We are happy to present our esteemed group of judges who will be working hard to identify the top winners! They represent members of government, journalism, foreign relations, and media.
An amazing group of Ukrainian and American leaders have come together to help promote Ukraine's voice to the American people!
Please take a moment to familiarize yourself with them and be sure to visit their web sites for more information!
Joe Lindsley, an American in Ukraine since the pandemic, is founder and editor of UkrainianFreedomNews.com and a daily war correspondent on Chicago’s WGN Radio with Bob Sirott. An alumnus of the Weekly Standard magazine, he worked as protégé to Fox News CEO Roger Ailes, a position from which he, on a mission to share the truth, escaped, as depicted in the Showtime TV series The Loudest Voice.
David Satter
American journalist and publicist, David is one of the leading commentators on the topic of Russia and the former Soviet Union. He is the author of a book about the collapse of the USSR and post-Soviet Russia, a former correspondent of the Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times. In 2013, he was the first American correspondent to be asked to leave the territory of Russia during the Cold War. He currently works at the Hudson Institute and the Foreign Policy Institute of the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University.
He has published two books in Ukrainian: In 2016, the "Spirit and Litera" publishing house published a Ukrainian translation of the book "The Less You Know, the Better you Sleep: Russia's Road to Terror and Dictatorship under Yeltsin and Putin," and, "The Day of Madness. Age of Delirium: The Decline and Fall of the Soviet Union, 1996.
Brian Mefford
Director and Founder of Wooden Horse Strategies LLC, a boutique governmental relations and strategic communications firm based in Kyiv, Ukraine. Named by the Kyiv Post Newspaper as one of the 20 “Most Influential Expats in Ukraine,” Mefford has lived and worked in Eastern Europe continuously for more than 23 years. He is a Senior Non-Resident Fellow at the Atlantic Council think tank and former Director of the International Republican Institute in Ukraine. Currently, he is managing the Help Ukraine 22/Operation Palyntsya humanitarian aid project, which has delivered more than $1.9 million USD to Ukrainians in need.
Luke Coffey
Luke Coffey is a senior fellow at Hudson Institute. His work at Hudson analyzes national security and foreign policy, with a focus on Europe, Eurasia, NATO, and transatlantic relations.
Alexander Vasiuk
Member of the Ukrainian parliament, member of the Committee on Legal Policy, and head of the parliamentary association "Ukraine-USA Strategic Partnership."
In recent years, the main goal has been the expansion of Ukrainian-American partnership relations, which are based on a shared vision of democracy, economic, and social prosperity of both countries.
Taras Yatsenko
Сo-founder and CEO of the "Your City" Media Hub (tvoemisto.tv) based in Lviv and Kyiv, Ukraine. . Founder of the Public Forums Platform Your City. Expert in marketing and communications. Graduate of Lviv Business School of Ukrainian Catholic University 2014-2016, Alumni of IREX's Ukrainian Media Partnership Program 2018.
Father Andriy Shestak
Professor Andrii Shestak holds a Licentiate in institutional communication, is a Director of the School of Journalism and Communication at the Ukrainian Catholic University, Vice Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences of UCU, priest, and executive head of the Pastoral Council of the Ukrainian Catholic Church. Media experts and photographers, especially in the topic of war photography of the XX century. Affiliated professor of the University of Notre Dame (USA).
Vira Rogova
Deputy Minister of Education and Science
Specialist in the field of education, teacher, worked as a teacher of Ukrainian language and literature, senior teacher of the Department of Education Management at the Kyiv Regional Institute of Postgraduate Education of Pedagogical Personnel.
Since December 2020, she has been appointed to the post of Deputy Minister of Education and Science of Ukraine.