We’re thrilled to announce the judges for the annual SND Creative Competition. This week, 42 professionals will come together from around the world in person to judge the best visual journalism of 2024. They span countries and represent a wide variety of fields. Divided into four judging groups, they will assess more than 5,000 print and digital entries, as well as non-editorial and student entries.
Digital Judges
Beto Alvarez, The Los Angeles Times
Beto Alvarez is currently deputy director of newsroom innovation and planning for the Los Angeles Times. Before that, Alvarez served as digital creative director at The San Diego Union-Tribune. He has worked in journalism for more than 25 years, beginning his career at The Dallas Morning News where he worked as a graphic artist and illustrator. He then spent eight years at The Philadelphia Inquirer as a graphic artist, illustrator and designer. Throughout his career, Alvarez has been recognized with numerous awards from The Society of News Design, Society of Professional Journalism, PRINT magazine, and Malofiej Awards for Infographics. He’s also been the recipient of four regional Emmy Awards.
Melissa Angle
Melissa Angle is a design thinker and digital strategist who helps media companies build audiences, optimize content and increase engagement. She’s led growth and innovation at American City Business Journals, Cox Media Group and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Melissa has been an SND volunteer and leader for more than 20 years.
Clarice Bajkowski, The 19th
As Chief Creative Officer at The 19th, Clarice Bajkowski is passionate about the power of storytelling to inspire, connect, and drive meaningful change. Her journey began with a deep love for drawing, painting, and lettering, evolving into a design philosophy that fuses creativity with strategy. With over 20 years of experience in design, advertising, and brand development, she focuses on creating work that resonates with diverse communities. Bajkowski believes that representation and inclusivity are key to authentic storytelling, and is dedicated to elevating voices that reflect the richness of our world. For her, great storytelling is more than just visuals—it’s about building trust and elevating voices that deserve to be heard.
Kristin Bausch, The Marshall Project
Kristin Bausch (she/her) is an audience engagement producer for The Marshall Project, where she specializes in engaging with people on social media platforms through informative visual posts. A Florida native and graduate of the University of Florida, Bausch currently resides in Evansville, Indiana.
Anna Boone, The Minnesota Star Tribune
Anna Boone is a digital designer at The Minnesota Star Tribune. Her job sits at the intersection of code and design in the newsroom. She was recognized as a finalist for World’s Best Designer from the Society for News Design in 2024.
Fabián Cárdenas, Diario La República
Fabián Cárdenas is a Colombian senior designer and leader with more than 20 years of experience in graphic design, user experience, strategy, research, and the creation of scalable design systems. He has been back in the media industry for over a year, now serving as Design Coordinator at La República, Colombia’s first economic newspaper.
Steve Dorsey
Steve Dorsey is an award-winning innovator, coach and public speaker. He is the creative operations officer for Oakland County, Michigan’s department of public communications. For more than three decades, he worked in editorial and business-side design, leadership and innovation roles at GateHouse Media, Cox Media, Gannett and Knight Ridder. He’s been an international consultant and supported communications and marketing teams at the University of Michigan.
Rick Epps, Michigan State University
Richard Epps is the Visual Journalism Professor in the School of Journalism at his alma mater of Michigan State University. He has taught design and graphics classes, for both print and digital, since August 2016. Epps is the student advisor for MSU’s robust student chapter of the Society of News Design, and coordinates the College Student Design Competition, now in its 26th year.
Ken Harper, Syracuse University
Ken Harper is a professor at Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, where he teaches graphic design, photography, and immersive media with a focus on “design for good,” emphasizing the use of design to address complex social issues and promote positive change. Previously, Harper worked as a multimedia designer and producer for MSNBC.com, The Rocky Mountain News, Bahá’í North American Temple and various organizations including the United Nations and USAID.
Katty Huertas, The Washington Post
Katty Huertas is a designer, artist and illustrator born in Colombia and based in Washington, DC. She holds an MFA in graphic design from MICA. She previously worked at Nickelodeon as part of the Launch Team and at NBC News as an editorial designer. Currently, she is a senior designer and art director at The Washington Post where she created the artwork for the Pulitzer finalist, and Webby award winner podcast, Broken Doors. Her work has been featured by Adobe, Creative Review, Creative Boom, Behance, Bored Panda, Tumblr, VSCO, 21Wallpaper, and Booooooom. Her client list includes HBO MAX, Adobe, Disney+, The New Yorker, The New York Times, Wired and YouTube.
