The Judges

Aaron Gilchrist
Co-anchor
WWBT-TV 12

Aaron Gilchrist started working in television at 16, producing and hosting educational news magazine shows. Now 24, he may be Richmond’s youngest television news anchor. He was born in Queens, N.Y., then when he was 7 moved to Richmond with his grandparents, who raised him. He attended Binford Middle School, Richmond Community High and graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University. Since 2001, he’s been anchoring NBC 12’s noon news. And for the past year, he’s been braving before-sunrise mornings as co-anchor of “NBC 12 News Today.”

Barbara Grey
Adjunct professor
Virginia Union University

In 1988, Barbara Grey became the first woman named as Style Weekly’s Richmonder of the Year. A lifelong educator, she is a retired principal of Fox Elementary. Now she’s an adjunct professor in arts and humanities at Virginia Union University. She also serves as co-director of the university’s African and Folk Art Museum. Her son, Robert Grey Jr., a partner at Hunton & Williams, is president of the American Bar Association.

Stephanie Kirksey
Executive vice president
Greater Richmond Chamber of Commerce

Stephanie Kirksey has overseen the chamber’s programs and services since 2002. An active volunteer, she serves on the boards of Comfort Zone Camp, which caters to children grieving from the loss of a parent, and ESI Connections, a local emergency shelter. She also helped C3, the Creative Change Center, get off the ground. A New Jersey native, Kirksey is a graduate of Rutgers University and earned her master’s degree in project management from George Washington University. Kirksey and her husband live in Westover Hills with their 22-month-old daughter, Ella.

Anne Marie McHugh
President
Junior Achievement of Central Virginia

For the past four years, Anne Marie McHugh has led the nonprofit Junior Achievement, which uses volunteers to teach business and economics to 20,000 children from kindergarten through grade 12. She formerly served as executive director for The John Tyler Community College Foundation. She is active in the community, serving on the boards of Chesterfield Communities in Schools, the Midlothian YMCA, September 11th Victims Relief Fund and the Hanover Business Council Board. McHugh, a previous “Top Forty Under 40” winner, is married with three children, ages 2, 4 and 6.

Mac Watson
Host,”The Mac Watson Show”
WRVA-AM 1140

Mac Watson is marking his one-year anniversary sounding off on “The Mac Watson Show,” which can be heard weekday afternoons from 3-7 p.m. on WRVA. An award-winning talk show host, his acerbic wit and blue-collar common sense have drawn loyal Richmond listeners. He started his professional career as an editor in publishing and is a freelance writer, covering such eclectic subjects as album-cover art, soap-making and high-tech movers and shakers. He has lived all across the country, but says he considers the East Coast to be the Right Coast.

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