FINAL ROUND JUDGES
Sasha Aslanian is senior producer for American RadioWorks, the documentary unit of American Public Media, based in St. Paul, Minnesota. She's produced historical, investigative and narrative documentaries broadcast by APM, NPR, PRI, the CBC and the BBC. Last year, her ShortDoc Til Death Do Us Part was chosen as a finalist in the Third Coast International Audio Festival's "99 Ways to Tell a Story" project.
Peter Clowney became Executive Producer of Weekend America in 2006, after two years editing the NY bureau for Marketplace. Before that he edited Studio 360, reported on the arts at WHYY and produced at This American Life. Clowney fell in love with radio cutting tape at Fresh Air. He’s also made radio documentaries in South Africa and Macedonia, won two Peabody Awards and been a fellow with the National Arts Journalism Program. Clowney lives in St. Paul with his wife Julia and their kids Owen and Tadelech.
Ann Heppermann is one half of a New York City production duo with independent producer Kara Oehler. Their work has aired on NPR, PRI, APM, BBC, CBC and at sound festivals worldwide. They have received honors from RTNDA, NFCB, PRNDI, AP, Peabody Awards and the Third Coast Festival. Heppermann is also adjunct faculty at Brooklyn College where she teaches audio documentary. There, she developed CUNY's first radio workshop with NPR's Next Generation Project. But perhaps most notably, Heppermann has attended every TCF Conference since 2001.
Kari Hesthamar has worked for the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation, NRK radio and television, since 1996 and in the NRK feature department since 1999; she has also worked for different newspapers for shorter periods. Hesthamar often presents workshops around Norway and Europe and has won numerous major awards for her work, including the Prix Europa (1999, 2004 and 2006) and the Prix Italia (2003). She has been a member of the EBU (European Broadcasting Union) Project Group since 2003.
Pejk Malinovski is a writer and a radio producer. He has produced long-format radio documentaries, cultural reporting and radio art for the National Danish Radio, BBC’s Radio 4 and Australian Broadcast Corporation. He created radio dramas, real and fake documentaries and other radio-ocities with WNYC’s The Next Big Thing and is currently an associate producer with PRI’s Studio 360.
As Executive Producer of All Things Considered, Chris Turpin manages the two-hour weekday broadcast of NPR News’ longest-running newsmagazine, which is heard by 11.5 million people weekly. Turpin has overseen ATC’s coverage of 9/11, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as Hurricane Katrina. He’s also worked extensively with the many independent producers who contribute to All Things Considered. Originally from England, Turpin became interested in radio during graduate school in the U-S, volunteering at his local public and community stations.
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FIRST ROUND JUDGES
Elizabeth Coffman is a documentary filmmaker, media studies scholar and Chair of the Communication Department at Loyola University Chicago. Her last feature documentary, One More Mile: A Dialogue on Nation Building (2002), co-directed with Ted Hardin, addressed the aftermath of the Balkan Wars and the role of the international community. Coffman has also displayed short film and video installation work in galleries and museums. She recently served on the short film jury for the 2007 Chicago International Documentary Festival.
Lloyd Brodnax King studied jazz improvisation with James Moody and composition with Stan Charkey. He has received an NEA Fellowship in Jazz, an Illinois Arts Council Fellowship in Composition and a Jeff award for his score to Chicago Shakespeare Theater's production of Macbeth. Currently, King produces The Obscure News podcast. He performs regularly with the Other Brothers, with the Chicago Jazz Composers Collective at the Green Mill and with the worldbeat ensemble, Funkadesi. He also teaches at the ACM Chicago Arts Program.
Leah Guenther currently develops grammar curriculum for The Academic Approach, a one-on-one tutoring firm. She is the founding Executive Director of 826CHI, a non-profit writing lab and tutoring center for students ages 6-18. Leah also holds a Ph.D. in English Literature from Northwestern University.
Ashley Gross is a producer for Chicago Public Radio’s morning newsmagazine show, Eight Forty-Eight. Before that, she worked as a reporter for the Alaska Public Radio Network in Anchorage. Her favorite part of that job was getting out of the city and into the countryside – in spite of the harrowing bush plane rides and the occasional trip over half-melted rivers on snowmachine. Her stories have aired on NPR, The World, Weekend America and Voice of America.
