Biography - Daniel Kariko is an Associate Professor of Photography and an Interim Assistant Director of the School of Art and Design at East Carolina University, in Greenville, North Carolina.

Originally from Yugoslavia, Kariko received his undergraduate degree at Nicholls State University in Thibodaux, Louisiana, and his Masters of Fine Arts from Arizona State University in Tempe. From 2002 until 2010 he was a faculty at Florida State University.

Kariko's images investigate environmental and political aspects of landscape, land use, and cultural interpretation of inhabited space. He worked on several projects in his homeland of Serbia, recording the aftermath of the war in Balkans. Kariko's current projects include documentation of the endangered wetlands of South Louisiana, land development in central Florida, and in collaboration with an entomologist, microscopic portraits of common household pests.

Statement - As many of us, I attended my first SPE conference as a student, encouraged by a professor. My involvement with SPE started in earnest a few years later, while co-chairing the regional conference in Tallahassee in 2005, and continued with my service as a Treasurer, Secretary, and Southeast Regional Chair.

I dedicated my career to teaching photography as a fine art and cross-disciplinary practice. I feel that some of my best educational and professional practices stem from my experience with SPE, and it's fostered community of artists, colleagues, and mentors. I continue to complete the circle by encouraging my own students to attend our conferences and take part in what is one of the most fulfilling professional relationships in my life.

I hope that I can continue to serve the Society on a national level by developing mentoring programs for emerging photography educators, expanding international connections, and using my experience as an administrator to further SPE's educational mission.

Biography - Joe Lavine is an author, educator, and photographer based in Colorado. Education has always been important to Joe; he holds an undergraduate degree from Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo, California, and a master's degree from Savannah College of Art and Design.  With twenty-plus years working in higher education, Joe has held positions as faculty, curriculum coordinator, and assistant director.

As an award winning commercial photographer, Joe has been fortunate to be able to blend his passion for food with his love of lighting and photography.  Some of his clients include, Coors, General Mills, Betty Crocker, Pillsbury, Nature Valley, and Kelloggs. Along with his commercial work, Joe is the Manager of Educational Services for Profoto US where he works with universities, departments, faculty, and students on taking their programs and work to a higher level.

In 2013, Joe co-authored the book Light Right:  Learn How to Create Images, Set Up a Studio, and Launch Your Career, and since has co-authored two e-books, and a video series on lighting fundamentals.  Joe can also be heard lecturing at ASMP events, SPE conferences, PhotoPlus and universities across the country.

Statement - SPE's recent call to action email highlights the importance of a strong relationship between the organization, educational institutes, and industry.  Being an author, educator, and photographer gives Joe a comprehensive perspective on today's changing photographic and educational environment. Joe is motivated by progress. Serving on SPE's Board of Directors provides an opportunity to help lead the premier organization that serves two of Joe's strongest passions, photography and education.

Biography - Anne Massoni, is the Program Director of Photography at The University of the Arts, Philadelphia. She has held positions at Marshall University, Cornell University, Tyler School of Art, Washington College, Memphis College of Art, and Monmouth University. Massoni received her MFA in Photography from Ohio University and BAs in Photography and Anthropology from Connecticut College. Her photography relates to both real and fabricated memories, identities, and heritage. Her work has been exhibited and published internationally. She is co-editor with Marni Shindelman of the forthcoming book Constructed: The Contemporary History of the Constructed Image in Photography Since 1990.

Statement - I eagerly await SPE's annual conference, with the opportunity to gather, to learn, to engage; to participate in this network of friends, mentors, and colleagues; to be a part of an organization and its people that gives generously to the world of photography and education. A member of SPE for 17 years, I currently serve on the board as your Vice-Chair. My involvement began by volunteering as a student and has included chairing chapter conferences, serving in chapter and board leadership, as-well-as sitting on numerous committees. Recently, it's included chairing the 2018 conference in Philadelphia.

We live in uncertain times and I'm committed to seeing SPE through this phase in our history. Over the last four years I have dedicated myself to the business of SPE, including chapter autonomy, best practices, expanding our "borders" to include our international community, the necessary re-write of our by-laws, revisiting our conference model to be more inclusive and engaging, and so much more. I have volunteered my time, my energies, and my heart to SPE because I believe we are better makers and educators for being involved in its mission. I would like to serve a second term – to continue the work of our great organization and its future.

Rebecca Nolan grew up in a small rural community in southeastern Wisconsin. She received an undergraduate degree from the University of Wisconsin, Green Bay and an MFA from the University of Oregon, Eugene. She is the current photography department chair at Savannah College of Art and Design, where she has been teaching for the past 12 years. Nolan has also taught at the University of Kentucky, Lexington and Washington University in St. Louis. Influenced by her travels throughout America, Nolan's work deals with the ideas of place, culture, and the environment and how these constructs influence the people who create them. The photographs often address the relationship a community or an individual has with the environment. She is interested in how the individuals that make up a community shape an environment and how that community and the environment shape the individual.

Biography - As a member of SPE, I served as treasurer for single terms in SPENW and SPESC and two terms as chair for SPESC. My tenure with SPE has provided me the opportunity to serve as a co-chair for two SPESC conferences and as a consultant for the 2017 conference. Additionally, my experience serving on university committees and councils, allows me to offer significant experience with governance, administration, and leadership. Planning conferences gave me additional experience with identifying and securing funding to support the goals of the conference programs through direct donations and grant sources. I am currently an Associate Professor at the University of Texas at San Antonio.

