Review Panel
We take student work seriously.
Respecting student work means putting it in front of working artists who truly understand the craft. We take great care to curate a diverse, high-caliber panel of arts professionals, entrusting them with the thoughtful, respectful evaluation of each and every submission. Explore our review panel categories:
Meet The 2026 Review Panel
Creative Writing
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2026 Panelist
Antonio López is San Mateo County’s 2025-2027 Poet Laureate. He holds degrees from Duke University, Rutgers-Newark, and the University of Oxford as a 2018 Marshall Scholar. His poetry and essays have appeared in numerous publications, anthologies and podcasts including Poetry Foundation, Latino Poetry: The Library of America Anthology, The Slowdown, Poetry Daily, among others. Antonio served his hometown of East Palo Alto, as a councilmember and mayor for the from 2020 to 2024. He is currently finishing his PhD in the Modern Thought and Literature program at Stanford University.
Antonio López
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2026 Panelist
Carolina Ixta is a writer from Oakland, California. Her critically acclaimed debut novel, Shut Up, This Is Serious, was a Morris Award finalist, an LA Times Book Prize finalist, and the winner of the Pura Belpré Award. Within the first year of its publication, Parade Magazine named the novel as one of the 101 best young adult novels of all time. Her sophomore novel, Few Blue Skies, is forthcoming from HarperCollins on February 3rd of 2026.
Carolina Ixta
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2026 Panelist
D'mani Thomas is a writer and creative from Oakland, California. Their work currently explores surveillance and intimacy within a history of mass surveillance in America. His work can be found in Muzzle Magazine, The Shade Journal, Oroboro Lit Journal, KALW 91.7 FM, The Auburn Avenue, remediate lit mag, and elsewhere. His debut chapbook, Grown-up Elementary, was released in 2023.
D'mani Thomas
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2025, 2026 Panelist
J. K. Fowler is the Executive Director of the Bay Area Book Festival, Co-owner of Nomadic Bookshop in Oakland, and the Founder and Executive Director of Nomadic Press. He was a '24–'25 CA for the Arts GAAP Fellow and is currently a '25–'26 EAP Fellow.
J.K. Fowler
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2026 Panelist
Giovanna Lomanto is a Pushcart-Prize nominated poet and artist. She has published six books of various lengths and genres. A graduate of NYU's MFA program, her work has been supported by U.C. Berkeley, KQED, and the SFMOMA archive. In addition to working as a teaching artist and nonprofit organizer, she has also served as the lead curator for the San Francisco Literary Festival's inaugural Out Loud weekend for Queer & BIPOC writers, and is co-owner of the indie press Game Over Books.
Giovanna Lomanto
Dance
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2026 Panelist
Natasha Adorlee is an Emmy Award winning choreographer, filmmaker, and composer based in San Francisco. She is the founder and artistic director of Concept o4, creating genre defying dance and film works that center Asian American stories, technology, and contemporary performance. Her commissions include BalletX, Joffrey Ballet Winning Works, Kansas City Ballet, City Ballet San Francisco, and a new multi-year relationship with the San Francisco Symphony. Natasha is a Jacob’s Pillow Choreographic Fellow and her works have received honors including an Isadora Duncan Dance Award and the Palm Desert Grand Prize.
Natasha Adorlee
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2025, 2026 Panelist
Saharla Vetsch is a Somali American multidisciplinary artist based in the Bay Area. With a degree in Performing Arts and Social Justice from the University of San Francisco, her work focuses on the transformative power of movement. Through teaching and performances, she celebrates intersecting identities and fosters connection in queer nightlife, early childhood dance education, and collaborative performances.
Saharla Vetsch
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2026 Panelist
Johnny Huy Nguyễn is a Vietnamese multidisciplinary dance artist and son of refugees based in the unceded Ramaytush - Ohlone territory of Yelamu also known as San Francisco. Nguyễn is a 2022 Isadora Duncan Dance Award recipient, 2025 Haas Creative Power Award Finalist, 2023 United States of Asian America Featured Artist, and 2021 APAture Festival Featured Artist. His work has received support from the California Arts Council, Kenneth Rainin Foundation, San Francisco Arts Commission, and Center for Cultural Innovation.
