Some of our KIDS FIRST! Jurors
Moturayo Ajibulu
Motunrayo (age 17) lives in Virginia, is a High School Senior who has been active in Drama club since her freshman year. She is passionate about media and theater. She is the Media Manager of her school’s Drama Club and helps to select what shows they perform. When she is not on stage, she tries to be active in her community as much as possible. She wanted to join KIDS FIRST! because she believes it’s important that kids consume appropriate media. In her free time she loves reading a good book and writing stories.
Karyn Anderson
Karyn Anderson is a special education teacher and attorney. She has 6 kids and stepkids between the ages of 22 and 6 months. She has taught grades pre-k through 9, and loves to work with children of all ages. She and her filmmaker husband spend their summers driving across the country running acting summer camps for kids. She is fluent in Portuguese and ASL, and has lived and worked in New Zealand, Brazil, and France. She currently runs her own business providing classes for active toddlers, and she and her husband do musical assemblies for schools promoting character education. She is passionate about educating children through all kinds of uplifting media.
Ankit Bangchi
Ankit is a film festival programmer / curator for multiple festivals.
Lisa Black Cohen
Lisa is a graduate student at Sotheby's Institute of Art as well as a Special Ed / General Ed elementary school teacher. She combines the two words of contemporary art and special Ed. She lives in NYC.
Michelle Bothell
Michelle is recently retired and worked as a CNA FOR 25 years. She is a grandmother of two little guys.
Denise Bloomfield
Denise A. Bloomfield has an A.A. Degree in Journalism and a B.A. Degree is Addictive Studies. She has experience as a Domestic Violence Advocate and has also worked in Special Education, Child Abuse Prevention and has been a Freelance Writer for local magazines and newspapers. She currently is a Freelance Writer, Homeschooling Mom and Publisher of SoCal City Kids (www.socalcitykids.com). She loves writing, homeschooling, photography, being a Mom and reviewing DVDs and Screenplays. Denise says,"I love being a Juror for KIDS FIRST! because it is interesting, fun and a wonderful opportunity!" More on Amazon Author page: https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B00F9F7W70
Connie Chu
Connie is a self published author from San Francisco, Ca.
Michael Fishman
Michael Fishman has a B.A. in English and an M.A. in Film from American University. He has worked for the Independent Filmmaker Project, Tribeca Film Institute and the Hamptons International Film Festival. He has published poems in American Literary and SPIT! magazines. He developed and manages the website, http://independentfilmnow.com/. Michael lives in New York City.
Geanice Gee
Geanice Gee lives in Prince George’s County, MD. She has a M.A. in English and Creative Writing and a B.A. in English with a writing concentration. Currently, she works as an online Adjunct Instructor. In April 2016, her short play, Humbling Beginnings was part of a women's festival at I Act, You Act! Harlem Theater. In September 2016, she participated in A Play in a Day with the Leela NYC Theatre Festival, where she wrote a short play called Rude Awakening. Soon after, her short play called Tell Me Who Cares was read at the Lama Theater Company in New York. She has judged films for the Brooklyn Horror Film Festival, Winter Festival Awards and Wayfarer Film Festival. In 2015, she earned an IMDb credit as a script editor for a short film called Contaminate. During her free time, she enjoys writing poetry and watching as much television as possible.
Gloria Junge
Gloria hails from Nairobi, Kenya and is a mom with film reviewing experience.
Bria Holmes
Xiangxi Kong
Xiangxi Kong is a 20-year-old international student in her junior year at Emerson College in Boston. She has been interested in film since kindergarten and is realizing her dream in college. She has always believed that a good movie can change a child's life, so she chose to join this team. Her other hobbies include rescuing cats and watching musicals.
Debra Larson
Juanita Seon Leary
Juanita Seon Leary has been a KIDS FIRST! Juror since 2007. Her interest and passion for movies and children are what attracted her to the program. Ms. Seon is an Adult Juror and certified KIDS FIRST! Film Critics Boot Camp Instructor. She is the founder and director of Young Media Critics - advocates for media & digital literacy. Young Media Critics Movie Club teaches critical thinking skills to youth, as part of the media literacy movement. Ms. Leary is the adult co-host of Young Media Critics, an internet radio show on Blogtalk.com, a Toastmaster and a member of the Main Line Speaks Toastmasters Club. Ms. Leary resides in Philadelphia, PA and is very excited about bringing the concepts of KIDS FIRST! to the area.
Changyang Li
Changyang is a student and hails from Irvine, CA
Amanda McNeely
Amanda McNeely has been married to her husband for 12 years and has three young boys, ages 7, 3 and 1. Her family also has a new black lab puppy named Lucy, who was born in April 2017. Needless to say, they have their hands full. She has been active duty in the U.S. Navy for over 13 years and is currently stationed in Washington state. She is originally from North Dakota. Some of the other states that she has been stationed in are Hawaii, Colorado and Hawaii. Her family likes to spend quality time together, whether it is hiking, playing outside, camping, playing board games or watching movies. The reason she got involved with KIDS FIRST is because she and her husband have always enjoyed movies, but as they started having children, they realized that not everything is kid appropriate, even when it says it might be! She likes that she gives to an organization that is committed to putting their stamp of approval on quality children’s entertainment.
Eunnet Misiko
Kimberly Mullins
Kimberly Mullins found KIDS FIRST! via a volunteer site (volunteermatch.com). In reading what the organization is all about and the volunteer juror duties, Kimberly felt interested and signed up. Since joining in January 2018, Kimberly has reviewed several DVDs, a couple of feature films, a script and a couple of short film submissions to the KIDS FIRST! Film Festival. Kimberly's educational background includes television, radio and film so this opportunity was very appropriate for her. She enjoys reviewing films and feels very humbled that her opinions have an impact on consumers in a very positive way.
Katrina Phagoo
Katrina is a university student with experience in film reviewing.
Zuoqing Rao
Zuoqing is a first time film reviewer from Irvine, CA.
Janie Ramirez
Janie Ramirez (age 16) is from Houston, TX and is a high school senior with three siblings and several young cousins. She decided to join KIDS FIRST because it seems like a really fun way to volunteer. She really enjoys volunteering, especially if it is for a good cause, like helping children. What concerns her most about what kids watch is how much films influence them because they are still growing. She is taking dual credits in school so, when she does have free time she loves to watch movies and TV shows. Her favorite film so far is Vampire Diaries and its spin-offs because they are really entertaining. She loves their story lines and experiences many emotions while watching the series. She is most proud of graduating early and having about 27 college credits once she graduates. An extra fact about her is that she has five dogs.
Elizabeth Velez
Tom Wang
Tom Wang (age 20) lives in Amherst, MA. He wanted to join KIDS FIRST! to hone his writing skills since it is an important asset for any career. He also wanted to learn how a movie is reviewed, or the process of analyzing a movie and how the concept of that works. The concern he has for kids watching media is that too much content is way too violent for younger audiences. He is currently a college student and hopes to become a software engineer once he graduated, if he doesn’t pursue a master’s degree. In his free time, he codes a lot, works on projects and watches movies. His favorite film is Anita, an inspiring film about the singer Anita Mui, dubbed the Daughter of Hong Kong. She was one of the most iconic Cantopop singers and the face of Hong Kong entertainment. He is most proud of having transformed himself into a capable Computer Science student.
