MEET THEJudges Judges 2022

As a location photographer with over 50 years' experience, my award-winning images are used in magazines, newspapers, institutional and educational publications, public relations materials, newsletters, websites and much more. I work with such clients as The Associated Press, the Foundation for NIH, Great Lakes Publishing, Bloomberg, Quinns Auction Gallery, MGR Foundation, Children’s Miracle Network, Freemans Auction House, Doyles of New York, Washington Grant Makers, the Hudson Institute, The Whitaker Group, Exponent Philanthropy, The Community Foundation of Northern Virginia, GrayTV, Institute for Policy Innovation, Haddad Media and I have been featured in Photo Digital Imaging Magazine, Studio Photography Magazine, Resource Magazine, The Las Vegas Review Journal and the New York Times. I have photographed countless notables in the entertainment field, politicians including presidents and was a pageant photographer for 45 years! I reside outside of Richmond with my wife and our dog Parker!

Emili McPhail lives in New York City and works as a public relations professional in Global Communications at The Estée Lauder Companies. She specializes in media, executive and crisis communications, and corporate reputational work, with a passion for storytelling. Additionally, she sits on the Global Leadership Team for the Women’s Leadership Network, one of the company’s largest employee resource groups, and is a “Reverse Mentor,” to one of the company’s executive leaders. Previously, Emili served as Miss Virginia 2018. She spent the year on a tour of more than 70 schools, advocating for domestic hunger relief, and supporting local fundraisers and events. She competed at the 2019 Miss America Competition, where she played a rendition of the “Overture” from The Phantom of the Opera, her favorite musical, on the piano and won a preliminary award for private and onstage interview. She also spent several years competing to ultimately win Miss North Carolina’s Outstanding Teen 2013 and placed in the top eight at Miss America’s Outstanding Teen 2014. Emili moved to Virginia to attend Hollins University, where she received a B.A. in communication studies, with minors in psychology and leadership. In those four years, she fell in love with the Commonwealth of Virginia, and became passionate about women’s advancement and leadership. In her free time, Emili continues to support local food pantries in New York and enjoys traveling, learning to roller-skate, spending time with any dog she can, and is not-so-patiently awaiting a new Taylor Swift song.

Kat, of KP Strategies Agency, is an experienced consultant and business advisor with a demonstrated history in operations management. She has worked in banking and manufacturing, managed multiple small businesses, and served non-profits as well. Her skillset includes coaching, sales, team building, and business development. Kat started Spotless America in 2011 and has co-owned Farmburguesa Restaurants since their inception in 2018. She also founded Latinas Network, a regional non-profit for Latina professionals, in 2020. She serves on several boards, including Local Colors, Casa Latina, the Vinton Chamber of Commerce, the Grandin Village Business Association, and the 110 Society by the Taubman Museum. Kat has continued her education at Virginia Western Community College and earned a certificate in Women's Entrepreneurship from Cornell University. She and her partner Jimmy Delgado are proud parents to two sons: Julian and Jacob, and three playful pups: Jax, Jackie, and Skye. In her free time, Kat enjoys dancing!

Savannah Lane

From a very young age, Savannah Lane found a passion for advocacy and service and got her start in international advocacy as Virginia’s inaugural delegate for the Vital Voices organization (a program launched by Secretary Madeleine Albright) for her service to her community of Richmond. Savannah discovered the Miss America’s Outstanding Teen Organization and went on to place as first runner-up twice to Miss Virginia’s Outstanding Teen. Savannah’s discovery of the transformative power of development and service organizations led her to continue to compete in the Miss Virginia Organization where she was named Quality of Life runner-up in 2014, winner of the Quality of Life Award in 2015, preliminary talent winner in 2014 and 2015, and ultimately was crowned Miss Virginia 2015. Savannah competed at Miss America in 2015 where she placed in the top 15. Savannah went on to finish her degree at the University of Virginia debt-free from her MAO scholarship awards studying Foreign Affairs with a concentration in Middle Eastern Affairs while continuing her advocacy for the American Heart Association, autism communities in Virginia, serving as a Resident Advisor, and performing as a lead in UVA’s musical theater production of AIDA. Savannah moved to Washington, D.C., after she was one of eight women selected from across the country to serve as a Star Fellow for Running Start in a U.S. congressional office, where she served in the U.S. House of Representatives, trained young women to run for political office, and advocated for women in traditionally underrepresented fields. Savannah then served as director and managed portfolios surrounding the U.S.-Turkey bilateral relationship and developments in Syria and the Middle East. Savannah now serves as the Executive Director for NATO 2030 Global Fellowship Program, an international program sponsored by NATO’s Public Diplomacy Division. Savannah has published work and advocated for women in international spaces as a Salaam Fellow in Morocco, Syrian Refugees in Turkey, for economic gender inclusivity throughout NATO as an Aspen fellow,and was selected as one of ten young professionals in foreign policy to complete a diplomacy exchange with the United Arab Emirates Embassy to Abu Dhabi and Dubai. When not working, Savannah enjoys spending time with her boisterous family as one of two sets of twin girls with a decade younger brother, and serving as an international media commentator and keynote speaker for women’s advocacy organizations. Savannah has just completed her Master’s Degree in Global Affairs and International Security and enjoys sharing a behind the scenes look as a foreign policy content creator on social media in efforts to diversify diplomacy and create more transparent pipelines to policy.

Steve Stockton

Steve is the Executive Director of the Miss Mississippi Volunteer Pageant. He has supported scholarship pageants for over 40 years and has judged numerous state pageants. Steve serves on several scholarship foundation boards and has served as Chairman of The Historic Preservation Commission for the City of Amory. Steve is the Child Nutrition Director for the Amory School District where one of his schools was named the second healthiest school in the nation by Parent Magazine. He has also been appointed to several boards on the state and national level for child nutrition. Steve’s culinary skills have been featured in Southern Living Magazine, Mid-South Bride Magazine and the CBS television show “The Home Show”. Steve and his wife Darlene have one son, Josh and reside in Amory, Mississippi where they attend St. Andrew’s United Methodist Church and were named Amory’s Citizens of the Year