Johnny Huy Nguyễn
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2025, 2026 Panelist
Raissa Simpson is an award-winning choreographer, artistic director of PUSH Dance Company, and an arts educator at Stanford University. Her choreography has toured to over 50 venues across the United States including Ferst Center for the Arts, Aspen Fringe Festival, Joyce SoHo and many more. As an administrator, Raissa operates the Sanctuary, a dance studio in downtown San Francisco.
Raissa Simpson
Iu-Hui Chua
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2026 Panelist
Iu-Hui Chua is a choreographer, performer, director, and creator of physical theater, dance, and video performance. She presents her work nationally and internationally and has performed with the companies of Anna Halprin, Ledoh/Salt Farm, and Dandelion Dancetheater. In addition, she has performed for SanSan Kwan, Guillermo Gomez-Peña, Ellen Bromberg, Headmistress, and Disneyland. She has held residencies at Djerassi, CounterPulse, Shawl-Anderson, and Penasco Theater. Iu-Hui is currently a Lecturer in the Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies department at UC Berkeley.
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2026 Panelist
Hope Mohr, artist and arts leader, has been making multidisciplinary performance for over 30 years. Hope works across performance, visual art, and language to explore embodiment, feminism, gender, and queerness. Hope trained at S.F. Ballet School and on scholarship at the Merce Cunningham and Trisha Brown Studios in New York City. She performed in the companies of dance pioneers Lucinda Childs, Trisha Brown, and Margaret Jenkins.
Hope Mohr
Film
Palmer Morse
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2026 Panelist
Palmer Morse is a multi-disciplinary, award-winning filmmaker and co-founder of Spruce Tone, working between Portland, Maine and Oakland, California. His work focuses on human stories and our connection to the planet and his films have been featured by National Geographic, PBS, The New York Times, and at festivals internationally, earning honors including a Webby Award, Vimeo’s “Best of the Year” nomination, and multiple Telly Awards.
Andrew Lyndon
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2026 Panelist
Andrew Lyndon is a Painter, Animator, and Filmmaker. A professor emeritus at CCA he created and launched the animation program in 2007. Lyndon was also the digital imaging and video instructor at Pixar Animation Studios. In 2010, he curated From Pencil to Pixel, an exhibition of Bay Area Animation studios for The Oakland Museum at The Oakland International Airport. In 2015 he created animation for a new composition by Aleksandra Vrebalov, "The Sea Ranch Songs", which was world premiered in three performances by The Kronos Quartet. Most recently, he was Director of Animation and Cinematography for "Brother" an animated documentary short, funded and distributed by ITVS, and screened on PBS in 2022, and he had a painting included in "The de Young Open 2023" at the de Young Museum, San Francisco.
Rafael Flores
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2025, 2026 Panelist
Rafael Flores is a Phi Beta Kappa scholar specializing in Directing, Social Justice Film Production, Chicano Cinema, and Third Cinema. He is the Co-founder of Green Eyed Media and Administrative Director of Hidden GEM Creative Studios in Oakland, CA. His work has been recognized by institutions such as The White House, TEDx, the Cannes Film Festival, and the Chicano International Film Festival.
Angela Colabella
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2026 Panelist
Angela Colabella is an educator and filmmaker dedicated to expanding inclusive access to filmmaking. Beginning her career at Oakland’s YouthBeat and later developing a four-year Media Arts Pathway at Lodestar Charter School, she now serves as Education Director at the California Film Institute, where she continues to champion youth voices. Angela works to ensure diverse stories and perspectives are nurtured and celebrated.
Jack Bibbo
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2026 Panelist
Jack Bibbo is a Creative Director with over 30 years of experience building content that moves audiences and scales. His career began as an action sports filmmaker before evolving into leading creative campaigns for brands like MasterClass, Lucasfilm, Intel, and Electronic Arts. He's balanced storytelling craft with operational clarity—specializing in scalable, AI-integrated workflows that amplify creative output without compromising the work.