Pei Ying Loh, Kontinentalist
Pei Ying Loh co-founded Kontinentalist in 2017, an award-winning editorial studio with a focus on Asia. Kontinentalist has told innovative and rigorous data stories on topics ranging from how the rubber industry in Singapore and Malaysia was shaped by colonialism, to communicating climate change in Southeast Asia. With Kontinentalist, Pei Ying seeks to empower voices through cause-driven stories as well as change people’s perception about Asia and its cultures. She is a board member for the Society for News Design, and has an MSc in Data, Inequality and Society at the University of Edinburgh’s Futures Institute with support from the Chevening Foundation. She also won the Singapore Press Club’s Rising Star Young Digital Journalist Award in 2023.
Lina Moreno, Süddeutsche Zeitung
Lina Moreno is Art Director at the Süddeutsche Zeitung, one of Germany’s leading national newspapers. She designs, produces, and art-directs digital stories, leads the style guide development for newsroom projects and oversees other strategic design initiatives. Before joining the SZ, she spent five years at the German magazine Der Spiegel, where she shaped the editorial design for digital platforms and art-directed several investigative stories. Originally from Colombia, she studied visual arts before earning a Master’s in Design in Hamburg. She is particularly interested in translating complex stories into compelling visual concepts and works at the intersection of design, code, multimedia, and storytelling. She currently splits her time between Hamburg and Munich.
Zisiga Mukulu, ProPublica
Zisiga Mukulu is an interactive story designer at ProPublica, where she designs and builds custom projects. Before joining the team, she was a design fellow in the Opinion section at The New York Times, art directing and designing stories. She also worked as a graphic designer for fashion studio Stine Goya. Zisiga holds a master’s degree in design and technology from Parsons School of Design.
Print Judges
Rebecca Chew, The New York Times
Rebecca Chew is an art director in the Opinion section of The New York Times. Chew was previously the art director of The California Sunday Magazine and Pop-Up Magazine in San Francisco, and the art director of Esquire in Malaysia and Singapore.
Caitlin Choi, The Wall Street Journal
Caitlin Choi (she/her) is the art director for the Weekend Review section of the Wall Street Journal. She specializes in visual storytelling and design. With a passion for art and a keen eye for detail, Caitlin has commissioned award winning work and creates compelling digital and print visual experiences that engage and inform audiences.
Jade Cuevas, POLITICO
Jade Cuevas is a Visuals Editor at Politico where she art directs stories covering the ever-changing world of political news. Passionate about illustration, Jade loves working with illustrators from all backgrounds to help tell these stories. Before joining Politico, Jade served as an Art Director at the Los Angeles Times where she worked on a wide array of sections and projects across both print and digital platforms. A proud Tejana, Jade loves playful color palettes, a great pair of boots, and making ceramics at her local pottery studio in Los Angeles.
Arne Depuydt, design consultant
Arne Depuydt is an experienced editorial designer with a focus on visual storytelling. During his 15-year tenure at De Morgen, which included 10 years as art director, he received accolades such as The World’s Best Designed Newspaper (2015) and European Newspaper of the Year (2015, 2022).
Naasha Dotiwala, Gannett
Naasha Dotiwala is a Team Leader in the Center for Community Journalism department within Gannett’s Design Center. She started her professional career in news design in 2017 as a designer for GateHouse Media in Austin, Texas, working on a variety of papers from across the country. Currently, she helps oversee the daily production of 23 news sections across Michigan, Minnesota, South Dakota, and Wisconsin as the Team Leader for the Northern region. When she’s not at work she enjoys exploring her hometown of Houston, Texas, and trying to find unique new restaurants to try out with her friends and family.
