Jake May is an award-winning community photojournalist who is committed to telling local stories with impact in Flint and throughout Michigan. His aim with his camera is to build trust through a listening ear, sharp eye and empathetic, heartfelt approach to reflect the stories of those he has the privilege to meet — putting the journalism into photojournalism.

Jessica's path into photojournalism was not traditional or direct. For eight years she traveled the world exploring different cultures and ways of life. These years were formative in teaching her the power photography can have in highlighting under reported issues. She witnessed the rampant discrimination of immigrant communities like Albanians trying to find work in Italy and Nicaraguans living in slums in Costa Rica. These years of travel and learning to communicate through language barriers has taught her that when entering someone’s life, she must enter humbly and with respect. This is a lesson that has served her well throughout her career. Through her work she has honed her ability to connect with people and gain their trust while documenting some of the most intimate moments of their lives.

“If you learn to shoot with your heart, you’ll move people’s souls!”
A good friend & mentor said that to Eric years ago. It’s something he still thinks about working as a photo & video journalist at the Detroit Free Press where he’s been since 1999. Over the years Eric has covered many events for the Free Press from the Intifadas in Israel/Palestine, 5 months in the war on Iraq & many sports from the Olympics in Rio, Beijing and South Korea to several Super Bowls, World Series, College Football National Championships & NBA Finals. Eric has since been recognized for his photo and video storytelling with a national Edward R. Murrow award, a national Webby Award, multiple Michigan Press Photographer Association Multimedia Photographer of the Year awards, several POYi awards & eleven Emmys.

Singeli is a Peabody and Emmy award-winning director, writer and cinematographer with more than 15 years experience in groundbreaking television and documentary work. She's covered stories in more than 50 countries and in some of the most challenging environments one can take a camera.

Mick has been a professional photojournalist for 41 years, Mountain Workshops Picture Editing faculty since 2002. The journey: Jacksonville (Illinois) Journal-Courier; Springfield (Illinois) State Journal-Register; Providence (Rhode Island) Journal; Charlotte Observer; USA Today. No rest for the wicked.

Max is the Senior Visuals Editor at The Indianapolis Star. Aside from daily news and long-term project work, he has coordinated coverage of and edited major sporting events including the Indianapolis 500, the Masters and the Olympics. Max has been recognized by NPPA as the Newspaper Editor of the Year and was part of a team to receive the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award grand prize.

Sue is an advocate for visual journalists as a picture editor, designer, art director and former newsroom manager. She believes everyone has a story to tell, and that multimedia is the powerful medium to report those stories. She has worked as a leader at some of the best newspapers in the country: The Mercury News, Tampa Bay Times, The Sacramento Bee, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and The Boston Globe. As the assistant managing editor for photography at the Times, the photo staff was recognized with numerous awards for photography and editing in POYi, BOP and SND, winning Picture Editing Team Portfolio in POYi. Sue won Picture Editor of the Year in POYi in 1994.

Tom, a member of the Kentucky Journalism Hall of Fame, is a writer and photographer based in Lexington. Before retiring from full-time journalism, he was with The Associated Press, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and The Lexington Herald-Leader, where he was the managing editor and a columnist.

Liz taught journalism for more than 30 years before retiring in 2014 and becoming a writing coach for the Mountain Workshops that same year. Early in my career as a newspaper reporter and freelance writer, I often took my own photographs, and since retiring have taken up photography again. I have had photographs in several juried shows and sometimes exhibit with my husband, Gary, as Two Profs Photography.

Chris leads PR and Partnerships for Woodford Reserve and Old Forester at Brown-Forman Corporation in Louisville. A 1994 WKU graduate, he worked for newspapers in Tennessee, Florida, and China and was a reporter at The Courier-Journal in Louisville.

Shannon is the editor of the Bryn Mawr College Alumnae Bulletin. She was the features reporter for the Courier-Post from 2015 to 2017 and has written for The New York Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, the Lexington Herald-Leader and more. Previously, she led content for Opera Philadelphia, managing the social media accounts and website, creating and editing written and multimedia content, running the streaming Opera Philadelphia Channel from 2020 to 2023 and coordinating the publication of the print and digital performance programs.

Jack, a native of Maysville, Ky. has a Master's degree in communications from the University of Kentucky and is a member of the Kentucky Journalism Hall of Fame and was a reporter from 1976 to 1978 for The Sentinel-News in Shelbyville and then from 1978 to 2021 in the Lexington Herald-Leader's Frankfort bureau. After retiring in December 2021 from the Herald-Leader, he became a freelance writer for various publications, including Kentucky Monthly magazine and Kentucky Lantern news website.

Gabi is an independent visual journalist specializing in both photography and videography based in south central Kentucky. Broekema’s career has included photojournalism internships with MLive- Kalamazoo Gazette and the Colorado Springs Gazette followed by a year and a half working across four papers for USA Today-Wisconsin. Her education spanned across the ocean with a study abroad semester at the Danish School of Media and Journalism in Aarhus, Denmark as well as a BA in photojournalism from Western Kentucky University. Broekema placed numerous times in the Hearst Journalism Awards for her excellence in editing, photojournalism and documentary videography both individually and with group projects.

Jan is a journalist-engineer with The Pudding who specializes in data visual storytelling. She has been awarded top prizes from the Society of News Design and the Online Journalism Awards, has contributed to Pulitzer and Emmy finalist projects, has had her work displayed in the Smithsonian Institution's National Portrait Gallery, and is a LEGO Adult Night building competition winner. Her internet claim to fame is a data-driven piece on the size of women's pockets. She's been designing the Mountain Workshops t-shirts for the last 3 years.