Rivkah Beth Medow
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2026 Panelist
Rivkah Beth Medow makes films, raises daughters, and weaves community. She's a Sundance x Women in Film and Film Independent Fellow whose film credits include Ahead of the Curve (2021, Netflix, STARZ); the Oscar® shortlisted doc short Holding Moses (2022, The New Yorker); the Berlinale Grand Prix winning Hummingbirds (2023, POV, Criterion Channel); Queer Futures (2024, Criterion Channel); and Outcry: Alchemists of Rage (2024, festivals).
Music Performance
Kev Choice
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2026 Panelist
Kev Choice is a Bay Area–based composer, producer, pianist, and bandleader known for genre-blending work that bridges jazz, hip-hop, classical, and soul. He is the founder and director of the Kev Choice Ensemble, a large-scale performance project that combines orchestral arrangements, improvisation, and contemporary urban music to create powerful, community-centered live experiences. Equally committed to education and mentorship, Kev Choice leads workshops and residencies that center creativity, collaboration, and cultural dialogue, using music as a tool for connection and expression.
Chelsea Hollow
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2026 Panelist
Chelsea Hollow loves finding new ways of connecting her art to the world around her. Recent performances include Dolores with West Edge Opera, Exsultate Jubilate with The Zephyr Symphony, Birds and Balls with Opera Parallèle, and Albert Herring with Pocket Opera. In 2023, she released her debut album and recital, Cycles of Resistance, including 22 commissions in 8 languages chronicling international stories of human resilience.
Thomas Kurtz
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2025, 2026 Panelist
Dr. Thomas Kurtz is an educator, researcher, cultural arts administrator, and performing artist dedicated to equity-driven initiatives in the arts. His research explores music's role in social justice, with a focus on LGBTQ+ communities in the San Francisco Bay Area. As a saxophonist, he has performed throughout the Bay Area and as a soloist at Carnegie Hall. He teaches at the University of San Francisco and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.
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2025, 2026 Panelist
Crystal Pascucci-Clifford is a passionate member of the Bay Area music community. As a conservatory-trained cellist and composer, she's worked toward balancing a career in arts administration alongside curation, composing, performing and learning. Crystal is the Executive Director of InterMusic SF, a nonprofit organization dedicated to sustaining and nourishing the Bay Area creative environment for musicians and audience members.
Crystal Pascucci-Clifford
Jessica Bejarano
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2023, 2024, 2026 Panelist
Jessica is the Founder and Music Director of the San Francisco Philharmonic, Curator and Scholar in Residence with the San Francisco Opera, Cover Conductor with San Francisco Symphony and serves as board member of the Association of California Symphony Orchestras (ACSO). She has been featured on NBC's The Today Show, PBS News Hour Weekend, and KQED. More recently, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (YBCA) named Jessica 1 of 100 Honorees for 2023 for her contribution to the arts in the Bay Area. She is publishing her first bilingual children's book with Lil' Libros (book company) in Winter 2024.
Valérie Sainte-Agathe
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2025, 2026 Panelist
Valérie Sainte-Agathe has prepared and conducted the San Francisco Girls Chorus since 2013. Through transformative choral music training, education, and performance, Ms. Sainte-Agathe empowers young women and champions the music of today throughout the choral world. A native of Martinique, Ms. Sainte-Agathe received her Bachelor of Music degree in Choral Conducting from Universite Paul Valery in Montpellier, and her Diplome d’Etudes Musicales in Piano, Chamber Music and Theory from the Montpellier Conservatory.
Original Music
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2026 Panelist
Jerome Rossen is a composer, songwriter and musician. He runs Freshmade Music, an independent audio production studio that focuses on creating music for kids EdTech, apps and games. He has worked with PBS Kids, PRX, Originator, Leapfrog and Disney. Jerome composed music for the cult cartoon, the Happy Tree Friends. Jerome’s music has been featured on The Bachelor, The Bachelor in Paradise, The Bachelorette, Temptation Island, Love Without Borders and MTV’s The Challenge.
Jerome Rossen
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2026 Panelist
Jean Carla Rodea is an interdisciplinary artist and educator born in Mexico City. Her work focuses on research-based practices and spans various disciplines and mediums, including music, composition, sound, vocal performance, poetry, photography, video, and sculpture.
