Some of our KIDS FIRST! Jurors

 

Denise B
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

Eli Byerly
Eli Byerly

Eli Byerly is a chef from Louisiana. She has volunteered as a juror and office assistant in the Santa Fe office since 2014. She always had a passion for educating young children and encouraging their interests, so KIDS FIRST! is a perfect fit for her! She really enjoys watching and evaluating movies, audio CD's, interactive learning media and film festivals entries. She finds it quite fulfilling to help parents, teachers and countless others monitor the media that their children will potentially experience via her screenings and reviews. She is currently pursuing her food truck dreams with her husband, Ben and her best friend and loyal mutt, Lewis. I believe volunteering is a vital part of being involved in your community and I get such enjoyment from helping mine via KIDS FIRST!


Ruth Anderson
Ruth Anderson

Ruth Anderson recently retired after dedicating 25 years to public education in the areas of students and adults with disabilities.  She is spending every moment enjoying her family and friends and envisioning how she wants to spend the second half of her life.  Passions include parenting, opening doors for her teenage daughters, being creative, learning new skills and travel.  Ruth believes that every day she has the ability to help make someone else's day a little better.

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
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.


Katarzyna Kochany

Katarzyna Kochany is a filmmaker with a special interest in family entertainment and animation/VFX.  She has a ten year track record on the festival circuit, with work showcased on every continent except Antarctica, earning over 30 awards and 150 official selections at events in USA, Canada, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Cyprus, Denmark, Greece, India, Italy and Kingdom of Swaziland.  For a more detailed bio please see ttp://www.imdb.me/katarzyna.kochany 

 

JuanitaSeon
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.

amanda
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. 


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.

Rachael Vickers
Rachael Vickers

Rachael is a mother of four wonderful children born between 2001 and 2016. Yes, she looks young to have a child who is a mere ten years younger than her.  Her older three are not her biological babies, but her babies nonetheless. Her family loves board games, comic books and geek culture in general. She is a personal assistant and runs a board game blog as well as an Etsy shop. They have frequent movie nights and feel much safer knowing what they are about to watch with their children. She finds it very important to monitor the programs her children watch and thus, participates as a KIDS FIRST! Juror. She loves being part of KIDS FIRST! and hopes to continue being involved.

Cheron Bayna
Cheron Bayna

Thank you KIDS FIRST! for all that you do!  It has been a wonderful journey being a juror with you.  Our family does not have TV; we just watch videos and this experience has enabled us to watch some videos with some friends that we would have never been exposed too.   Besides seeing some good ones and bad ones we are not just sitting back and watching, we are communicating about the show that we watch.  What we learned from them and what we liked and did not like about them.  Now watching videos is a whole new experience with our children!  Before picking up a video at the rental place I always look at your endorsed titles to see what would be best for my children.  Its great to know that I can always trust what videos are on your site to be safe for my children's eyes and ears! Keep up the GREAT work KIDS FIRST!

Karyn Anderson
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.

 

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