Keynote Speakers
Known in the industry by her first name only, Elsa has the distinct honor of being the first woman staff photographer at Getty Images. Famous for capturing defining moments, Elsa brings her vision to collegiate and professional sporting events all over
the globe – including some of the most preeminent events, such as the Olympics, World Series, Super Bowl, NBA Finals, US Open, FIFA Men’s and Women’s World Cup, and Men’s and Women’s NCAA Final Four.
After nearly three decades in the industry, Elsa’s genuine passion for bearing witness to some of the greatest moments in sports remains as potent as ever, whether during the regular season or the Finals. Still reveling in her dream job, she approaches each assignment with creativity, compassion, and confidence, always searching for pinnacle moments of athleticism, beauty, and emotion to share with the world.
Dr. Zun Lee is a physician, educator and visual storyteller. He is a 2020 Guggenheim Fellow and currently a Visiting Professor at the University of Alabama College of Communication & Information Studies, where he is also the Inaugural Artist Laureate in Residence at the Holle Center for Communications Arts.
After two decades as a corporate executive, Lee began his visual arts endeavors in street photography but is arguably best-known for his multi-year documentary projects of Black fatherhood and everyday family life. Lee’s work has expanded into writing, placekeeping, performance and other multidisciplinary collaborations. As a cultural entrepreneur, he works with community and academic institutions on sustainable initiatives that use creativity and visual storytelling for increased social impact.
Lee has exhibited, spoken and taught at numerous academic and art institutions in North America and Europe. He’s been a juror for several international photography awards, including the Diversify Photo x Pulitzer Center Photo Grant, Women Photograph Getty Images Grant, NPPF Michel du Cille Fellowship, The Burtynsky Photobook Grant, Pictures of the Year International, and Alexia Foundation Grants for Documentary Photography. His works are widely published and represented in public and private collections around the world, including the Art Gallery of Ontario, the Smithsonian, the Portland Art Museum, and many others. Lee is a member of the Board of Trustees at the Art Gallery of Ontario, one of the largest art museums in North America.
A former staff photographer for the Los Angeles Times, Jay Clendenin’s work blends the honesty of journalism with a cinematic eye for portraiture. Known for his animated, encouraging presence on set, he brings out the best in everyone around him — from film crews and athletes to A-list talent and everyday people with stories to tell.
For Jay, photography isn’t just work — it’s life. Since high school, he’s had a camera in his hand and with a curiosity about how images connect people, he’s passionate about documenting life around him. His career has taken him from newsrooms to the White House and Air Force One, to red carpets and film sets, directing portraits and campaigns for well-known business clients, as well as major film studios including Warner Bros., Disney, Amazon MGM Studios, and Universal.
Starting portrait studios at Sundance, Comic-Con and the Toronto International Film Festival for the L.A. Times, Jay collaborated closely with business and marketing teams to shape creative strategies and visual direction. He’s as comfortable behind the camera as he is leading a team where he combines instinct and adaptability with a sharp sense of humor under pressure.
From George Clooney’s driveway to championship sidelines, Jay’s focus has always been the same: find the image that tells the story.
Breakout Session Speakers
Maria Awes is co-owner and Executive Vice President of Committee Films, Inc., a television production company based in Minneapolis. With a background in investigative journalism honed at both the ABC and CBS affiliates in the Twin Cities market, Maria has grown her passion for true crime storytelling over the past twenty years while overseeing multiple ABC News 20/20 specials, executive producing series such as ID’s Serial Killer: Devil Unchained, Fox Nation’s Killer Next Door, the CW’s Hostage Rescue and ABC News Studios’ Me Hereafter, which premiered on Hulu and was chosen as the Outstanding Episodic Series of the Year at the 2025 CLUE Awards. Her most recent projects include Her Last Broadcast: The Abduction of Jodi Huisentruit and Ruby Red Handed: Stealing America’s Most Famous Pair of Shoes, available for streaming on Hulu. In addition to her work in this genre, Maria has also been the executive producer, of numerous other series and specials for networks including History, HGTV, and MSNBC. Committee Films was founded in 2006 by Maria’s husband, Andy Awes, who today is President of the company and also oversees the company’s slate of projects.
