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 Selma to Ukraine: Ordinary people continue fighting to protect their freedom and democracy
It was a beautiful sunny day on March 6 in Selma, Alabama, where thousands of people, including Vice President Kamala Harris and five other senior White House officials, met to honor the 57th anniversary of Bloody Sunday, when law enforcement officers tried to beat...
Why the Republican Party faces a crisis over Ukraine and the global support for its defense of democracy
Russia’s war on Ukraine continues. If the broader patterns of war apply, Russian president Vladimir Putin is making the war as senselessly brutal as possible, likely hoping to force Ukraine to give in quickly before global sanctions completely crush Russia and the...
COVID is Over: The pandemic is no longer a concern for those who have died and those who deny it still exists
COVID is over. That’s the single refrain of Conservative Americans right now. They shout it in red-faced, profanity-laden diatribes at the meetings of beleaguered school boards. They embody it as they stridently parade unmasked into local businesses waiting for...
President Joe Biden highlights unity and diplomatic triumphs against Putin in State of the Union address
In Ukraine, Russian troops escalated their bombing of cities, including Kyiv, Kharkiv, Odesa, and Mariupol, in what Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky called a campaign of terror to break the will of the Ukrainians. On March 1 (in U.S. time), airborne troops...
What we are taught to be ashamed of: A tale of two grandmothers and our ethnic identity in America
Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has forced Americans across the political spectrum to consider many issues. While taking place thousands of miles away, there is still a very real impact close to home. For me, it included considering how I was denied my...
A fight for democracy: Fierce resistance by the people of Ukraine exposes Putin’s enablers in America
Southern novelist William Faulkner’s famous line saying “The past is never dead. It’s not even past,” is usually interpreted as a reflection on how the evils of our history continue to shape the present. But Faulkner also argued, equally accurately, that the past is...
Blitzkrieg of Ukraine has emboldened Republicans to use global crisis to undermine an American President
“The prayers of the entire world are with the people of Ukraine tonight as they suffer an unprovoked and unjustified attack by Russian military forces. President Putin has chosen a premeditated war that will bring a catastrophic loss of life and human suffering....
How a generation of Americans went from fighting Reagan’s “Evil Empire” to praising Trump’s “Sugar Daddy”
Watching the slow and steady Russian advance toward Ukraine over recent weeks, a stomach-turning series of thoughts took up residence in my head… Americans are not going to side with Putin, are they? I mean, there is no way that will be their position, will it?...
Do Black Lives Matter? Part 4: The devaluation of Black people in science and medicine
This article is one of a special four-part series for Black History Month 2022. Reggie Jackson paints a picture of how we got to our current state, detailing a people who have been treated as less than human beings, and then less than first class citizens throughout...
