Introducing the 2026 CatchLight Global Fellowship jury

Johanna Alarcón is a photojournalist and visual storyteller based in Ecuador whose work is focused on social justice, human rights, identity, and gender-related issues. In addition to the 2024 CatchLight Global Fellowship, she has received awards and honors from World Press Photo, National Geographic, Magnum Foundation, among other prominent institutions in the field of photography. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, Smithsonian Magazine, National Geographic, The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, and many other publications, and her work has been exhibited worldwide. text goes here

Lisa Kleiner Chanoff is co-founder and president of Catapult Film Fund, an organization that supports nonfiction filmmakers with early-stage funding and mentorship. Before filmmaking, she practiced law in San Francisco and with the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. Lisa also has a master’s degree in museum studies. Her executive producer credits include documentaries Watchers of the Sky, Art and Craft, Brimstone and Glory, When God Sleeps, Extremis, Life Overtakes Me, and Lift, as well as narrative features Burn Country, Fruitvale Station, Loves & Taxes, The Outside Story, and Western. She also serves on the boards of SFFILM, CatchLight, and The Redford Center, and is an advisor to the Close Up Initiative for filmmakers from Southwest Asia and North Africa. Lisa is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Abby Chen is an internationally recognized curator, educator, writer and community organizer, and the Asian Art Museum’s first head of contemporary art. Chen was previously the artistic director at the Chinese Culture Center of San Francisco, where she helped transform the organization through risk-taking exhibitions, process-driven practices, and impactful public art. She was the curator for the Taiwan Pavilion at the 2024 Venice Biennale. She is the recipient of the 2024 National Art Education Association Asian Art and Culture Interest Group Distinguished Art Educator Award. Her experimental approach often explores the intersectionalities of race, sexuality, gender, nation, migration, and technology in the United States and Asia. She holds an M.A. in visual and critical Studies from the California College of Arts.

Ala Kheir is a photographer and educator whose work actively engages with his home country, Sudan. Through his photography, he creates personal perspectives and narratives that reflect his immediate surroundings. He has been actively engaged with the Sudanese photography archives, researching, archiving, restoring, and exhibiting the work of photographers like Elsharif Aboud and Abbas Habiballah. He also has been involved in training and networking for photographers in Africa, notably with the Centers of Learning for Photography in Africa in Johannesburg, South Africa. Kheir is a co-founder of the Sudanese Photographers Group. Currently, he runs The Other Vision (TOV), a photography platform that focuses on photography education, training, and amplification of young Sudanese photographers. Through TOV, he engages with the public in an attempt to address social issues and change in Sudan.

Sophie Parker is the director of Photo London, which she joined in 2018 as the Gallery Development Manager and later became associate director before assuming her current role. Prior to Photo London, Parker worked at Alan Cristea gallery, RA Magazine, and Lewisham Local History Society. She has curated and organized exhibitions, events and workshops, ranging in a variety of subjects from fine art, photography and performance art to history and politics. She has a Masters degree in Anthropology and Cultural Politics from Goldsmiths, University of London and a BA Honours in History of Art and Design from Manchester Metropolitan University.