Ryan Ford, Detroit Free Press
Ryan Ford is the deputy sports editor for the Detroit Free Press, for which he has worn a multitude of hats — literal and figurative — including more than a decade as the Freep’s lead sports designer (2006-17). Some of those hats brought awards (from SND, SPJ, and even, heck, a year as NSMA Michigan sportswriter of the year) and some of them just brought warmth to a Washington State University alum and a Detroiter by luck (after stops at the Longview Daily News and the Colorado Springs Gazette) for nearly two decades.
Brennan Higginbotham, The Globe & Mail
Brennan Higginbotham is an art director with nearly two decades of experience in print magazines and newspapers across Canada. He’s contributed to award-winning publications such as Toronto Life, Vancouver and Western Living. Most recently you’ll find his work in Report on Business magazine and on the front page of the weekend edition of Canada’s national newspaper, The Globe and Mail. He lives with his wife, two sons and poodle just outside Vancouver, B.C.
Waleed Rabin, Kavak
Waleed Rabin is a Creative Director based in Muscat, Oman, currently leading the creative direction at Kavak, a global automotive brand operating across the GCC. Originally from South Africa, where he specialized in luxury lifestyle publications, Waleed began his career in Oman with the award-winning Times of Oman team, collaborating closely with renowned design visionary Adonis Durado. With over 20 years of experience, Waleed has built a robust career in editorial design, skillfully merging captivating storytelling with impactful visuals. His creative journey has since expanded to include branding, experiential marketing, and innovative AI-driven projects. Despite his growing focus on digital and branding initiatives, Waleed remains deeply passionate about print—his first creative love and ongoing source of inspiration.
Denise M. Reagan
Denise M. Reagan has crafted stories throughout her career at media companies and nonprofits. After graduating from the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications, she worked in newsrooms at The News-Sentinel (Fort Wayne, Indiana), Detroit Free Press, Star Tribune (Minneapolis, Minnesota), the Savannah Morning News, and the Sun-Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, Florida), before returning to her hometown Jacksonville, Florida, to manage half of the newsroom staff at The Florida Times-Union. Reagan served as communications director at the Museum of Contemporary Art Jacksonville and co-led the rebranding of the organization and overhaul of its website. She served numerous roles for the Society for News Design for more than 35 years and presented at workshops across the United States, Canada, Mexico, and China.
Amanda Reiter, MediaNews Group
Amanda Reiter (she/her and Writer) has spent time in various newsrooms over the years, including Abilene, TX., Fort Worth, TX., Ventura, Calif., and Birmingham, Ala. In 2011, after being laid off, she took a giant leap and landed in Beijing for 1 year working as a copy editor at China Daily. When Reiter returned to the U.S., she accepted a role at MediaNews Group where she has worked for 12 years. Her current role as Director of Editorial Operations oversees the print and e-edition production of more than 150 daily and weekly newspapers.
Other random facts:
• Her photojournalism degree helped shape how she see design
• She lives in Dallas, TX., and has worked remotely since 2012
• She has a 10-year-old son who keeps her on her toes
• She has seen the band Wilco at least 10 times
• She has jumped out of an airplane solo
Luis G. Rendon
Luis G. Rendon is a visual journalist and writer originally from South Texas. He graduated from Syracuse University in 2011 and has since worked in newsrooms big and small as a designer, art director, and illustrator. In addition, his writing has been published in places like Texas Monthly and The Los Angeles Times.
Jake Stevens, American City Business Journals
Jake Stevens is a multi-faceted graphic designer, illustrator and photographer currently residing in the White Mountains of northern New Hampshire. Jake has been with American City Business Journals since 2019, starting as lead designer for the Tampa Bay Business Journal through the creation of the National Design Desk as a senior designer and was promoted to Regional Creative Director at the end of 2024. Prior to joining ACBJ, Jake worked in design roles at Watermark Media/Publishing Group, Backstage Pass Magazine and Upper Valley Press.
Graphics Judges
Adolfo Arranz, Reuters
Adolfo Arranz is a Spaniard based in Hong Kong that helps to create visual explanations across a spectrum of topics, supporting the drive at Reuters to present new ways to present news. He likes to use handcrafted illustrations to approach the subject and create appealing visual stories. Adolfo Arranz previously worked as a creative director at South China Morning Post in Hong Kong and Mediacorp in Singapore. He has won multiple prestigious awards in visual communication included Best’s world news designer in the past SND Awards edition.