Bill Poorman is a freelance journalist living in Naperville, Ill. He moved to the Chicago area in 2006. Before that, Bill worked at Michigan Public Media, the public radio and TV service of University of Michigan. Bill has worked as a reporter, writer, producer, news director and on-air host. He won numerous statewide awards in Michigan, and his work has appeared on NPR's Morning Edition and All Things Considered, Marketplace, Chicago Public Radio, and the BBC.
Edie Rubinowitz is an assistant professor in Northeastern Illinois University’s Department of Communication, Media and Theatre. She was a news reporter with Chicago Public Radio from 1992 – 2001 and also did a stint producing and guest hosting Worldview with Jerome McDonnell. Rubinowitz has received several awards and fellowships including the International Reporting Project and the Rosalyn Carter Mental Health Fellowship, both of which are frequented by many fine NPR types. She is currently a consultant to :Vocalo.org.
Megan Stielstra is the Director of Story Development for 2nd Story, Chicago’s monthly urban storytelling series, and has performed for the Chicago Poetry Center’s No Love For Love featuring Ira Glass, Storyweek Festival of Writers, The Dollar Store and 2nd Story, among others. Stielstra's work has appeared recently or forthcoming in Other Voices, Swink and Punk Planet, as well as Chicago Public Radio’s Writer’s Block Party. She teaches creative writing at Columbia College and The University of Chicago.
Kathe Telingator founded Stories on Stage, Chicago's only live dramatic short story reading series in 1992 as an independent not-for-profit organization.Shepartnered with Chicago Public Radio to air the series beginning that same year. In1997, SOS became a production of Chicago Public Radio for both its live and broadcast series. Since its inception, Telingator has produced more than125 live performances and130 broadcasts. Prior to launching Stories on Stage, she was a literary/theatrical agent in New York.In the fall, she will teach ArtsEntrepreneurship at Columbia College, Chicago.
Debra Tolchinsky is a media artist with interests in video installation and documentary filmmaking. Her work has shown in such venues as The Chicago Cultural Center, Orlando's iDMA iDEAs Festival, Sundance, Washington D.C.'s Kennedy Center, London's Horse Hospital, and Croxhapox Gallery in Ghent, Belgium. Currently, she is co-curating an exhibit on horror and co-directing a documentary on college debate. Tolchinsky is also an assistant professor of Radio-TV-Film at Northwestern University.
Three years ago, Sam Van Hallgren quit his corporate job and took an unpaid internship at Chicago Public Radio. Somehow, that internship turned into a six-month stint as production manager for This American Life, the very show that had inspired Van Hallgren to get into radio in the first place. Currently, he's the producer and production manager for 88Nine RadioMilwaukee and the co-host of Filmpsotting, a popular film review podcast which can also be heard monthly on Chicago Public Radio.
Andrew White is a founding member of Lookingglass Theatre Company, and has appeared in more than twenty LTC productions, most recently in The Wooden Breeks. He has also appeared in productions at Northlight, Steppenwolf, the Goodman, and Victory Gardens. He is on the Artistic Council with the Chicago Children’ s Theatre, for whom he recently directed the current production of Go, Dog. Go! He has taught Acting as an Adjunct Faculty member at Northwestern University, as well as in various Lookingglass Outreach programs.
David Wilcox is a lifelong Texan who moved to Chicago in 2005. His first-ever radio story, about his dying mother's last gift to his mentally retarded sister, was included on the most recent This American Life greatest hits collection, Stories of Hope and Fear. Currently an editor at the Chicago Reader, he's nearing completion on a top-secret and totally kick-ass television pilot script with author and radio producer Hillary Frank.
David Wilson is co-director of the True/False Film Festival. He co-founded the Ragtag Film Society in 1997 and is currently a programmer for the Ragtag Cinemacafé, an independent movie theater. A 1996 graduate of Hampshire College, Wilson has made several original short films, which have been shown internationally. He is the founder of the Columbia Media Resource Alliance (CMRA), and also serves on the Funding Advisory Panel to the Missouri Arts Council for Visual Arts and Electronic Media.
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