2022 POY Judges
Dale Omori
At its best, a photograph or film tells a story that connects, a reminder that others share our values, our struggles, and our dreams.
That’s the lesson Dale Omori, founder of Omori Media, taken from more than 3 decades as a newspaper photojournalist at the Kettering-Oakwood Times, The Cincinnati Post, and The Plain Dealer. His newspaper career was followed by a stint as a producer/director at one of Cleveland’s largest marketing agencies. Now, running his own business, that credo still guides his work today.
Since graduating from Bowling Green State University, Omori has witnessed and recorded life literally from birth to death, photographing everything from nurse midwives to hospice care for the indigent. Recently, he even traveled to Ethiopia to film and photograph the expedition of a paleoanthropologist searching for the origins of man.
Omori’s work both in editorial and advertising has been recognized with two regional Emmy Awards, an Addy Award by the American Advertising Association, a Golden Eye Award from the World Photo Press Foundation, and recognition from the Pictures of the Year competition for multimedia as well as photography. He has been an NPPA Region 4 Photographer of the Year and has twice been named POY by the Ohio News Photographer’s Association. His independent short films have screened and won awards at the Cleveland International Film Festival and most recently at the Chagrin Documentary Film Festival.
Beyond his work behind the camera, Omori has worn many hats – producer, editor, director, and writer – but no matter the role, he always adheres to one rule. Be faithful to the story.
Lois Raimondo
Lois Raimondo’s first journalism job was translating for CBS News during former President Reagan’s trip to China. At the time, Raimondo was living full-time in a small Shandong village riding a Flying Pigeon bicycle around the countryside collecting folktales while studying Ming Dynasty folk literature at a local university. Raimondo went on to do freelance work, as a writer and photographer, living and working in Asia and Southeast Asia for more than ten years, including four years posted to Hanoi, Vietnam for Associated Press as the agency’s chief country photographer.
Raimondo’s work has appeared in such publications as National Geographic, the New York Times, The Washington Post, Smithsonian Magazine, Newsweek, and Time. Her journalism, both pictures and words, has received national and international recognition. Her New York Newsday Investigative team’s 1998 investigative story on corruption in the New York City Mitchell Lama housing project earned a Pulitzer Prize finalist nomination. In 2005, she was awarded the Alicia Patterson Journalism Fellowship to report on the rise of Islamic fundamentalism in Pakistan. She spent the year working in the northwest frontier provinces of Balochistan and Waziristan. She won the Weintal Prize for Diplomatic Reporting in 2002 for her frontline reporting on the war in Afghanistan.
Raimondo is currently an Associate Professor in Journalism teaching documentary photography, International Journalism, and Media Law at Ethics at the Reed College of Media at West Virginia University.
Sam Greene
Sam Greene is a staff multimedia journalist at The Cincinnati Enquirer where he has covered the region’s biggest sports moments and breaking news since 2015. After graduating from The University of Cincinnati’s journalism program he spent time with The Lorain Morning Journal, The Columbus Dispatch and Ohio State University’s Office of Student Life before completing his Tour of Ohio, returning to the Enquirer’s newsroom where his journey previously began as an intern.
Sam has covered national sports events, including a Super Bowl, MLB All-Star Game, The NFL International Series, and FIFA World Cup qualifying matches, as well as major breaking news events, and was part of The Enquirer’s 2018 Pulitzer Prize-winning “Seven Days of Heroin” team.