Our Team

Carl-Phillipe Juste
Founder, Project Co-Leader
Carl has carried out extensive assignments for the Miami Herald, in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iraq. He has received numerous awards for his work, including the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award. He was also part of the team at the Herald that won a Pulitzer Prize for its coverage of Hurricane Andrew. His work has been exhibited in various prestigious institutions and galleries in Cuba, Dominican Republic and the United States. Carl is one of the founders of Iris PhotoCollective in 1998, a collaboration to create a new context in order to explore and document the relationship of people of color to the world.

Joe Newman
Founder, Project Co-Leader
Joe is the founder and executive director of Focus on the Story, a non-profit organization with a mission to support visual storytelling that has a social impact. He has worked in non-profit communications in Washington, D.C. for the past 12 years and is currently a senior media strategist at ReThink Media. Previously, he served as the communications director at the Project On Government Oversight. He started his career in Florida, where he worked as an award-winning reporter and editor at the Orlando Sentinel, St. Petersburg Times and Palm Beach Post.

Maria Daniel Balcazar
Project Coordinator
Maria is a Bolivian-American documentary and fine art photographer. Most of her projects focus on the vitality of cultural traditions, their universality and their uniqueness, as they adapt through syncretism to survive and to thrive. She has studied painting, social communication, journalism, languages, and photography. Her work has been exhibited in Galleries, Museums, Universities in the United States, Bolivia, Brazil, Peru, Argentina and Chile.

Indira Williams Babic
Project Coordinator
Indira is the Director of photography and visual journalism curator at the Newseum in Washington, D.C. She oversees research, editorial selection, acquisition, digital processing, rights management, printed image quality control and digital and analog storage of all photography on exhibit and in the collection at the museum. She also manages the current Digital Asset Management Systems (DAMS) migration project and serves as Newseum’s spokesperson for all Spanish-speaking media. Babic is a frequent speaker and moderator for important conversations about photojournalism issues such as women covering conflict from the front lines, and how photography exhibits are used to talk about topics like food insecurity and the portrayal of women in politics. Originally from Panama, Babic has been working in the photography field for more than 20 years and has been responsible for the content, quality and integrity of all the photography in 60 Newseum exhibitions that have opened since 2008. Before joining the Newseum, she worked as photo researcher at analogue and online photo licensing agencies in Virginia, a television host and producer in Spain, and an editor for a book publishing company in Panama.

C.W. Griffin
Project Coordinator
C.W. is a Miami photojournalist and photography educator. He has taught at the University of Miami for many years, and spent three decades as a staff photographer at The Miami Herald. He is the recipient of numerous awards and while serving in the military, he was the first African-American photographer in the history of the military to be named Military Photographer of the Year for all branches of the service worldwide. His work has appeared in numerous books and magazines such as National Geographic, Smithsonian and Time. He was represented in the book and exhibit ‘Contemporary Black Photographers.’ His work has also been a part of many major photography exhibits in galleries such as the Brooklyn Museum of Art, The Corcoran Gallery of Art and the Historical Museum of Miami.

Luis Rios
Photo Editor
Luis is the San Antonio Express-News Director of Photography. He is a national award-winning editor whose editing work is highlighted by two Pulitzer Prizes, a RFK Photojournalism Award, two Scripps Howard Photojournalism Awards and several National Headliners and World Press photography awards. He was named the National Press Photographers Association Editor of the Year for 2017.

Jenny Babot Romney
Graphics Coordinator
Jenny is a graphic designer and media specialist from Miami, Florida. She graduated from Barry University with a degree in Professional Administration and studied Graphic Design at the University of Miami. Jenny’s work combines empathy for the consumer experience with unique and memorable visuals. Her professional experience includes nearly 20 years at the Miami Herald as Presentations Manager subsequent to her 10-year term as Media Director for Royal Crown Cola Company in Ft. Lauderdale. Jenny’s current focus is helping individuals and companies increase target visibility through the creation of eye-catching collateral materials. She is currently the principal photographer at FotoJENica LLC.

Martina Tuaty
Social Media Coordinator
Martina is a photographic artist whose work explores the tenuous space between public and private experiences. She is inspired by serene moments of isolation within the chaos of the moving world around us. She holds a BFA in Photography from Pratt Institute and is currently based in Miami, FL.