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Multicultural Excellence Awards Judging

Industry leaders who are a part of the ANA Multicultural committee or have an expertise in Multicultural Marketing have the opportunity to become a judge. Over the course of three rounds of judging, agency and client side executives evaluate the submissions on two key factors: creativity and relevance. 

This in-depth review will help identify which submissions are worthy of consideration to win a Multicultural Excellence Award. All winners will then be recognized by the industry during the 2023 ANA Multicultural and Diversity Conference.

Thank You to Last Year's Final Round Jury

The Final Round jury will review the top 5 submissions in each category based on the final results of the main round. From this round, the top three winners in each category will be determined, including the Grand Prize winner and the category winners. We are grateful to have had this exclusive panel of brand marketers and agency heavyweights to be on this year's Final Round Jury.

  1. Rich Ferraro, Chief Communications Officer, GLAAD
  2. Jacqueline Gagne, SVP Multicultural Marketing HBO/HBO Max, HBO/WarnerMedia
  3. Genny Hom-Franzen, Executive Director, Asian American Advertising Federation (3AF)
  4. Spiro Papathanasakis, Co-Founder & Chief Strategy Officer, eSSENTIAL Accessibility Inc.
  5. Chris Peddy, Chief Marketing Officer, Jagermeister
  6. Yvette Peña, Vice President, Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, AARP
  7. Pamela Simmons, VP Multicultural Marketing, UnitedHealth Group, Inc.
  8. Lisa Skriloff, President, Multicultural Marketing Resources, Inc.
  9. Juanita Slappy, Multicultural Marketing, Cadillac, General Motors Company
  10. Rosemary Waldrip, Vice President, Marketing, Music Audience Exchange
  11. Marques Zak, Director, Cultural Platforms, American Express

Thank You to Last Year's Best in Show Jury

A blue-ribbon jury of brand marketers comprised the 2022 Best in Show Jury. Made up of Alliance for Inclusive Multicultural Marketing (AIMM) board members, these jurors selected the top prize, the best Multicultural Marketing of the year.        

  1. Charisse Hughes, SVP & Global CMO, Kellogg Company
  2. Kristy  LoRusso, National Chief Marketing Officer, Kaiser Permanente
  3. Sherina Smith, VP & Head of Marketing, American Family Insurance 
  4. Marissa  Solis, SVP Global Brand & Consumer Marketing, NFL
  5. Deborah  Yeh , CMO, Sephora

Here is what prior judges have to say:

"I was so pleased to see the variety of work being done across our industry as it pertained to reaching underrepresented groups. It made me proud to be a judge as I felt my insights in judging would help to direct the future of better campaigns for target audiences that weren't necessarily being targeted in the most effective ways. Thank you for giving me this opportunity."

"I greatly appreciated the opportunity to be a judge. It was a good confidence builder and productive learning experience reinforcing effective application of marketing principles... assessing the challenge/purpose, gathering information on the audience profiles and nuances, developing the messaging, creating the content, executing the creative, and measuring results."

"Judging the Multicultural Excellence Awards was an inspiring and rewarding experience. It is great to see so much purpose driven work being made that is not always accessible or widely circulated because of budget or regions."

We are thankful for last year’s two rounds of Multicultural Excellence Award judges. Without your diligence and expertise, we would not be able to make this happen.