JUANA ARIAS, staff photographer, The Washington Post
Arias has covered both National and International news at the Washington
Post for the past 6 years. She recently received several Awards of Excellence
for her portfolio and photo essays in this year's POY Competition. Arias
worked at the Philadelphia Daily News before joining the Post, but her
very first beat was in Central America where she covered wars, disasters
and other news for both agencies and wire services.
Carlin is the Visuals Editor for the Oregonian's Homes & Gardens magazine. She has worked as a photographer, designer, director of photo & design, news, copy, photo, and religion editor at The Albuquerque Tribune, The Hattiesburg American, The Coffeyville Journal, The Allentown Morning Call, The Hartford Courant and The Stamford Advocate & Greenwich Time. A member of the Stan Kalish Picture Editing faculty, Carlin has judged the Society of Newspaper Design awards contest and many photo contests. She has won SND design awards, NPPA and state photo awards, and POY editing awards.
Born and raised in Wichita, Kan., Dorow has been a photographer since he first saw the work of fellow Wichitan W. Eugene Smith. He has worked for newspapers in Jacksonville, Fla., and Tucson, Ariz., worked as a photo editor for the New York Times Magazine, and taught as a visiting professor at RIT. In 1995 he began the internet design firm Tango Interactive. He is currently the co-publisher of Journal E, an on-line magazine featuring extended photo essays in multimedia format. Journal E has received 1st and 2nd place awards in POY's interactive category and has also received awards from Communication Arts and Project Cool.
Plonka began his career at his hometown paper, the New Castle News. He has worked for AP, The Lancaster New-Era, The Beaver County Times, The Journal Tribune, The Herald-News, Copley Chicago Newspapers and is currently a staff photographer at The Spokesman-Review in Spokane, Wash. Plonka has been named Photographer of the Year 7 times in local, state and regional contests and has won 13 awards in the past 9 years in POY. He was a faculty member on the 1998 Flying Short Course. Plonka's wife, Kathy, is also a staff photographer at The Spokesman-Review. They have a 2-month-old son, Jordan.