Former Creative Loafing (Atlanta) staffer Heather Kuldell has been hired as AAN’s contest administrator. Kuldell, who started work at AAN last week, will be responsible for coordinating the association’s AltWeekly Awards contest.

The Washington, D.C.-area native started at Creative Loafing as an intern and worked her way through several positions, including listings editor, assistant A&E editor and music editor. “We really were sorry to see Heather go,” says Creative Loafing Editor Ken Edelstein. “More than anything else, I’ve always admired how Heather manages to figure out the best way to get things done. I think her experience at the Loaf will help her at AAN because she’s a journalist at heart and because she understands what alt-weekly staffs have to go through to get the paper out.”

Kuldell arrived at AAN as entries were being accepted for the 2007 competition. The contest has grown in size over the past few years, including a 39 percent increase in the number of entries submitted since an online registration system was launched two years ago. With four new categories added for this year’s competition, AAN expects to break last year’s record of 1554 entries.

The deadline for entries is Friday, Feb. 2.