Kurt is an Endpoint Engineer for Western Kentucky University’s Information Technology Services. A 1998 graduate of the WKU Photojournalism program, Kurt worked at multiple newspapers before joining the WKU PJ department as a staff member in 2003. Kurt has been involved with the Workshops for over 20 years. He lives in Bowling Green with his wife Jana, son Nate (who is a senior at WKU) and daughter Kara (who will be a junior at WKU next year).

Kathleen is a New Orleans based photojournalist and documentary filmmaker, who focuses on stories of struggle and injustice. Flynn has spent nearly 20 years as a working journalist, including a decade at the Tampa Bay Times and three years at NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune. She has covered in-depth community news, veterans issues throughout the country, the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the tsunami in Thailand, immigration in Mexico, post-conflict Liberia, India’s booming pharmaceutical industry, and the war in Afghanistan.

Justin is currently a visual communications specialist at Springfield Clinic in Springfield, Illinois. He was previously a staff photographer at the State Journal-Register from 2006 to 2021, covering life in and around the capitol city. Fowler, a native Kentuckian, found his love photojournalism on accident at Western Kentucky University in 2000 and took his first staff photographer position in Janurary of 2006 at the SJR. While studying photojournalism and political science at WKU, Fowler had internships at The Lexington Herald-Leader, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, The Naples Daily News and The State Journal-Register.

Nic is a documentary filmmaker and photographer in Atlanta, GA. With experience in commercial film production, he has developed a love for non-fiction storytelling and the documentary process. He is forever seeking to document fascinating characters, relationships, places, and the narratives they weave.

Teresa is an Air Force veteran who has more than 21-years experience in military journalism and visual information. Her experiences in the military include editing and design of several military newspapers and writing and editing news and feature articles on a vast array of military-related subjects as well as research and design of World War II educational products and memorabilia. She has designed and edited several military history books, pamphlets, brochures and posters. She is the office coordinator for the School of Media & Communication at WKU.

Sam is a visual storyteller based in the Washington, D.C. area. When she is not at work, you can find her on the trails, in the ocean, or at the farmer's market obsessing over Swiss chard. Sometimes, when she is lucky, work takes her to these places to document their charm and splendor.

Brian, a long-time visual and digital innovator, award-winning photographer and true friend of the Mountain Workshops is a former Photojournalist-in-Residence at Western Kentucky University, Director of Photography & Editorial Systems at The Flint (Mich.) Journal newspaper, from 1999-2006. Prior to The Journal, Brian worked at the Muskegon Chronicle and was recognized as Michigan Photographer of the Year. He served in various roles on the Michigan Press Photographers Association board for more than two decades.

Steve Smart, a 1992 graduate of WKU, is a corporate media producer, photographer and editor. He is a senior manager at Deloitte, a global consulting firm producing a wide variety of internal media and marketing communications.

Amy is the Digital Communications Manager for the Baker School at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. She spent two decades as a photojournalist between the Troy Daily News in Ohio, South Bend Tribune in Indiana, and the Knoxville News Sentinel in Tennessee, and even did some time as the storyteller for Zoo Knoxville. Originally from Nashville, she is a 1998 graduate of Western Kentucky University’s photojournalism program. The job may change, but the heart remains the same, finding new and interesting ways to tell stories.

Jonathan is an Emmy Award winning producer with a track record of telling stories of human ambition. During his decade of spaceflight coverage at TIME, he has been the lead producer of three major projects: A Year in Space, published as both a 12-part series and two one-hour specials on PBS, won an Emmy for Outstanding Science & Technology Documentary. Space Explorers spanned 7-years and is the largest production ever filmed in space. He brokered the access with NASA and other production partners to send three VR cameras to the International Space Station, capturing the first-ever spacewalk in virtual reality and earning a Primetime Emmy in 2021. Most recently, Jonathan was lead producer on Countdown: Inspiration4 Mission to Space (Netflix, 2021).

Adam is a filmmaker based in New York, NY specializing in short-form documentaries. He produces, shoots and edits. Small crews and solo shoots are his specialty. Adam's clients include The New York Times, CNN, The New Yorker, TED, ABC, NPR, Bloomberg, OceanX, TIME, and The Weather Channel.

Jonathan has bounced around in the visual storytelling world ever since graduating from Western Kentucky University’s PJ program in 1993. His favorite newspaper job was in Jackson Hole, Wyoming before being lured away by the money of crazy big weddings. For the past seven years he has taught at WKU and has helped run all aspects of the workshops. Now his main job at Mountain is to make sure everything comes together without anyone noticing.

Jeanie has been teaching at WKU for close to 22 years and is fueled by inspiring her students to see the best in themselves. She was the recipient of the National Press Photographers Association’s Robin F. Garland Educator Award in 2021, which recognizes outstanding educators who shape a new generation of visual communicators and photojournalists through their lessons.

Tim, a 1988 graduate of WKUPJ, has been a professor of photojournalism since 2001 at WKU. He has been involved with the Mountain every year since 1985 and now directs the production and video storytelling side of the workshops making sure your experience is one of a kind.

James is the program coordinator for the WKU Visual Journalism and Photography program and director of the Mountain Workshops. Though his work is very important to him, it pales in comparison to the greatest blessings in his life – his wife, six kids and two grandchildren.