Luanne Dietz

Luanne is our founding director and the intial dreamer behind The. W.H.Y. Project. She has worked in various aspects of the journalism industry including newspaper and magazine, international documentary, inner-city media education, non profit and movie production. Luanne graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Journalism and Communications with emphasis on Photojournalism from the University of Florida. Her endeavors have taken her around the globe, including extended periods of time in Europe and the Middle East. Luanne lives in San Francisco, California where she is a photo editor at The San Francisco Chronicle. Luanne is an alumni of the Eddie Adams Workshop and The Kalish. She has been recognized by CPOY, the Society of Professional Journalist, and the Hearst Foundation.

Melissa Lyttle

Melissa is a member of our board of directors. She is a staff photographer for the Tampa Bay Times (previously St. Petersburg Times) and is committed to documenting the lives of people in her community, and finding an interesting way to tell their story. Her work has been recognized by UNICEF, the Casey Medals for Meritorious Journalism, POYi, the NPPA’s Best of Photojournalism, the Atlanta Photojournalism Seminar, the Southern Short Course, and the Alexia Foundation. In 2001, she started an online community called A Photo A Day, which has since then grown to over 1,650 members around the world.

Richard Koci Hernandez

Richard is a member of our board of directors. He is an Emmy Award winning visual journalist who worked as a photographer at the San Jose Mercury News for 15 years. He is the creative brain behind the MultimediaShooter blog. His work for the Mercury News has earned him two Pulitzer Prize nominations along with a national Emmy award for the New Approaches to Documentary category for his work on the film, Uprooted. In 2007 after Richard took his first mobile photograph, he was hooked on the medium’s potential and immediacy and has since then become an icon of the iPhone era. Recently, he joined the faculty at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism where he teaches various New Media courses, including Mobile Reporting. Richard’s mobile photography and insights have been featured in The New York Times, CNN, along with his recent iPhoneography being published in a book by National Geographic.

Graham Rees

Graham is a member of our board of directors. He is a founding member and program developer of Study Edge, a collegiate tutoring company that educates and trains students through in-person and virtual lectures, study hours and exam reviews. Graham utilizes online platforms and multimedia to reach a wide range of students through facebook and social media. Graham is currently a law student at Loyola University in New Orleans, LA.