Bill Bangham
Bill Bangham is a photojournalist and writer with the International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention in Richmond, Va. He serves as the IMB's director of editorial and photography and as the international bureau chief for Baptist Press. Previously, he was editor in chief of the Commission magazine. He has received major awards in writing, photography and design in both secular and religious competitions, including the University of Missouri International Pictures of the Year competition and the National Press Photographers Association Best of Photojournalism competition. Bangham also is a founder of the American Belarussian Relief Organization, a non-profit agency that assists children exposed to radiation from the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.
Michael D. Chute
Michael D. Chute, professor of communication arts at Union University, has 35 years of teaching and professional experience in journalism, public relations and intercultural communication. He has been a reporter, newspaper editor and foreign correspondent. For 10 years, he lived overseas and worked in more than 30 countries in Asia and South America for U.S. wire services and publications, taught journalism courses at national universities and led writing workshops and conferences. He holds a B.A. in journalism from Oklahoma Baptist University, an M.A. in communication from Missouri State University and a Ph.D. in mass communication from the University of Southern Mississippi.
Gary Fong
Gary Fong most recently was the director of editorial graphics technology at the San Francisco Chronicle. Fong is the principal of Genesis Photo Agency, a group of professional photographers with a dream of elevating the effectiveness of photography in evangelical publications around the world. Fong joined the San Francisco Chronicle in 1975 as a staff photographer, and some of his work has included the 1989 earthquake in San Francisco, the St. Helens Volcano eruption in Washington state, Pope John Paul II's visit to San Francisco in 1988 and the Democratic National Convention in 1984. Fong was a juror for the Pulitzer Prize and has won numerous photography awards.
Joni Hannigan
Since 2002, Joni B. Hannigan has been managing editor of the weekly Florida Baptist Witness newspaper, a news partner of Baptist Press, for which she has been a national correspondent and column writer. At the Witness, Joni covered the Terri Schiavo case up close from Pinellas Park, Fla., and led coverage of in-depth news writing and photography during Florida's historic 2004-2005 hurricane seasons. In addition, she also covered humanitarian efforts for Iraqi refugees living in Jordan in 2003 and in 2005 traveled to Brazil to cover mission efforts among the Indigenous peoples and those living in remote villages along the Amazon River and its tributaries. A U.S. Navy veteran, Hannigan has written scores of news and feature stories as a freelancer and is an adjunct professor at the University of North Florida. She has taught high school English, journalism and public relations, leading students to produce award-winning newspapers. Interns under her supervision have covered aspects of political elections, the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City and Super Bowls in Jacksonville and Tampa. She has a master's degree in education from Park University in Parkville, Mo., and a bachelor's in education from Hannibal-LaGrange College in Missouri, where she now serves as a trustee. She and her husband, John, have two adult children, a grandson, Joey (3), and a granddaughter, Madelyn (1). Joni is the co-founder of the Baptist Press Excellence in Journalism contest and has been the contest coordinator since 2000. Oh, and you can find her on Facebook and Twitter!
Jennifer Davis Rash
Jennifer Davis Rash is managing editor of The Alabama Baptist newspaper since 1996. She is an honors graduate from The University of Alabama with a bachelor' degree in journalism (1993). She earned a master's of theological studies from Beeson Divinity School at Samford University in Birmingham in 2007. A member of several national press associations, Rash has earned numerous national news writing, feature writing and broadcast awards. She is currently president of Baptist Communicators Association.
Jim Veneman
The director of visual communication at Union University in Jackson, Tenn., Veneman has been involved with photojournalism since joining his high school publications staff. Before arriving at Union he was a photojournalist for LifeWay Christian Resources in Nashville. He leads workshops on photojournalism and directs news-photo operations across the country and internationally, and he continues to shoot assignments, most recently covering the U.S. efforts in Iraq. While at Union, Veneman has covered the days immediately following 9/11, meetings with Fidel Castro and other assignments in Asia, Australia and Kenya. Each spring, he assists in the direction of the Southwestern Photojournalism Conference in Fort Worth, Texas.
