Esteemed Judges

Jessica Dean co-anchors the 5pm, 6pm and 10pm news on KARK 4 News in Little Rock. A native of Little Rock, she graduated from the University of Southern California before working in Fort Smith, Arkansas and KATV in Little Rock. While she has never had a beard, Jessica has spent years with long hair and hopes to apply that knowledge to her judging in this contest.

 

Rex Nelson, the president of Arkansas’ Independent Colleges and Universities, delves into all aspects of Southern culture in his Southern Fried blog, his weekly newspaper column and his magazine stories. He travels the back roads of the South, dealing with many men (and the occasional woman) with beards.

 

Mary Twedt is the host of Arkansas Cooks, a radio show on FM 89 KUAR that explores the taste of Arkansas cuisine through interviews, recipes, and food news.  She is also the author of the Twedt Family Cookbook.  Though she has never grown a beard herself, she has encountered many a thick, sumptuous beard on her numerous travels and has privately rated every one of them on a scale of 1 to 10.