Advisory Board

Cathy Aron

Cathy Aron – Executive Director of the Picture Archive Council of America (PACA)

Cathy Aron is the Executive Director of the Picture Archive Council of America (PACA). She has been actively involved in the stock photo industry for over 30 years and was formerly the president of Photo Network Stock, a very successful general stock photo rights managed archive, which is now owned by Grant Heilman Photography. Cathy has been a speaker/panelist for numerous industry meetings and events and has presented classes on copyright protection at several colleges in California. Cathy was also a founding leader of the Imagery Alliance, a coalition of professional visual arts trade associations formed to advocated and educate for the protection of copyright and related interests.

Shannon Fagan

Shannon Fagan – Photographer

Shannon Fagan first became interested in photography during days spent in high school in Memphis, Tennessee. After pursuing photography and fine arts studies at The University of Memphis, he moved to New York City in 2000, and has worked in lifestyle and portrait imagery since. In 2002, Photo District News recognized his work in PDN’s 30 photographers to watch, for a personal series of photographs that he completed on Doormen at work on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.

Shannon’s work has been published in the Communication Arts, Photo District News, Print’s Regional Design, and American Photography Annuals. Awards include a Gold Addy in the NY Addy Awards, a Shortlist Clio Award, and an NEA Creative Grant together with the Houston Center for Photography. Clients include The New Yorker, Newsweek, The New York Times, Discover, and Business week. He has also completed commissioned ad work for BMW, The United Way, Verizon, Nikon, and Intel. He is President of the Stock Artists Alliance.

Steve Giralt

Steve Giralt – Photographer

Steve Giralt is a New York City based commercial photographer, originally from Miami, FL. He studied advertising photography at Rochester Institute of Technology and moved to NYC in 2002 to pursue the dream of working as a commercial photographer. Photo District News magazine selected him as one of their PDN 30 photographers to watch in 2005.

Steve’s clients include Starbucks, BBDO, Food Network Magazine, Kraft, and Johnston & Murphy. Solving problems for clients and taking the best picture possible are at the very root of what Steve loves to do. He also sits on the Advisory board to the photography program at the Fashion Institute of Technology and stays very active in the photo community.

Gordon Kaye

Gordon Kaye – Editor, Publisher, Graphic Design USA (GD USA)

After a 10 year career as an intellectual property and communications lawyer representing ad agencies, publishers and broadcasters – including a stint as an inhouse attorney at NBC Television Network (working on among other things Saturday Night Live) – Gordon Kaye joined Graphic Design USA in 1990.

Gordon is now Editor and Publisher of Graphic Design USA, also known as GDUSA, and its offshoots, including the gdusa.com website, two monthly e-newsletters, an online shopping guide for creatives and four national contests covering graphic, packaging, website and corporate inhouse design. Graphic Design USA was founded in 1963 as the business-to-business magazine for creative professionals.

Scott McKiernan

Scott Mc Kiernan – Founder, CEO, ZUMA Press

Scott Mc Kiernan is a media industry pioneer and leader. Mc Kiernan’s dynamic leadership of his ZUMA Press family of companies, as well as decades of wide-ranging experience in photojournalism have proven to be instrumental in establishing one of the largest editorial photo agencies in the world and the first digital age picture agency, ZUMA Wire. Recent ventures include ThePicturesofTheDay.com and the Kona Gallery, the first pure photojournalism gallery.

Mc Kiernan’s design work, picture editing and photography have won numerous major awards, and ZUMA’s roster of stellar top photojournalists have won every major photo industry award, including Pictures of The Year (POYi), Best of Photojournalism (NPPA’s BOP), Communications Arts, World Press Awards as well as a few Pulitzers.

Mc Kiernan was a judge of the 2010 POYi contest, and of many previous photo contests, including NPPA BOP.

Virginia Morrison

Virginia Morrison – Executive Director, Society of Photographic Education (SPE)

Virginia Morrison is Executive Director of the Society for Photographic Education (SPE), a non-profit membership organization that seeks to promote a broader understanding of the photography in all its forms, and to foster the development of its practice, teaching, scholarship and criticism.

Virginia’s career choices reflect her passion for art and her talent for management. Some highlights include teaching photography and art at Hawken School, Director of Career Services at Cleveland Institute of Art (CIA), and several transformative positions at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. She has always been involved with student advocacy in educational contexts and has enjoyed accomplishments that include a successful NIH Training grant for CWRU’s department of pharmacology, the Ohio Governor’s Award for Excellence in Art Education, and CWRU’s MPH Program accreditation by the Council on Education in Public Health.

Nancy E. Wolff

Nancy E. Wolff – Attorney, Cowan, DeBaets, Abrahams & Sheppard LLP

Nancy E. Wolff is a member of the entertainment law firm of Cowan, DeBaets, Abrahams & Sheppard, LLC, located in New York and California. Ms. Wolff specializes in intellectual property law and digital media law. Clients include the Picture Archive Counsel of America, Inc. (PACA), the PLUS Coalition, stock photo libraries, individual photographers, authors, illustrators, designers, publishers and digital media companies. Ms. Wolff counsels clients in copyright, trademarks, licensing and contract law, rights of publicity and privacy and libel.

Ms. Wolff is a frequent speaker throughout the United States and Europe on copyright, new technology and licensing. In 2007 she published her book entitled "The Professional Photographer’s Legal Handbook" with Allworth Press and PACA. She was awarded the 2007 ASPP Picture Professional of the Year.

Ms. Wolff is a Trustee and Assistant Secretary of the Copyright Society of U.S.A., and is the current Chair of the American Bar Association IP Section 303 on Copyright Office Affairs and a member of the ABA Copyright Reform Task Force. She was a member of Section 108 Study Group convened by the Library of Congress and charged with updating the Copyright Act.