Meet the 2025 IRMA Awards Jury

Alan J. Bartels is a writer, photographer, gardener, student of nature, father, chronic volunteer, and wanderer. His work has appeared in the Smithsonian Institution’s Air & Space Magazine, USA Today, and dozens of other local, state, and national publications.

Dawnya Bartsch is the editor of Kansas City magazine.

Huck Beard is Creative Director at Pittsburgh Magazine, as well as an accomplished fine-art photographer and creative writer.

As Editor and Publisher, Jocelyn Bell leads the team at Broadview. In 2020, Bell was awarded the Editor’s Grand Prix from the National Magazine Awards.

Al Bonowitz edits the Northern New England and Hawai‘i regional sections of AAA Explorer, the Automobile Club of Southern California’s publication for members of clubs it owns throughout the United States.

Harriet Brown is a professor of magazine, news & digital journalism at the Newhouse School at Syracuse University, where she directs the MND graduate program.

Melissa Chessher possesses more than 20 years of experience in the magazine field as both a writer and an editor. In 2022 she joined Southern Methodist University as the Belo Foundation Endowed Distinguished Chair in Journalism, and before that, she served as a chair, professor and interim associate dean at Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications.

Faith Cochran is a creative director and visual communicator based in Toronto, Ontario.

Joanna Cummings is the editorial director of The Grub Street Journal, the magazine for magazine people.

Originally from Cincinnati, Ohio and a graduate of Kent State University’s School of Visual Communication Design program, Emma moved to Little Rock, Arkansas and served as Creative Director for Arkansas Life magazine and helped guide the magazine’s well-received redesign. She is now Art Director for Little Rock Soirée magazine, a monthly city publication from Arkansas Business Publishing Group, which specializes in crafting stories about nonprofits in the Central Arkansas area. Emma has 9 years of art direction experience in magazine and printed publication design.

Mike Fricano spent 10 years teaching personal essay writing and journalism to high school students in Los Angeles County as an editor at L.A. Youth, the country’s largest independent teen journalism project. After it was forced to close he spent 10 years editing editing and writing for UCLA, including leading owned media storytelling during the pandemic and two years overseeing UCLA Magazine.

David Halloran is the creative director for Midwest Luxury Publishing, as well as doing freelance designer, photography and writing.

Nicola Hamilton RGD (she/her) is an award-winning editorial designer based in Toronto, Canada, and owner of Issues Magazine Shop, a bricks-and-mortar magazine retailer with a mandate to celebrate the people and projects keeping print alive.

Joshua Hardin has dedicated his life to looking for the best light to photograph the world’s peaks and plains; forests and deserts; rivers and coasts.

Jordan P. Hickey is a Northwest Arkansas-based freelance writer and editor with work in the Washington Post, Garden & Gun, VQR, Southern Foodways Alliance, Investigate Midwest, Southern Living, among many others.

Meredith Holigroski is a designer and art director based in Toronto, Ontario.

Jesse Hyde is a journalist based in Salt Lake City, and the editor of Deseret Magazine.

Brian Kevin is a features editor at National Geographic, a founding editor of Wildsam, and the former editor in chief of Down East.

Evaan Kheraj is a New York-based photographer & director whose love for documenting spans decades and genres.

Kim Larson is an editorial art director and designer who has created many award-winning magazines, including Eighteen Bridges, Avenue Edmonton, Alberta Venture, and Edify magazine. She is available for magazine design and redesign services.

Spanning two decades, Amélie’s BA in Graphic Communications has led her from design agency and newspaper management roles, to orchestrating detailed photo shoots and design projects for a range of private, government, corporate and media clients. Also a doyenne of magazine creative direction, Amélie has designed publications like Flavours, Wishes and Right Sizing, and curates four titles for Mountain Life Media, with whom she has worked for 20 years. She is also the art director and designer of SCOREGolf Magazine.

Erica Lenti is a Toronto writer and editor. She is currently deputy editor, features at Chatelaine.

Sharon McAuley is a turnaround specialist, helping her clients transform their businesses to meet the challenges and opportunities of a changing world. She honed her expertise over 20+ years in senior management positions with some of the country’s largest publishing companies. She has served as Publisher of a variety of magazines and digital media, including Toronto Life, Saturday Night, Quill & Quire, Ottawa Magazine, and Where Canada (St. Joseph Media), as well as Investment Executive, Finance et Investissement, and IE: Money (TC Media.)

