multimedia judge for the Hearst Journalism Awards, and a Journalism Industry Advisory Board Member for PBS Student Reporting Labs.

Henderson is a graduate of the University of Missouri, where he earned his masters degree in journalism, and Arizona State University, where he earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Photography.

Emily Kassie is an Oscar-nominated filmmaker and investigative journalist whose work lives at the fault lines of power and vulnerability. Her feature documentary Sugarcane, directed with Julian Brave NoiseCat—on which she also served as producer and cinematographer—investigates abuses at a former Indian residential school; the film premiered at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the Directing Award and Vanguard Award. It was later nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary and has received more than 50 international honors, including the National Board of Review Award for Best Documentary, a Cinema Eye Award and two Critics’ Choice Awards, with additional nominations from the Directors Guild, Peabody, Gotham, and Independent Spirit Awards. Acquired by National Geographic Documentary Films, Sugarcane is streaming on Disney+ and Hulu. Kassie’s work, including for Frontline PBS, The New York Times, and The Guardian, follows people surviving corrupt and violent systems—women resisting erasure under Taliban rule, Syrian child-workers keeping their families fed, migrants caught in trafficking schemes in the Saharan desert. Her New York Times investigation on sexual abuse in immigrant detention was cited in U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee hearings. Her short films and investigations have earned multiple Emmy nominations and won honors from the Peabody Awards, Edward R. Murrow Awards, Overseas Press Club, World Press Photo, and National Magazine Awards. She was named to Forbes 30 Under 30 and was a New America Fellow and Sundance Catalyst Fellow. Previously, Kassie oversaw visual journalism at Highline (HuffPost) and The Marshall Project, where she launched a Sundance Institute partnership supporting incarcerated and formerly incarcerated filmmakers. She graduated from Brown University and was a Gates Scholar at Cambridge. Her first short documentary, I Married My Family’s Killer, won the 2015 Student Academy Award. Kassie is currently writing a book to be published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux in 2028.

Steve Sapienza is an award-winning news and documentary producer who has covered a wide range of human security stories in dozens of countries, including the HIV crisis in Haiti and the Dominican Republic, child soldiers in Sierra Leone, climate refugees in Bangladesh, and landmine survivors in Cambodia. For more than 20 years he has shot and produced stories for broadcast television and online distribution.

As Senior Editor for U.S. News Partnerships at the Pulitzer Center, he works closely with the Center’s grantees and fellows, new media makers, and newsrooms to identify the collaborative space, digital tools, reporting strategies, and partnerships that enable storytellers to best reach their audience. He is the editorial team lead for the Center’s StoryReach U.S. fellowship program, an audience-engagement accelerator in which journalists hosted at local U.S. outlets work together to innovate and combine breakthrough reporting with creative, effective audience outreach strategies.

Julia Demaree-Nikhinson is a photographer for The Associated Press in Washington, D.C. She was previously based in New York.

Evelyn Hockstein is a senior staff photographer at Reuters based Washington, DC and past President of the Women Photojournalists of Washington. Evelyn has worked in more than 80 countries for news outlets including The Washington Post and The New York Times. Evelyn has won first prize in the World Press Photo and POYi, in 2022 she was part of the Washington Post team that won the Pulitzer Prize for public service and in 2024 she was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Photography for coverage of the Israel-Hamas war with her Reuters colleagues. She has previously won awards from POYi, NPPA Best of Photojournalism, and the Days Japan International Photojournalism award for her coverage of sexual assault of women in Darfur.

Stefani Reynolds is the politics and DC-area photo editor at Bloomberg News. Prior to joining Bloomberg as a photo editor, she worked as a photographer and photo editor at Agence France-Presse’s Washington bureau.

Lance Ing is an award-winning Photojournalist/Editor/Producer at WRC NBC 4 DC with more than 25 years of experience working General news, Special Projects and Investigative news and both Winter/Summer Olympics. He’s worked from coast to coast covering stories with the goal of making them both memorable and unique. “I’m committed to telling compelling stories which have an impact and can make a difference in someone’s life. I believe quality photojournalism, teamwork and good storytelling are crucial to establishing a connection with viewers.”

Lance is the Consumer/I-Team Photojournalist at WRC NBC 4 DC. He helped launched Sinclair Broadcasting’s Full Measure with Sharyl Attkisson, prior to that, he worked for WTTG, USA TODAY LIVE, KATU, WZZM and KTVN. During his career he’s been fortunate to be honored with many local, regional, and national awards, including EMMYs, Murrow’s, AP Awards, NPPA Region 4 Photographer of the Year, WHNPA Photographer and Editor of the Year, and Michigan Photographer of the Year. “It’s an honor to be able to tell the kind of stories that can empower and touch the heart. I’m committed to telling compelling stories which have an impact and can make a difference in someone’s life.”

Nate Luna’s camera has taken him across the country and around the world over the past twelve years, from local news in small-town California to international news at one of America’s largest networks. He currently covers transportation out of ABC’s Washington DC Bureau. When he isn’t shooting or editing, he enjoys breaking (and fixing) his old car, barbecuing, brewing beer, playing with Legos, and being outside.

Joann Sierra is an award-winning bilingual editor/producer with over 30 years of experience in visual storytelling. She is also a motion graphics animator using the Adobe Creative Suite. Currently a producer/editor with ABC News in the DC Bureau, Joann worked at CNN for over 27 years, including being a founding member of CNN en Español. She has also worked with Univision and Austrian Television.

Joann has been a collaborator in a long list of award-winning projects at CNN; and has produced, shot, and edited engaging investigative and feature stories, documentaries, dynamic promos, podcasts, show opens, and creative marketing videos for promotional campaigns.

Her work has been recognized with numerous awards from the White House News Photographers Association and the National Press Photographers Association. She has been nominated for an Emmy and has also been recognized with four team Peabody Awards, a team DuPont Award, two team Emmys, and a team Murrow Award for CNN’s news coverage.
Born in Pennsylvania, she grew up in Lima, Peru, and is fluent in English and Spanish. A graduate from Indiana University of Pennsylvania, she was honored with the Distinguished Alumna Award in 2020.