Erin is an award-winning photojournalist and a Pulitzer Prize finalist who has been with the Boston Globe since 2018. She has covered the 2020 presidential race, a family fighting for stable housing, educational inequalities in Boston Public Schools, and the coronavirus pandemic, among other stories around the country. Erin graduated from Penn State University and later went on to receive her M.A. at Ohio University, where she was named Ohio College Photographer of the Year.

Jack is a senior staff photographer at USA TODAY, based in Washington, D.C., one of the largest digital media companies in the country, where he plays a pivotal role in visual storytelling. Known for his commitment to unbiased storytelling, Jack has earned the respect of the photojournalism community for both the quality of his work and his unwavering professionalism.

Kevin is the Deputy Director of Photography at the Boston Globe. With nearly 20-years-experience as a newspaper photo editor, Martin previously worked for the Minnesota Star Tribune, San Antonio Express-News, Knoxville News Sentinel, The Advocate in Louisiana and The State in Columbia, South Carolina. Martin also worked as a photo editor for the Associated Press in New York. Martin was part of the Star Tribune newsroom staff which was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for breaking news reporting after the murder of George Floyd.

Scott is a freelance photographer based in Long Beach, California. He previously spent 40 years at newspapers including the Chicago Tribune and the San Francisco Chronicle. Strazzante was part of a team Pulitzer in Chicago and is a former POY Newspaper Photographer of the Year and 2-time Natl. Sports Photographer of the Year.

Maddie is a documentary photographer based in Columbus, Ohio. Her work often examines Appalachia, rural America, poverty, grief, resiliency, politics, and how policy directly affects those living in this country. She has spent over a decade documenting a grandmother raising her four grandchildren in Southeast Ohio, and takes special interest in long-form storytelling.

Kevin, a self-taught photographer based out of Memphis, Tennessee, has worked with esteemed publications such as Reuters and The New York Times. Specializing in portraiture, photojournalism, and fine art, Kevin's creative prowess emanates from his profound connection with his subjects and environment. His versatility, perceptive awareness, and innate gift for empathetic communication converge seamlessly to yield photographs that capture the essence of moments, etching them into the tapestry of time with intimacy and grace.

Mika develops and produces digital content about ocean exploration and research for OceanX.

Leslye started her career in 2012 as a visual journalist at The New York Times, where she reported on domestic and international issues including America’s opioid crisis, sexual assault on college campuses, and the impact of the Afghanistan war on U.S. troops and their families. In 2020,she and her co-director Catrin Einhorn released afeature-length film called Father Soldier Son on Netflix. The documentary follows one military family over ten years, becoming an intergenerational exploration of values and American manhood in the aftermath of war. The Wall Street Journal called it “novelistic in its sweep and complexity,” and it was praised by The Times of the U.K. as "one of the great war documentaries."

Ed is an Emmy and Peabody Award-winning staff visual journalist with Reuters, documentary filmmaker and cinematographer. He covers breaking news, investigations and in-depth reporting across multiple continents, with a focus on human centered storytelling. His work spans documentary video, still photography and visual investigations, often combining field reporting with open-source analysis.

Alex is a filmmaker and co-founder of Documist. In 2022, Alex directed The Territory which premiered at Sundance film festival where it won the World Cinema Documentary Audience Award and a Special Jury Award for Documentary Craft. The Territory was produced by Documist alongside Darren Aronofsky’s Protozoa Pictures. The film won a 2023 Primetime Emmy for Exceptional Merit in Documentary Filmmaking, a Peabody award, and was shortlisted for the 2023 Academy Awards. The film was also nominated for the Gotham Awards, the Producers Guild Awards, three Critics Choice Awards, and seven Cinema Eye Honors. The Territory was acquired by National Geographic Documentary Films and is available globally on Hulu and Disney+. Alex also served as an Executive Producer on the 2026 feature documentary Nuisance Bear, which won the Sundance US Documentary Grand Jury Prize.

Mick has been a professional photojournalist for 42 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.

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. He now manages the Kentucky Writers Hall of Fame, a join project of the Kentucky Arts Council and the Carnegie Center for Literacy & Learning.

Maxx is a multidisciplinary designer, creative director, and technologist passionate about crafting immersive experiences, digital products, and motion-driven storytelling at the intersection of design, technology, and human connection. With 15+ years of experience, he has led teams and crafted award-winning work across XR, UI/UX, branding, and experiential installations blending innovation and sustainability for brands, startups, and cultural projects.

Gabi is an independent visual journalist specializing in both photography and videography based in Bowling Green, 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 small papers for USA Today-Wisconsin. Her education spanned even further with a study abroad semester at the Danish School of Media and Journalism in Aarhus, Denmark which she attended as she completed her bachelor's degree in photojournalism from Western Kentucky University. Broekema also placed numerous times in the Hearst Journalism Awards for her excellence in editing, photojournalism and documentary videography both individually and with group projects

Founder of StorySplat, Sonny builds real-time, browser-first 3D stories. He’s shipped interactive work with ARound, NOWHERE, Yahoo Sports, The New Yorker, and Syracuse University.

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).

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.

Lauren is a recent graduate of the WKU VJP program and is originally from Owensboro, Kentucky. During her time in college, she worked for two Student Publications, including Cherry Creative as a video editor and The Talisman as a staff photographer. Howe's work has also been recognized by the Hearst Journalism Awards for solo and team projects. As a photographer and videographer, she loves to travel, meet new people, and see things for what they really are.

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 Budget Specialist for the School of Media & Communication at WKU.

Sam is an independent documentary filmmaker and photographer based in the Baltimore-Washington, D.C. area. She is drawn to stories that explore the natural world and our relationship to it.

Brian, a long-time visual and digital innovator, award-winning photographer, editor 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.

Brett is the community photojournalist for Mirror Indy in Indianapolis, Indiana. He is also a CatchLight Local Fellow and a Report for America Corps Member. Before joining Mirror Indy, he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Visual Journalism & Photography, as well as a Bachelor of Science in Strategic Marketing in May of 2025. Brett has completed multiple photojournalism internships, including The Indianapolis Star, The Boston Globe and The Chautauquan Daily. He believes in capturing the celebration of life and documenting the legacy of communities for generations today and tomorrow.

Amy is the Photography Group Leader at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee. 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 before moving into storytelling roles for Zoo Knoxville and the University of Tennessee, 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.

Steve, 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.

Jonathan is an Emmy-winning filmmaker and creative force behind some of the most ambitious space documentaries of the past decade. As a journalist-turned-producer and co-founder of Working Tens, a production company with deep roots at Kennedy Space Center, he works alongside leading aerospace companies to capture the stories reshaping our future. With rare access, field-tested instincts, and a gift for emotionally rich storytelling, Jonathan is drawn to moments where human ambition meets the edge of possibility.

Adam is an independent Director of Photography in Brooklyn. He's usually working for OceanX filming wildlife and science on a research vessel.

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 several 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 over 25 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 & 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.