Manuel Cabrera Patiño, visual and branding consultant
With 27 years in media experience, Manuel Cabrera Patiño received hundreds of world recognitions in competitions as Malofiej Awards (SND Spain); The Best of News Design, (SND USA); ÑH, The Best of News Design from Spain, Portugal and Latin America (SND Spain) and the ISP, Interamerican Society of Press based in Florida (USA). In 2015, he was a judge and speaker for the Infographics World Summit Malofiej 23th in Pamplona, Spain. In 2017, he collaborated as a speaker and workshopper at the International Congress of infographics and data views (INFOVIS) in Mexico City. That same year he was part of the jury at the ÑH Awards, the best in media design of Spain, Portugal and Latin America.
Darla Cameron, The Texas Tribune
Darla Cameron is the chief product officer at The Texas Tribune. She guides product development and management, engineering and design, working closely across the organization to deliver the Tribune’s journalism in fresh and innovative ways that build trust with more Texans. Before May 2024, Darla was the managing editor for visual journalism, overseeing the work of the photo, multimedia and data visuals teams. Previously, she was the data visuals editor, leading a team of developers at the intersection of graphics and news applications. Before moving to Texas, Darla worked at The Washington Post and the Tampa Bay Times. She is a Colorado native with a degree in journalism from the University of Missouri. She also served on the board of Investigative Reporters and Editors.
Matt Chwastyk, National Geographic
A cartographer by education and training, Matt Chwastyk worked for National Geographic for 25 years. Chwastyk’s work has contributed to books, atlases, poster maps, interactive stories, National Geographic Kids magazine, and the flagship National Geographic Magazine. Hi present role of Senior Manager of Cartography oversees mapping at National Geographic Partners.
Kaeti Hinck, CNN Digital
Kaeti Hinck is a longtime visual journalist, editor and newsroom leader. She was most recently executive editor for data and visuals at CNN Digital, where she led CNN’s global visual journalism teams. Before joining CNN, she was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard, researching how neuroscience and psychology can inspire humane platform design and inform the broader news ecosystem. Previously, she was an editor at The Washington Post, where she led a Pulitzer-winning team of visual journalists, developers, and data reporters. She has explored the power of data, visual storytelling, and technology in newsrooms for nearly two decades.
Lee Pei Jie, The Straits Times
Lee Pei Jie is a digital graphics designer at The Straits Times and has years of experience working with journalists, developers and editors, focusing on visual storytelling. She takes a keen interest in exploring a wide variety of visual formats to craft rich story experiences for readers. She believes that good storytelling, when combined with effective visuals, has the ability to engage readers’ minds and create constructive dialogues on topics close to their hearts.
Jasen Lo, The Philadelphia Inquirer
Jasen Lo creates cool internet through data, code and design for the Philadelphia Inquirer. He has previously worked at the Kontinentalist and the Associated Press. Born and raised in Hong Kong, he is currently based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Rocio Marquez Salguero, South China Morning Post
Rocio Marquez Salguero is currently a Senior Infographics Editor at the South China Morning Post (Hong Kong), a position she has held since 2023. Prior to that, she was part of the newsroom at El Confidencial (Madrid). Before her time there, she worked as a freelance infographics designer and coder, and she also taught at various universities in Barcelona. She hold a Bachelor’s degree in Arts and Design, a Master’s degree in Digital Arts, and a Master’s degree in Visual Tools to Empower Citizens.
Georgina Piper, Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Georgina Piper is a digital designer for ABC News Story Lab based in Sydney, Australia. Her work spans a wide range of digital storytelling tools and interactives. Her visual storytelling employs a spectrum of design disciplines from system design and data visualisation, to illustration and animation. Georgina previously worked for the ABC’s investigative Four Corners program and the ABC’s Parliament House Bureau in Canberra. Before joining the ABC, she managed a team of four multidisciplinary designers at leading campaigning organization GetUp.