Jessica McKenzie is an associate editor at the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, where she writes and edits stories about climate change and the environment. Her work has been published in The New York Times, National Geographic, Audubon Magazine, Backpacker, Adirondack Life, and Grist. In 2021, Outside Magazine named her monthly newsletter, Pinch of Dirt, one of the “Best Outdoorsy Email Newsletters.”

Tina Anson Mine is the senior copywriter at Blue Ant Media. She was an editor for 15 years at Canadian Living before launching a freelance career as a cookbook editor, copy editor, writer and content agency jack-of-all-trades. She loves a well-placed semicolon and is learning to tolerate the Oxford comma.

Jacquie Moore is the senior editor of the University of Calgary's arch magazine, and a freelance writer based in Calgary, Alberta.

Robert Newman is the former design director of New York, Details, Fortune, The Village Voice, Entertainment Weekly, and Vibe, and the former creative director of Real Simple, Reader's Digest, and This Old House magazines. As a consulting creative director he helped shaped the visual direction of print and digital projects for AARP, Cottage Living, Fast Company, Inc., AAA, TV Guide, and numerous other brands. He was also the editor of The Rocket, a music and culture magazine based in Seattle

Ryan Rich is a graphic designer and art director originally from St. Louis, Missouri. He is an art director at Richmond Magazine and most previously served as the art director of Virginia Living, the Commonwealth's most widely-read lifestyle magazine. He is an avid foodie and aspiring starving artist. He lives in beautiful Richmond, Virginia with his two girls, Julia and Kiwi.

Danielle Sayer is a Montréal-based art director with over 15 years of experience in the magazine industry, working on both English and French titles. She is currently the art director at Québec Science magazine and has previously worked on Reader’s Digest Canada, Sélection, and the indie publication Worn Fashion Journal.

Kymberly Taylor founded Annapolis Home Magazine thirteen years ago. In addition to editing the magazine she publishes a regular column in Annapolis Home called The High Heeled Gardener. Prior to founding Annapolis Home, she was the Home & Garden Editor for What's Up Annapolis Magazine, Regional Editor of Solutions at Home Magazine and Assistant Editor of Chesapeake Home Magazine. She has a journalism degree from Boston University and an MFA from Columbia University, and participates in many writing events and conferences. She recently edited the book Garden Like a Shaman by Oso Blanco. Her poems have appeared in journals that include New American Writing, Boston Review, Seneca Review, Hawaii Review and Notre Dame Review. Find her at www.annapolishomemag.com, on Instagram @highheeledgardener and @annapolishomemagazine, and on Facebook.

Paige specializes in many creative disciplines - from room set, product and wardrobe styling to photography, visual art, graphic design and art direction. Paige’s 12+ year styling career saw her working with many major brands, including Holt Renfrew, Loblaws, Rexall, HBC, Canadian Tire, Fashion Magazine, Chatelaine, Shopper’s Drug Mart, Walmart, LCBO. With over two-decades of experience in graphic design, Paige’s résumé spans multiple avenues made up of publishing, corporate design, advertising and more. She has been art director on numerous Canadian publications, has won awards for her work and is a total nerd for infographics. Her creative projects include designing album artwork for numerous singles on a large Canadian music project and is venturing further into photography, developing a solid body of work in portraits, interiors, and events.

Lisa Whittington-Hill is the publisher of This Magazine. Her writing has appeared in Longreads, The Globe and Mail, The Walrus, Hazlitt, Catapult, and more. She was nominated for a National Magazine Award in 2022. She is the author of a book in Bloomsbury’s 33 1/3 music series on Beauty and the Beat by The Go-Go’s and Girls, Interrupted, her collection of essays on how pop culture is failing women, was published by Vehicule Press in 2023. She teaches in the publishing program at Centennial College in Toronto.

Kyle Wyatt is the editor-in-chief and executive director of the Literary Review of Canada. He holds a Ph.D. in English Literature from the University of Toronto.

Emma Young is Art Director of Martha’s Vineyard Magazine, published seven times annually by the Vineyard Gazette Media Group.