Jean Carla Rodea
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2025, 2026 Panelist
Beth Custer is a performer at Russian Telegraph, Clarinet Thing, Trance Mission, Club Foot Orchestra ensembles. She composes for film including those of Cathy Lee Crane and William Farley. Beth teaches music in her studio.
Beth Custer
Stephen White
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2026 Panelist
Stephen White is a music industry executive at EMPIRE, the independent distribution and label services company known for empowering artists and creators worldwide. With a background rooted in artist development and strategic growth, Stephen works closely with emerging and established talent to help build sustainable, creator-first careers. At EMPIRE, he contributes to projects that span hip-hop, R&B, and global music, supporting artists through innovative release strategies, marketing, and long-term brand development.
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2025, 2026 Panelist
Zachary James Watkins studied composition at Cornish College and received his MFA from Mills College. Zachary has received commissions from The Empyrean Ensemble, Splinter Reeds, The Switch Ensemble, Density512, sfsound, The Living Earth Show, Kronos Quartet and the Seattle Chamber Players. Zachary has performed in numerous festivals across the United States, Canada, Mexico and Europe and his band Black Spirituals opened for pioneering Minimal Metal band Earth during their 2015 European tour. Zachary has been an artist-in-resident at the Espy Foundation, Djerassi, the Headlands Center for The Arts and the Amant Foundation Siena, Italy.
Zachary James Watkins
Jessica Bejarano
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2023, 2024, 2026 Panelist
Jessica is the Founder and Music Director of the San Francisco Philharmonic, Curator and Scholar in Residence with the San Francisco Opera, Cover Conductor with San Francisco Symphony and serves as board member of the Association of California Symphony Orchestras (ACSO). She has been featured on NBC's The Today Show, PBS News Hour Weekend, and KQED. More recently, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (YBCA) named Jessica 1 of 100 Honorees for 2023 for her contribution to the arts in the Bay Area. She is publishing her first bilingual children's book with Lil' Libros (book company) in Winter 2024.
Photography
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2026 Panelist
Narges Poursadeqi is a conceptual artist based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her work blends elements of politics, religion, and history, using curated materials such as archived photos, videos, and sound to tell complex stories.
Narges Poursadeqi
Delphine Sims
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2026 Panelist
Delphine Sims is an Assistant Curator in the Department of Photography at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. She completed her PhD in the History of Art Department at UC Berkeley with a focus on Blackness and landscape photography in the United States. For her dissertation research Delphine was awarded predoctoral fellowships at the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts within the National Gallery of Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. She previously held curatorial roles within the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive and the Santa Barbara Museum of Art. Exhibitions she curated and co-curated include, (Re)Constructing History, Around Group F.64, About Things Loved: Blackness and Belonging and the forthcoming Graciela Iturbide: Between Two Worlds.
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2026 Panelist
Jyoti Liggin is a multidisciplinary artist from Oakland, CA. Her personal practice uses photography, food, and fiber-arts to discuss family, mental and physical health, and identity. They are a 2025-2026 Emerging Arts Professionals Fellow and the gallery manager at Oakland Photo Workshop, a project of the East Bay Photo Collective that works with local, emerging and/or underrepresented artists and curators.
Jyoti Liggin
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2025, 2026 Panelist
Based in San Francisco, Andrew Owen is a photographer working primarily in the tradition of large-format landscape photography. Since 2021, he has followed the cycles of fires and floods reshaping the California landscape, documenting major ecological events and their aftermath to understand the impact of climate change. Andrew's work has been exhibited in in San Francisco at Small Works, CULT Aimee Friberg and Book and Job Gallery. He is a former National Geographic Young Explorer grantee and graduate of Georgetown University.
Andrew Owen
Liz Hickok
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2026 Panelist
Liz Hickok is a San Francisco-based artist working in photography, sculpture, video, and installation. Her San Francisco in Jell-O series gained national attention through coverage in the New York Times, NPR, and CBS, using playful materials to explore seismic and environmental systems. Her work has been exhibited across the United States and internationally, and is held in collections including the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Kaiser Permanente, Google, and Mills College Art Museum. She holds an MFA from Mills College.