Statement - I see photographic education as having an ever-shifting foundation that is continually challenged by academic institutions and the general political climate.

My academic pursuits have given me a wide variety of experience including development of curriculum and pedagogy, curation, the development of two international courses in photography and time based arts, and research in historic and contemporary cultural theory support these pursuits.

As a member of the SPE board, I would like to participate in fostering a functional relationship between the academic membership and the vendors and resources we rely so heavily on. I see the engagement of students as an important aspect of what we do as a society, and would also like to see an expansion of professional level members to include academic institutions that have been underrepresented in the past. I would like to be a part of finding a solution to restoring financial stability for this institution. The new direction SPE is taking with planning conferences is intriguing and I look forward to being a part of the conversation of what SPE can do to better serve all members of this community. 

Biography - H. Jennings Sheffield is a contemporary artist working in lens-based media, digital video and sound. She received her MFA from The University of Texas at San Antonio in 2011, and her BFA from the Atlanta College of Art in 1996. Sheffield's current work investigates the idea of collective imagery through re-appropriation. She is an internationally active artist with her latest work exhibited at The Print Center in Philadelphia, Houston Fine Art Fair, Lens Culture, What Do You Really Need?, Medien Kultur Haus Wels, Austria; Viral: Photography in the Age of Social Media, at Cambridge University in the UK; Colorado Photographic Arts Center in Denver, Colorado, and Paperworks 2016 at B.J. Spoke Gallery in Huntington, NY. Sheffield is currently an Assistant Professor of Art at Baylor University teaching photography, and resides in Woodway, Texas with her husband and two sons.

Statement - Since attending my first SPE conference in the early 1990s, I knew SPE was truly something special. I believe SPE holds an integral role in the higher education of photographers and educators today. I understand how important it is to create a community that fosters, enriches, and teaches all who are involved in lens-based media. A place where artists, educators, students, and historians come together to connect, collaborate, share and dialogue. 

I believe with ever-changing technology, it is important to focus on bringing educators and students together to discuss best practices, emerging trends, challenges, and new and innovative techniques utilized in their classrooms and in their art practices. Many educators feel isolated in small departments and have limited collegial interaction on a daily basis at their respective universities, and SPE is so important in filling this need. I would very much like to serve on the Board of Directors to help continue SPE and its mission.

Biography - Trish Simonite was born in Norwich, Norfolk, England, and is currently a professor at Trinity University, San Antonio, Texas, where she teaches photography and digital art. She and her husband have raised three talented children all of whom are lens-based artists.

Her still life and landscape photographs have been exhibited in group and solo shows in Europe and in the United States. Her work has been published in books and magazines including An Introduction to the Art of Photography, by Katie Stern, and Zoom Magazine. Collections holding her work include:  The Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center Photography Collection at the University of Texas in Austin; the Peter Palmquist Collection of Women Photographers, Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Yale University, Connecticut; the San Antonio Museum of Art; and the Linda Pace Collection in San Antonio, Texas.

Trish served on the board of Texas Photographic Society for many years and on the board of the Artist Foundation of San Antonio, an organization that has awarded over $800,000 in grants to Bexar County artists.  She has been a long-time member and supporter of The Society for Photographic Education. 

Statement - I have been an enthusiastic member of SPE since 2002 and regularly serve as a portfolio reviewer at the National Conference.  I am interested in serving the organization wherever my skills are needed and are the best fit.  I am particularly interested in helping expand international participation, student and adjunct participation.  I also have an interest in exhibitions, film, awards and grants. 

Biography - Eric Weeks is a photography and video artist, a curator, and Chair of the Photography Department at the Pennsylvania College of Art & Design. His work has been exhibited internationally, and is in many permanent public collections. His photography is represented by Galerie Catherine et André Hug in Paris. His monograph World Was in the Face of the Beloved was published by Pablo's Birthday (New York). Weeks was recently the Exhibition Director of the 2016 Jeonju International Photography Festival in South Korea. In 2014, he co-chaired the Mid-Atlantic Regional SPE Conference.

In 2017, Weeks exhibited his photographs in China, South Korea and Paris. The Wind Dies The Sun Sets, a short film made in collaboration with Joshua Reiman, was screened at the 8th Cairo Video Festival and at Art COP22, Arkane Afrika, Marrakesh. The film was also named Open Call Winner, Art Speaks Out, ikonoTV, Berlin.

Weeks received a MFA from Yale University, and a BFA from the School of Visual Arts.

Statement - My background as a current photography, and former fine art, department chair has given me extensive administrative, governance, leadership and budgeting experience. I hope to bring this knowledge and expertise to SPE by serving on the Board of Directors.

A focal point of interest is to continue expanding international networking for the organization. For the past six years I have developed relationships for my current institution with several universities in South Korea, and have made connections in China, Singapore, France and Mexico.

I would like to concentrate on identifying and engaging international and national organizations that can bring added diversity, ideas, and new members to SPE. Importantly, a surge of new members, as well as a strengthened membership renewal rate, will help alleviate SPE's current financial constraints and further revitalize the organization.