About 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

Nika Dubrovsky

Nika Dubrovsky is an artist, writer, and founder of the David Graeber Institute and the Museum of Care.

Latest:

Cities Made Differently: Try Imagining Another Urban Existence

Darryl Knudsen

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.

Latest:

Damming Rivers Is Terrible for Human Rights, Ecosystems and Food Security

Anne Petermann

Anne Petermann is the executive director of Global Justice Ecology Project.

Latest:

The Danger of Releasing Genetically Modified Trees Into the Wild

Tia Schwab

Tia Schwab is a former news fellow for Stone Pier Press, a San Francisco-based environmental publishing company with a food focus. She is a graduate of Stanford University, where she studied human biology with a concentration in food systems and public health. Tia was born and raised in Austin, Texas, and she is passionate about using storytelling to create a healthy, just, and sustainable food system.

Latest:

What Factory Farm Conditions Do to Animals—Including Humans

Anita Krajnc

Anita Krajnc is executive director of the Animal Save Movement and global coordinator of the Plant Based Treaty initiative.

Latest:

How Cities Around the World Are Adapting to Better Food Systems

Carole Crumley

Carole Crumley is the director of the Integrated History and Future of People on Earth (IHOPE) initiative and professor of anthropology (emerita) at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Latest:

Rethinking Rank and Privilege in Human Societies

Katherine Dolan

Katherine Dolan is a writer, editor, and researcher at the Independent Media Institute from Dunedin, New Zealand. She has held previous posts as a senior writer for Fairfax Media Custom Publishing in New Zealand and Lifestyle Magazine in Moscow, and as a copy editor for the U.S. news site NSFW Corp.

Latest:

How Science Fiction Can Inspire Environmentalism and Climate Action

Nancy L. Segal, PhD

Dr. Nancy L. Segal is a professor of psychology at California State University, Fullerton, and the founder and director of the Twin Studies Center.

Latest:

The Science of Twins and the Human Fascination With Them

Lincoln Steffens

Joseph Lincoln Steffens (1866–1936) was an American investigative journalist. He was one of the leaders of the muckraking writers of the Progressive Era in the early 20th century. (Source: Wikipedia)

Frederick Douglass

Frederick Douglass (1818–1895) was a renowned African American writer and social reformer. He escaped from slavery as a young man, wrote a bestselling autobiography, and was a figurehead of U.S. abolitionist movements.

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