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
Lessons from FDR: It turns out that authoritarian governments depend on the economies of democracies
On June 5, 1944, the day before the D-Day operation in which the Allied forces in World War II invaded German-occupied western Europe, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt gave his 29th Fireside Chat. Roosevelt told the American people that Rome had fallen to American...
Racists in mirror are closer than they appear: The false premise only some people can be true Americans
First they came for the Blacks, and I did not speak out – because I was not Black. Then they came for the women, and I did not speak out — because I was not a woman. Then they came for the gays, and I did not speak out — because I was not gay. Then they came for...
Reggie Jackson: My problem with how the American public reacted to Will Smith slapping Chris Rock
“Violence in all of its forms is poisonous and destructive. My behavior at last night’s Academy Awards was unacceptable and inexcusable. Jokes at my expense are a part of the job, but a joke about Jada’s medical condition was too much for me to bear and I reacted...
Invalid Opinions: Rejection of aid to Ukraine shows there are not two legitimate sides in every situation
Recently a stranger on social media was defending Fox News host Tucker Carlson’s disturbing and steadfast support of Russian President Vladimir Putin, along with the continual flood of atrocities being committed in Ukraine. When I pressed the self-identified Christian...
Cornerstone Speech: Why the Confederate ideology of Alexander Stephens remains with us today
March 21 was the anniversary of Georgia Senator Alexander Stephens’s Cornerstone Speech, given in 1861 just after he became the provisional vice president of the Confederacy. All these years later, the themes of that speech are still with us. Stephens spoke in...
Self-Inflicted Wounds: The damage we allow at home by applauding Tucker Carlson’s glorification of Putin
Russia continued its offensive against Ukraine on March 14, striking hard at civilians in Kyiv and Mariupol. The Russian army is gaining ground, but it appears to be sustaining massive losses of personnel and equipment which, in turn, is making leaders focus on...
Do our voices matter? Historian Heather Cox Richardson’s interview with President Joe Biden
Every day, people write to me and say they feel helpless to change the direction of our future. I always answer that we change the future by changing the way people think, and that we change the way people think by changing the way we talk about things. To that end, I...
President of Ukraine invokes memory of 9/11 terror attacks in appeal for help from U.S. Congress
Russia’s war on Ukraine has given us a penetrating snapshot of democracy and autocracy. Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky addressed a joint session of Congress virtually on March 16. His speech was live streamed to the American people. Looking tired, he wore a...
Dear America: We have heard your whitewashed version of history. It is time you hear the truth.
“Truth-telling is not the cause of the divisions in the country. A refusal to accept the truth is the cause.” – Reggie Jackson 2021 “Legislators in Iowa and Florida have introduced bills that would install cameras in classrooms for parents to monitor what is...