Kat Dalager‘s diverse professional journey has spanned several decades and has encompassed numerous advertising agencies and in-house agencies, including Carmichael Lynch, Campbell Mithun/McCann, The Martin Agency, Target Corporation, Best Buy, General Mills and Life Time Fitness. She’s held leadership roles in art, video and print production, including creative services buying, project management, process improvement and creative operations. An American Advertising Federation past president and a board member of ASMP-MSP, Kat is passionate about giving back to both students and professionals in the marketing community and strives to provide insights and opportunities to those trying to navigate this fascinating, but ever-changing, industry.
Carly Danek is a Minneapolis freelance photographer and video creator with a long history in local news. She was a TV news photographer for 17 years at stations across the country including WCCO and KARE. After a stint making videos in the corporate world, she now makes photo and video content for Minnesota Public Radio, Grand Casino Arena, Americorps, and various local businesses and nonprofits.
This winter she spent a month rafting the Colorado river through the Grand Canyon and she will tell you all about it if you ask.
Mike Davis is a visual storytelling consultant, editor, educator and author. His first authored book, about visual storytelling, came out in 2022. Mike directed The Alexia Grants for eight years while holding a chaired faculty position at Syracuse University.
Before teaching, he was a visual leader at National Geographic, The White House and five visually strong U.S. newspapers. Mike was twice named picture editor of the year, as were several of those who worked for him. He has edited more than 40 photo books and hundreds of projects of note, taught and lectured in various settings. He hails from a small town in Nebraska and now lives in Minneapolis.
Peter DiCampo is a Visuals Editor at ProPublica, where he works primarily on stories in their Local Reporting Network in partnership with newsrooms across the country. His visual editing and art direction have been awarded by the National Press Photographers Association, the Society for News Design, The Society of Publication Designers and the Online Journalism Awards.
Prior to joining ProPublica, DiCampo was the international visual editor at NPR. Before turning to editing, he worked for more than a decade as a freelance photojournalist, primarily in sub-Saharan Africa, with publications in National Geographic, The New York Times, Time and many more. DiCampo is also a co-founder of Everyday Africa, a collective of photographers using social media to broaden coverage of Africa beyond the headlines, and The Everyday Projects, a global community of photographers and visual literacy nonprofit. He was a 2019 John S. Knight Journalism Fellow at Stanford University, and he is the recipient of grants and awards from Brown Institute for Media Innovation, Code for Africa, Magnum Foundation, Open Society Foundations, PhotoWings, Pictures of the Year International and the Pulitzer Center, among others. He is a co-author of the photo book “Everyday Africa: 30 Photographers Re-Picturing a Continent” and the graphic novel “Flying Kites: A Story of the 2013 California Prison Hunger Strike.” DiCampo holds a B.S. in journalism from Boston University and was a Peace Corps volunteer in Ghana.
Coburn Dukehart is the Managing Editor of the CatchLight Local program — an initiative to reinvigorate visual journalism in local news. Dukehart has spent more than 20 years as a visual strategist, previously as the associate director of the non-profit newsroom Wisconsin Watch, and as a visual editor at national websites including NPR and National Geographic. Dukehart has an MA in photojournalism from the University of Missouri, and was a member of the 2024 cohort of the Executive Program in News Leadership at CUNY.
In her downtime, she does yoga, brews kombucha and has a complicated relationship with a VW Eurovan. She lives in Madison, Wisconsin with her family but is always happy to travel.
Hannah Foslien is a Washington, D.C.–based photographer and photo editor. She spent 15 years in Minneapolis as a freelance photographer. In 2021, Foslien joined the White House Photo Office as a Lead Photo Editor and Photographer, where she helped oversee the editing and release of images documenting the Biden Administration while gaining a wide range of professional experiences. Since leaving the White House, she has returned to freelance work with a renewed focus on sports.