Petri Salmén, Helsingin Sanomat
Petri Salmén is a visual journalist specializing in information graphics and data visualization within the Photo & Design Department of Helsingin Sanomat. This publication stands as the largest media outlet in the Nordic countries by subscription numbers. With over 30 years of experience in graphic design for both print media and the internet, Petri has also lectured on data visualization at various educational institutions and seminars. Petri served on the board of SNDS (the Scandinavian SND) from 2007 to 2012 and was a judge in the Malofiej Award competition (SND Spanish) held in Pamplona in 2017.
Jin Wu, Bloomberg
Jin Wu is a senior graphics reporter for Bloomberg News, based in Singapore. She tells visual and data-driven stories about APAC and sometimes rest of the world. Previously, she was part of the graphics teams at The New York Times and Reuters.
World’s Best Judges
Alex K. Fong, San Francisco Chronicle
Alex K. Fong is vice president of the Society for News Design and the creative director of the San Francisco Chronicle, where he oversees a multidisciplinary team of designers, graphic artists, graphics reporters and developers. In 2012, he collaborated on the redesign of some 80 daily print newspapers for Digital First Media, including the Los Angeles Daily News and the El Paso Times. During a four-year stint in China, Alex advocated for greater rigor in the practice of visual journalism and led the award-winning redesign of the Shanghai Star. Alex has mentored journalism students at the City College of San Francisco (where he was once a student) and currently serves on the journalism department’s advisory board.
Sónia Matos, PÚBLICO
Sónia Matos first designed pages at Jornal de Leiria. Then it was time to head to Lisbon, where she graduated in Communication Design at the Institute of Visual Arts, Design and Marketing (Iade). In the first year of the course, she went to work for Diário de Notícias. But it was at O Independente that she grew up. She spent eight years there and won several awards from the Society for News Design (SND). She came to PÚBLICO in 2006 to redesign the newspaper with designers Mark Porter and Simon Esterson. They won the D&AD Yellow Pencil and other SND awards. And the red P is here to stay. Finally, the transition to digital: the Fugas and Life&Style websites, the Ípsilon app for tablets and now the redesign of the entire website. Over the years, she have been a judge in national and international design competitions. And recently she redesigned Jornal de Leiria.
Frank Mina, The Seattle Times
Frank Mina is senior assistant managing editor at The Seattle Times leading teams of visual journalists, designers and editors responsible for the presentation of the newsroom’s most engaging stories. He has been in Seattle for 10 years after spending 18 years at the San Francisco Chronicle where he was deputy managing editor. Mina’s work has been recognized by SND and other journalism organizations for excellence in print and digital design.
Danielle Rindler, Hearst Newspapers
Danielle Rindler is the Senior Director of Data and Visual Storytelling for Hearst Newspapers, where she leads a team tasked with scaling data and visually-driven stories across local newsrooms and building the internal tools and templates that power that work. Previously, she was a graphics editor and designer at the Washington Post.
Søren Nyeland, POLITIKEN
Mr. Søren Nyeland (born June 6, 1961) has been the Design Editor of the Danish newspaper Politiken since 1997. He holds a Master of Design from The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts and an MBA from Copenhagen Business School. Under his leadership, the design team has won several prestigious awards, including SND’s World’s Best-Designed Newspaper four times, as well as The European Newspaper of the Year in 2010 and 2016. Nyeland has served as a jury member for various news design competitions, such as ENA, SND, SND/S, and SND-Russia. He has also been a speaker at conferences in cities around the world, including Boston, Buenos Aires, Helsinki, Istanbul, Moscow, Madrid, Stockholm, London, and Vienna. A three-week study trip to Japan left a lasting impression on him.
Tammy Yttri, Lee Enterprises
Tammy Yttri’s current role is Presentation and Planning Manager for Lee Enterprises Design Center where she oversees a large group of designers who produce over 70 publications across the country. Before coming to Lee she worked for the Omaha World-Herald holding numerous positions including Presentation and Production Editor, Copy Desk Chief and A1 Designer. Her accomplishments in design include winning Designer of the Year, News Page Design and Features Page Design for the Great Plains Journalism competition. She’s also received multiple Silver Medals and Awards of Recognition from SND.