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2025, 2026 Panelist
J. John Priola is a contemporary visual artist specializing in photography and video, known for his refined presentation and print quality. His work has been featured in exhibitions like In A Different Light: Visual Culture, Sexual Identity, Queer Practice at the Berkeley Art Museum and Picturing Eden, a five-year traveling show. His pieces are held in major collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Art Institute of Chicago.
J. John Priola
Visual Art
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2026 Panelist
Nimah Gobir is an artist based in Oakland, California whose paintings and installations explore the nuanced tapestry of Black identity. Her work has been highlighted in Hyperallergic and SF/Arts. She has shown work at Johansson Projects, SOMArts, and MoAD, where she was selected to be part of their Emerging Artist Program. Gobir was in Recology’s 2024 artist in residence cohort and a Tournesol Award recipient at Headlands Center for the Arts.
Nimah Gobir
Trisha Lagaso Goldberg
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2026 Panelist
Trisha Lagaso Goldberg is an artist, public art consultant, and independent curator who served as founding gallery director of thirtyninehotel in Honolulu (2006–2010). She is currently Director of Programming & Engagement at the Anderson Collection at Stanford University and is developing the Remittance exhibition for Independent Curators International (premiering at the Mead Art Museum, Amherst College, Fall 2026) and Noguchi + Hawai‘i for the Honolulu Museum of Art (Spring 2027). She is also a member of Ninth Planet, a collective exploring Indigenous cosmologies, quantum modalities, AI accelerations, and speculative futurisms in relation to queerness and Indigeneity.
Simon Tran
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2024, 2025, 2026 Panelist
Simon is a visual artist and educator who manages the Artists in Education program at Southern Exposure, an artist centered non-profit, in San Francisco, CA. He works with Bay Area youth and teaching artists to create exhibitions for Southern Exposure through various art enrichment programing. Simon is also on the Berkeley Art Center program committee. He has created large scale painted murals and installations for Meta, Chapter 510, and Montage Health.
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2026 Panelist
A native Bay Area resident, Jerarde Gutierrez has been nurturing his creativity since childhood. The son of an immigrant mother from Mexico, and first generation Chicano father from Oakland Ca, Jerarde’s commitment to honoring his family’s story has fostered his commitment and drive towards his career path as an painter, muralist and educator. With a strong belief in giving back to the community, and making art accessible to everyone, Jerarde has chosen to share his passion for visual and digital art through teaching and mentoring young artist. Jerarde has worked with several camps, after school programs and youth organizations, teaching photography, digital arts, drawing and painting.
Jerarde Gutierrez
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2026 Panelist
ARLEENE CORREA VALENCIA (b. 1993, Michoacán, Mexico) received her MFA from California College of the Arts. One of four children originally from Arteaga, Michoacán,
Mexico, Correa Valencia is a beneficiary of DACA (Deferred Action Childhood Arrivals) and is on a path to becoming a naturalized citizen of the United States. The Correa Valencia family fled to the United States in 1997 and found home in California’s Napa Valley. Correa Valencia’s work is held in the permanent collections of the Cantor Arts Center at Stanford
University; Crocker Art Museum; Utah Museum of Fine Arts; Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Grand Valley State University Museum of Art, Ulrich Museum of Art; and 21c Museum Hotels.
Based in Napa Valley, California, Correa Valencia has been represented by Catharine Clark Gallery since 2022.
Arleene Correa Valencia
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2026 Panelist
Yina Kim is an illustrator, storyteller, and educator who enjoys exploring the blurred boundaries between imagination and reality. Born in South Korea and raised in California, she often reflects on her experiences of navigating two distinct cultures in her work. She received her BFA in Illustration from the California College of the Arts and her MA in Communication Design from Kingston University. Currently, she teaches illustration at CCA while continuing her artistic practice.
Yina Kim
Creative Cultivation
Meet some of the Review Panelists providing their expertise to the Creative Youth Awards and empowering the next generation of creatives.
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Simon Tran
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Maw Shein Win
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Youth Awards
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Jessica Bejarano