About the Observatory

From The Observatory

The Observatory is a free digital education resource. It offers the public useful information to help them both better understand today’s issues and navigate life in the modern world.

Visitors engage with the Observatory:

  • Via Search: For expertise by keyword, topic area, or a favorite author.
  • Via Guides: To get the big picture.

The Observatory uses MediaWiki, the software that powers Wikipedia, to publish content by a team of expert contributors.

Our doors are open: The Observatory is designed to incorporate reader feedback, and for input and collaboration with volunteer researchers and editors.

Our goal is to be an audience-supported education resource that can make a difference.

The Observatory Team

Jan Ritch-Frel
Observatory Co-Founder and Publisher
Jan Ritch-Frel is the executive director of the Independent Media Institute, a nonprofit organization that educates the public through a diverse array of independent media projects and programs. He has worked in independent media for more than two decades and has advised dozens of media companies.
Jenny Pierson
Observatory Co-Founder and Chief Content Officer
Jenny Pierson is the manager of editorial projects and the programs administrator at the Independent Media Institute. She has spent more than a decade in independent media working in both digital journalism (editing U.S. and international news and editorials) and book publishing.
Reynard Loki
Observatory Co-Founder and Environment and Animal Rights Editor
Reynard Loki is a writing fellow at the Independent Media Institute, where he serves as the editor and chief correspondent for Earth | Food | Life. His work has appeared in dozens of U.S. and international publications.
April M. Short
Observatory Co-Founder and Local Peace Economy Editor
April M. Short is a writing fellow at the Independent Media Institute and the editor for Local Peace Economy. She has led editorial projects on consciousness, plant medicines, care, and well-being, including Reset.me and Lucid.News (which she also co-founded). Her work has appeared in dozens of U.S. and international publications.

Authors Spotlight

Marjorie Hecht is a longtime magazine editor and writer with a specialty in science topics. She is a freelance writer living on Cape Cod.
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Jenny Canham is a leading professional in the global animal protection sector. She is an experienced journalist and works with governments, corporations and the public to achieve critical changes for animals. She is the Director of Outreach and Engagement at Animal Outlook, a leading U.S. animal protection organization.
For more than two decades, Darryl Knudsen has channeled the power of civil society movements to create enduring, positive change toward social and environmental justice for the underrepresented. Darryl holds a master’s degree from Columbia University and a BA from Dartmouth College. He served as the executive director of International Rivers.
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Chris Smaje has co-worked on a small farm in Somerset, southwest England, since 2007. Smaje is the author of A Small Farm Future, writes a blog at about farming, ecology, and politics, and is a featured author at resilience.org.
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Irikefe V. Dafe has advocated for river protections in Nigeria and throughout Africa for three decades. Much of his work has focused on protecting the River Ethiope and the rights of communities who rely upon the river for food, water and their livelihoods. He is a lead organizer of the First National Dialogue on Rights of Nature in Nigeria. He is also the founder and CEO of River Ethiope Trust Foundation and an expert member of the UN Harmony with Nature Initiative.
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Linda M. Nicholas is an adjunct curator of anthropology at the Negaunee Integrative Research Center at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, Illinois.
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Mathilde Lépine is a co-founder of Prehistory Travel, which educates people of all ages on topics relating to human prehistory.
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Deborah Barsky is a writing fellow for the Human Bridges project of the Independent Media Institute, a researcher at the Catalan Institute of Human Paleoecology and Social Evolution, and an associate professor at the Rovira i Virgili University in Tarragona, Spain, with the Open University of Catalonia (UOC). She is the author of Human Prehistory: Exploring the Past to Understand the Future.
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Helena Norberg-Hodge is the founder and director of Local Futures. She is the author of Ancient Futures (Chelsea Green, 2016) and the producer and director of the award-winning 2011 documentary “The Economics of Happiness.” Norberg-Hodge is the recipient of the Right Livelihood Award, the Goi Peace Prize, and the Arthur Morgan Award.
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Dr. Nancy L. Segal is a professor of psychology at California State University, Fullerton, and the founder and director of the Twin Studies Center.
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