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
Do Black Lives Matter? Part 1: An introduction to the historical devaluation of Black people
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...
How watching Korean food videos can be a soothing vacation as the pandemic drags on in Milwaukee
The COVID-19 pandemic has allowed many residents of Milwaukee the time to improve their cooking skills, either to preserve their sanity during isolation or from simple necessity. One thing I never expected was that watching food preparation would become part of my...
Protecting the rule of law: President Joe Biden may be unable to stop the Republican drive to end democracy
Joe Biden’s presidency is just over a year old. Biden has embraced the old idea, established by the Democrats under President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the Republicans under President Dwight D. Eisenhower, that in a democracy, the federal government has a...
What Justice Stephen Breyer’s retirement from the Supreme Court means for American democracy
Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer announced plans to step down from the court at the end of the term. The 83 years old made the announcement during an appearance with President Joe Biden on January 27. Breyer took his seat on the court on August 3, 1994. While the...
Flashbacks of the USSR: Understanding the crisis behind Russia’s high-stakes gamble to invade Ukraine
The Pentagon ordered up to 8,500 troops to go on standby in case they are needed to defend Ukraine against Russian aggression. The troops have not been activated. If they are, they will deploy to nations allied with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO),...
Why the Supreme Court’s right-wing political ruling against vaccinations further weaponizes COVID-19
On January 13, by a vote of 6 to 3, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the Biden administration’s requirement that businesses with more than 100 employees address the coronavirus pandemic by making employees either get vaccines or, if they choose not to be vaccinated,...
Thich Nhat Hanh: Remembering the influential Buddhist monk who taught me to be a better Christian
Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh, one of the world’s most influential spiritual leaders and pioneer of the modern mindfulness movement, died on January 22 at the age of 95. I had the unexpected honor of meeting him in my youth. That brief encounter and his insightful...
When society is itself the tyrant: Understanding why America has never been a Democracy of the people
“We’re tired of all this beatin’, we’re tired of takin’ this. It’s been a hundred years and we’re still being beaten and shot at, crosses are still being burned, because we want to vote. But I’m goin’ to stay in Mississippi and if they shoot me down, I’ll be buried...
One-Party Rule: Why Republicans oppose the foundation of democracy and the freedom to vote
Republicans say they oppose the Freedom to Vote: John R. Lewis Act because it is an attempt on the part of Democrats to win elections in the future by “nationalizing” them, taking away the right of states to arrange their laws as they wish. Voting rights legislation...
