2012 SSC

Faculty

Michael Williamson - Keeper of all Knowledge
Michael Williamson was born in Washington, but grew up in a series of foster homes and orphanages in more than 15 states. It was an experience he says that has led to his interest in documenting the plight of the homeless for the past 18 years. He and a collaborator, writer Dale Maharidge, have produced three books. The first book, Journey to Nowhere: The Saga of the New Underclass, inspired several songs on Bruce Springsteen's album "The Ghost of Tom Joad." The pair's book And Their Children After Them received a Pulitzer Prize for non-fiction in 1990. He shared a second Pulitzer Prize in 2000 with colleagues Carol Guzy and Lucian Perkins for their coverage of Kosovo.

A photographer with The Washington Post since 1993, Williamson was named Newspaper Photographer of the Year in the 1995 Pictures of the Year contest and Photographer of the Year in 2000 by the National Press Photographers Association.

Ross Taylor - MC and Auctioneer/Social Coordinator
Ross Taylor is a staff photographer for The Virginian-Pilot, and is a UNC-Chapel Hill graduate.

Taylor was recently named the 2007 NPPA Region 1 photographer of the year. He is also a two-time North Carolina Photographer of the Year whose work has appeared on the cover of the National Press Photographers Best of Photojournalism magazine. He has won numerous international, national and regional awards as well as one of the Associated Press Photos of the Century awards.

Along the way, he has rambled across America, photographed in a Central American jail and received the Heimlich maneuver in a Tennessee Taco Bell.

Throughout his travels and work, Taylor has called a variety of places home – a walk-in closet, a storage space under a staircase, three attics, a couch in Central Appalachia and the back of a Nissan truck.

Taylor has also hugged the Taj Mahal, kissed a 70-year-old woman on Bourbon Street, been attacked by two angry mobs, several monkeys and one terrible virus in India.

He has skinny dipped in more than 20 states and was once stung by a jellyfish in the process. Taylor also accidentally maced himself once – he's not sure which was more painful.

In between shooting and thinking about photography, he reminisces about the glory days of foosball in Chapel Hill and a childhood filled with kickball, school pizza and chocolate milk.

Ashlie White - Admin and Planning
Ashlie White is a Magna Cum Laude graduate of The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She majored in Visual Communication at the school of Journalism and Mass Communication where she specialized in Photojournalism and Multimedia.

White served as President of the UNC student chapter of the National Press Photographers Association. With innovation and diplomacy she secured funding through the 16-campus university system so members could travel to journalism workshops and seminars throughout the United States.

Shortly after graduating she traveled abroad working on several multimedia projects. They included stints in Ecuador for the Morehead Foundation and in Spain covering the labor movement for the Edward Jackson International Scholarship foundation.

In January of 2006 she began an internship with The Chattanooga Times Free Press and was promoted to staff photographer six month later. White worked at the newspaper until December of 2007. She is currently the director of project development for Adaptive Technologies in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Her work has been honored by the College Photographer of the Year contest, East Tennessee Golden Press Card Contest and the Pictures of the Year International contest.

Tommy Metthe - Coordinator of Sponsors
Tommy Metthe is a staff photographer at the Abilene (Tx.) Reporter-News. The newspaper covers the happenings of more than 20 counties in West Texas. Sports is a major part of Metthe's workload, mainly high school and area small colleges. Metthe has won a number of state and regional photo contests, including Picture of the Year in the 2001 Sports Shooter contest. He has also been a contributing writer for the Sports Shooter newsletter.

A 1999 graduate of the University of Georgia, Metthe interned at the Macon Telegraph before going west to Texas, where he has been ever since. He resides in Abilene with his wife, Diana, their three dogs and a bird.

Rebecca Ducker - Admin and Planning
Rebecca Ducker - is a community journalist based at the Morning News in Florence , S.C. where she she shoots stills, produces video, and writes stories for the Morning News, WBTW News 13, and SCNow.com.
A 2007 graduate of Randolph Community College she began her career with internships in still photojournalism at the Greenville News in Greenville, S.C. and the Salisbury Post in Salisbury, N.C. In August of 2007 she started with the Morning News as an intern in the photography department. Two months later she was hired as a full- time photojournalist. During her first two years with the Morning News she worked on shooting and writing enterprise stories along with daily assignments as well as teaching herself broadcast video production. In August of 2009 she was promoted to Online Content Producer. In her current position she is responsible for providing content across three platforms print, broadcast, and web.
Her photojournalism and multimedia work has been honored by Media General, the North Carolina Press Photographer's Association, the South Carolina Press Photographer's Association and the Southern Short Course in News Photography.

David LaBelle

David LaBelle began his photojournalism career at the Ventura County (California) Star-Free Press as a weekend sports shooter and lab technician while still in high school.  Over the next 40 years, he worked for 20 newspapers and magazines in nine states.

LaBelle also served as Assistant Managing editor for Photography for the Ventura County Star, and then for the Pittsburgh Post Gazette, before returning to teaching.  In the fall of 2004, LaBelle was hired as photography advisor for the University of Kentucky's student newspaper, while teaching photojournalism classes and rebuilding the photojournalism program. The Kernel, the university’s daily student newspaper won the Kentucky Sweepstakes award three years running and a national Pacemaker award for Best Student Newspaper in America during his three years there.  In addition, in only his second year of building, the University of Kentucky placed eight overall nationally in the Hearst Intercollegiate Photojournalism. 

LaBelle was the youngest photographer ever to win the National Press Photographers Association (NPPA) Region 10 Photographer of the Year at the age of 19 —an honor he repeated the following two years. He was runner-up to W. Eugene Smith for the Nikon World Understanding Award in 1974.

In 1991, the NPPA honored LaBelle with the Robin F. Garland Award for photojournalism education.
LaBelle was presented with the Photographic Society of America’s 2002 International Understanding Through Photography Award, given for “outstanding contribution to international understanding through lecturing, teaching and publications.” Past recipients include renowned photographer Ansel Adams.

LaBelle is the author of four books – his latest: “I Don’t Want To Know All That Technical Stuff, I just want to shoot pictures” was published in late 2008.

He is currently living with his family in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

William Thompson - Audio Visual / Website
In January of 2001, William began teaching photojournalism at Randolph Community College in Asheboro, North Carolina. He took this position after a 6-month tour in Kosovo as a Public Affairs officer for the U.S. Army Reserves. Before Kosovo, he was an award winning news photographer for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

"In January of 2003 I was deployed in support of OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM with the U.S. Army Reserves. I returned home August 25th to a wonderful welcome from my family, friends, coworkers and students at RCC. I would like to thank everyone in Asheboro who has been so supportive of me, my family and our soldiers."

Speakers & Schedule subject to change without notice