With a dedicated career helping children and families adversely impacted by immigration, homelessness, abuse, and oppressive systems in South America, Europe, and his native Milwaukee, Luke serves as Director of Program Design and Community Engagement at the Institute for Child and Family Well-being at Children’s Wisconsin.
As an award-winning Senior Columnist for the Milwaukee Independent, Reggie Jackson covers a range of African American issues. He is also a Consultant with Nurturing Diversity Partners, and volunteers as Head Griot for America’s Black Holocaust Museum (ABHM) in Bronzeville.
REGGIE JACKSON: 7x Award Winner in Best Column categories from the Milwaukee Press Club
As a teacher for over twenty years, Dominic Inouye helped students to develop their reading, writing, critical thinking, and, most of all, their voices. He worked as The Pfister Hotel Narrator, a one-year appointment, and currently manages the ZIP MKE project that photo documents the city to promote cultural understanding.
Dominic Inouye: 2x Award Winner in Best Column category from the Milwaukee Press Club
Dr. Kenneth Cole is a Licensed Psychologist who has spent the past two decades helping members of the community in developing the ability to bring about positive change for their lives, and empowering those individuals to advocate for themselves.
Kenneth Cole: 2x Award Winner in Reporting categories from the Milwaukee Press Club
Pardeep Kaleka is the Executive Director of the Interfaith Conference of Greater Milwaukee, published author of The Gifts of Our Wounds, award-winning columnist with Milwaukee Independent, and a clinician specializing in utilizing a trauma-informed approach to treat survivors and perpetrators of assault, abuse, and acts of violence.
PARDEEP KALEKA: Winner in Best Blog category of the 88th Annual Milwaukee Press Club Awards
John Pavlovitz: Winner of Best Blog at the 89th Annual Milwaukee Press Club Awards
Recent Columns
From Montana to Wisconsin: Mountain Biking finds a home in Milwaukee after 100 years
“Nature is not a place to visit, it is home.” These words by noted environmentalist and poet, Gary Snyder resonate deeply with me, and any who venture outdoors to hike trails, ride their bikes through a forest, or simply lay on their back to look up through the trees....
Political Technology: How Trump constructed a false world for voters to elevate his power as a strongman
After a Georgia grand jury’s indictment of 19 people who worked to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, indicted co-conspirator and Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani made a statement saying: “This is an affront to American Democracy and does permanent,...
An indictment of Trump’s supporters: When “law and order” Americans tolerate crimes against America
He has been indicted again, this time for trying to override the voices and votes of the American people in order to steal an election and permanently install himself as a dictator. These are offenses of the presidency more traitorous and sobering than anything we’ve...
Eternal Justice: President James A. Garfield and the ideas that outlive all earthly things
On August 6, 1880, Republican presidential candidate James A. Garfield gave one of his most famous speeches. Then a congressional representative from Ohio, Garfield was in New York City to make peace with Roscoe Conkling, a Republican kingmaker who hated him and his...
Trump loyalists outline plan to create a dictatorship if voters return him to power in 2024
A recent story in “The New York Times” outlined how former president Donald Trump and his allies are planning to create a dictatorship if voters return him to power in 2024. The article talks about how Trump and his loyalists plan to “centralize more power...
How “Bidenomics” breaks from the economic theory that failed America’s middle class for decades
In Chicago at the end of June, President Joe Biden gave a historic speech at the Old Post Office Building downtown. In it, he was crystal clear that he has launched a new economic vision for the United States to stand against that of today’s Republicans. As he has...
Return to Ukraine: A trauma loop of travel from Milwaukee to a country still at war a year later
Return to Ukraine: This feature is part of an original Milwaukee Independent editorial series that recorded news from areas across Ukraine, including Milwaukee's sister city of Irpin, from June to July of 2023. It was the second time in the span of a year that the...
Abandoning Kids: Why Republican-dominated state legislatures are pushing to weaken child labor laws
“Banning abortions. Burning Books. Children in factories. Do Republicans want to engineer an uneducated and indentured workforce? At least if little kids are working on assembly lines, they won’t be shot in schools.” – Wisconsin Activist,...
Theology shaped by race: Why it is time for American Christians to kiss a White Jesus goodbye
Growing-up I lived with an image of Jesus. I am talking about a literal picture that inhabited our family room, my Catholic school hallways, and the homes of many of the Christians I knew. With angular features, blue eyes, and flowing golden hair this Jesus was calm,...