Drawing from time spent on both sides of the workflow, Foslien brings a unique perspective to the collaboration between photographers and editors. She focuses on the pressures and priorities each role faces — and how understanding how both sides work in tandem can lead to stronger visual storytelling.
Nick Henry has supported photographers nationwide since 2008. As part of Roberts Camera Pro Sales Team he brings a careful ear to customer needs and loves solving problems. He most enjoys visiting with people about their work, handing expensive cameras to his sibling’s kids, and taking half-frame diptychs with his Olympus Pen.
He travels to conferences around the country supporting photojournalists and photographers.
Throughout his 50-year career, Dave LaBelle has been a photographer, editor, teacher, author and lecturer. After beginning at the Ventura County (California) Star-Free Press as a weekend sports shooter and l ab man while still in high school in 1969, LaBelle has worked for 20 newspapers and magazines in nine states, including the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, where he was assistant manager editor for photography.
LaBelle’s love for feature photography and his ability to hunt out feature ideas has helped him win numerous awards. At age 19, he was NPPA Region 10 Photographer of the Year, an honor he repeated the next two years. In 1991, NPPA honored LaBelle with the Robin F. Garland Award for photojournalism education. And in 2002, the Photographic Society of America Inc. honored LaBelle with the International Understanding Through Photography award.
LaBelle has also taught photojournalism at Western Kentucky University, the University of Kentucky and directed the photojournalism sequence at Kent State University in Kent, Ohio from 2010-2016. LaBelle’s latest book, and first novel based on the disappearance of his mother in the 1969 flood was published in March 2019. He is now a reporter/photographer at the Dyersville Commercial, a weekly newspaper in northeast Iowa. In his words, “My life’s mission is to use the gifts God has blessed me with to be a blessing on others in any way I can.”
Regina McCombs teaches visual journalism at the University of Minnesota, where she was honored with the 2022 Cox Innovation Award in part for her work creating the “Documenting a Reckoning: The Murder of George Floyd” photo exhibit. In addition, she is an associate director at the Minnesota Journalism Center, focusing on supporting Minnesota journalists. She has also been a freelance photo editor for the International Women’s Media Foundation. Previously, she was the Senior Editor for Visual News at MPR News, leading the video and photography team. She taught multimedia, mobile and video journalism at the Poynter Institute, was senior producer for multimedia at the Star Tribune and a photographer and field producer at KARE-TV in Minneapolis. Her awards include Best of Photojournalism and POYi awards for multimedia storytelling, three Emmys for her video and multimedia work, and an Eppy for MPR photography.
Andrea Ellen Reed is a multimedia artist who specializes in still photography, film directing, and soundscapes. Her work seeks to advance the multifaceted narratives that make the vibrant and resilient African American community thrive. Andrea began shooting street photography during her undergraduate studies at Howard University. She continued her artistic studies at the Academy of Art University, where she received her MFA in Photography. Her unique vision for combining photographic stills and soundscapes in projects like The Streets Are Talkin’ blends a traditional medium with first-person narratives that result in a poignant and reflective exploration of the fight for racial equity. Andrea’s soulful storytelling is even more apparent in her delicately crafted film narratives. Her critically acclaimed experimental film, Unsighted, was shown internationally in Italy and Germany and is now in the permanent collection at the South Bend Museum of Art. Her recent branding film, Radical Resilience for Penumbra Center for Racial Healing, was awarded a Silver Telly Award in 2025. Andrea’s film work has been exhibited both nationally and internationally and has been awarded the Tim Hetherington Visionary Award for excellence in film.
Andrea’s work in commercial photography has championed the voices of marginalized communities in publications and organizations like Time Magazine, CNN, National Geographic, New York Times, Vanity Fair, Star Tribune, ESPN and more.