Sample pageant judge biography

Renee’ Adcock

2021 MS Senior World Leadership

A graduate from Mississippi University for Women, Renee majored in accounting and started her career at Iowa Power and Light as a corporate accountant.  Years later she joined PricewaterhouseCoopers in Manhattan, New York.  After earning an MBA from Saint Leo University, she completed the first year of the PhD program in Organizational Leadership. Renee retired from PwC as a Director in the Corporate Treasury Practice.

A retired businesswoman, Renee recognizes the value pageantry provides a woman in her career. Confidence, poise, and mastery of interview skills are a few of the transferable skills pageants offer.  On-stage Q&A prepared Renee’ to become a national presenter at Treasury related conferences and gave her experience relating to a variety of impromptu situations with grace and composure.  As a pageant coach, she shares her experience with women who have the desire to reach their full potential.

As a member of the Mississippi Association of Pageant Judges, Renee' has a deep appreciation of pageants.  She has spent years in the pageant industry in various roles including judge, emcee, tabulator, contestant, and coach.

​

Sean Ashcraft

Executive Director of Academic Operations and Institutional Effectiveness

Born and raised in Louisville, KY, Mr. Ashcraft currently serves as the Executive Director of Academic Operations and Institutional Effectiveness with Sullivan University. He has been in the field of higher education for 14 years and has a Master of Science in Conflict Management, as well as a Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration with a concentration in Human Resources. He will begin pursuing his doctorate degree in Winter of 2022.

Mr. Ashcraft has a passion for life-long learning and working in education is his dream. Mentoring his team and seeing students succeed are what gives him the satisfaction of making a difference

A huge thank you to everyone who’s submitted something to our data viz awards!

We’ve been totally blown away by the high standard of entries this year. Lucky for us, we’ve got some data viz gurus on board to help with the difficult task of picking the winners.

Meet your 2014 judges...

Alberto is director of the visualization program at the University of Miami's Center for Computational Science and lectures on infographics and data visualization at the university’s School of Communication. He is also author of ‘The Functional Art: An Introduction to Information Graphics and Visualization’.

@albertocairo | thefunctionalart.com

With over 40 years experience in design and corporate branding, Aziz is a leading figure in the design industry. Co-founder of The Partners, the UK’s most awarded branding agency, and former president of D&AD, Europe’s premier association for design and advertising, Aziz has won over 200 creative awards and holds an honorary doctorate of design from the University of Wolverhampton.

Giorgia is an information designer and researcher who co-founded Accurat, an information design company based in Milan and New York. She has recently completed a PhD in Design at Politecnico di Milano within Density Design Lab and her work has featured in magazines such as the New York Times, FastCompany and Forbes.

@giorgialupi | giorgialupi.net

David is an award-winning writer and journalist who founded the blog Information is Beautiful. Author of the best-selling infographics book, ‘Information is Beautiful’ he has recently published its follow-up, ‘Knowledge is Beautiful’. His work has appeared in over 40 publications internationally, including The Guardian, Wired, and Die Zeit.

@infobeautiful | davidmccandless.com

Stefanie specialises in data-related design, with work ranging from data visualization and informati

Vivienne has been in the dance world her whole life. She was born in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and grew up in New York City. Dancing since age three, she is fully classically trained and certified by the Royal Academy of Dance (London).

In New York City, Vivienne was privately taught by Ballet Master Christine Neubert and celebrated ballerina of the Royal Ballet, beloved dancer, and philanthropist Mrs. Valerie Taylor-Barnes. She danced professionally with the Neubert Dance Company and Carnegie Ballet.

Miss Vivienne then moved from professional dance to corporate work while teaching dance part-time. It was then that she discovered her great love for teaching dance. She left the corporate world behind to fully commit to training young dancers.  

Her next stop was the University of Surrey in Guildford, UK, where she earned a degree in Ballet Education and full RAD teacher certification. Upon graduating, she was offered the Young Children’s Program Director position at Dance Studio No. 1 in Santa Monica, California. She successfully enrolled hundreds of students in the RAD examinations for two decades annually. She coached and trained young dancers for the International Dance Acclaim (IDA) and the Youth American Grand Prix (YAGP). Her students have been chosen for scholarships and acceptance to prestigious dance schools to attend summer programs in Europe, such as Royal Danish Ballet, Central Ballet School London, Rambert School of Ballet and Contemporary Dance, Royal Ballet School, ART of Madrid, to name a few.

As a progressive learner, Vivienne is a doctoral candidate at the Swiss School of Business & Management in Geneva, Switzerland. Last summer, she completed all required coursework and research in International Law and Politics at the University of Oxford, England. Her diverse academic background in International Business and Marketing has provided her with a unique platform for global knowledge. As a native New Yorker, she studied global legal issue

Writing a Pageant Bio is actually pretty easy. The problem is-we tend to over think what we really need to do.  Just remember “the 5 W’s”: who, what, when, where and why {not all in that order}.  If you follow this layout you will have a bio you can be proud of.

Start with scratch paper and write down a few lists of key words to motivate you.  Anything that will remind you and keep you focused on your important key points.

Your opening paragraph should be your name and where you are from.  We will call this the {WHO} “the early years.”  Example:

“Nicole Falsone was born and raised in New Mexico.   When she was 19 she decided to follow a career opportunity and make a move one state over to Arizona where she continued to live until her early 30’s…  ”

You can expand the early years of your life with the idea that you will next transition into your current life role.  This area will become your {WHEN} Example:

“…Born into a large Italian American family, Nicole learned early that “family” was the most important part of life.   Her love of “family” is what inspired Nicole to enter into the world of pageantry.  To Nicole, friends are like family. Her life long friends affliction with Rheumatoid Arthritis pulled her towards this cause and the need to raise awareness of this disease in young adults. She quickly realized that the best way to help her friend was to get involved on the ground level of education and support.  This was the moment when Nicole decided to start a movement- “In Motion for a Cure… ”

Your next paragraph will start your {WHAT/WHERE} section.  You want to use this space to talk about what titles you competed, captured or are currently vying for.  This area will allow you to talk about WHAT you plan to do with this opportunity (if you win) or have done in the past and plan to continue with. Think of this