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
Déjà vu of Photojournalism: Forced progress, brutal invasion, mother nature, and the detritus of life
Back in March, I stood among the ruins of a neighborhood in Antakya, Türkiye. The Biblical city, once known as Antioch, had been devastated by the February 6 earthquake. As I took pictures of the collapsed residential areas, a member of the Turkish Red Crescent team I...
Republican’s Rigged System: The Pretense of election used as a hostile take over of Wisconsin’s democracy
A key fight over democracy is currently taking place in Wisconsin. On April 4, voters in the state will choose a new judge for Wisconsin’s Supreme Court. That judge will determine the seven-person court’s majority, a majority that will either uphold or possibly strike...
GOP lawmakers accused of unlawful political interference in criminal investigation of Trump
“It’s not easy. It’s not — this has never been easy. Democracy is hard work. The work of democracy is never finished. It’s never laid down and that’s it, all you have to do. It must be protected constantly. We have to continually renew our commitment,...
Hush money investigation: A long road to the Manhattan Grand Jury’s indictment of Trump
The New York grand jury investigating Trump’s 2016 hush-money payments to adult film actor Stormy Daniels has voted to indict the former president. While we do not know the full range of charges, Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg’s office confirmed that they...
From Milwaukee to Istanbul: A visual diary from a city at the crossroads of Europe and Asia
Earthquake Mission in Türkiye: A massive earthquake struck Türkiye and Syria on February 6, leaving tens of thousands dead and millions homeless. Milwaukee Independent was invited by a team of American doctors and clergy to document conditions in the hardest hit parts...
Earthquake Mission in Türkiye: Documenting vast devastation with the Turkish Red Crescent
Earthquake Mission in Türkiye: A massive earthquake struck Türkiye and Syria on February 6, leaving tens of thousands dead and millions homeless. Milwaukee Independent was invited by a team of American doctors and clergy to document conditions in the hardest hit parts...
Why accepting DeSantis’s version of history would be a perversion of our past and our principles
It is commonly understood that Republican Rutherford B. Hayes won the electoral votes from three contested southern states in 1876 and thus took the presidency by promising to remove from the South the U.S. troops that had been protecting Black Americans there. Then,...
Without a budget plan of their own to offer House Republicans try to steal the president’s thunder
“Show me your budget,” President Joe Biden is fond of saying, “[and] I’ll tell you what you value.” Biden introduced his 2024 budget on March 9 at the Finishing Trades Institute in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Biden’s 182-page, $6.9 trillion budget plan advances a...
Showcase of extremism at CPAC: Trump embraces grievances that echo surge of fascist movements
The Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) met in Washington DC, over the March 4 weekend, sparking speculation over the 2024 Republican presidential field. Hard-right figures like Donald Trump and his loyalists Mike Lindell, the MyPillow entrepreneur, and...
