Grad School 180

Judges for the Competition

We are delighted to introduce our judges:

 

 

William Martin is an Epidemiologist with the Texas Department of State Health Service (DSHS) in Tyler, TX, as part of a dedicated team to help fight COVID-19 in East Texas. He is currently involved in the investigation of re-infections, breakthrough cases, and variants.  He has a masters degree (MPH) from Tulane School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, in International Heath and Development, with a concentration in Communications and Education.  His background includes media for health education and promotion, logic modeling, grant-writing and employing a Social Ecological approach to public health challenges, in order to develop sustainable solutions in culturally appropriate, real-world contexts. 

 

Jane Neal is the executive director of The Tyler Loop, a nonprofit journalism startup that explores policy, history and demographics in Tyler, Texas. Jane also serves as storytelling director of Out of the Loop.

In addition to the Loop, she works at the Literacy Council of Tyler and Tyler Public Library. Jane is a certified interfaith spiritual guide. She is a member of Leadership Tyler Class 33 and a former French teacher at the newly-named Tyler Legacy High School, where she ran a storytelling program called Senior Stories.

 

Benny Yazdanpanahi is the Chief Information Officer for City of Tyler, with a strong background in information technology, team building, data center, management, leadership, and security. Benny also earned his MS in Computer Science from the University of Texas at Tyler.