Bloggers

Debra Atlas, an environmental journalist and professional blogger, writes with a decidedly fresh perspective, detailing the innovation and creative solutions that successfully address some of our most challenging eco-circumstances. Debra profiles amazing new technologies, products and services that are rapidly making their way to the marketplace, interviewing experts for a first hand view of the impact these products can make. Her newspaper column “Distinctly Green” outlines creative ways to lighten our carbon footprint and painlessly green our lifestyles. Ecological Editor and frequent contributor to the Red Ferret Journal, She also posts to her own blog, Envirothink, where she focuses on stories covering eco-innovations, sustainability and other eco-related news. She can be reached at debraatlas@gmail.com.

Read Debra Atlas’s blog here.

Caty DiDonato Anderson is from the tiniest of towns in western Massachusetts. She has worked as a public school teacher as well as an administrator for a private education company. Having received both her undergraduate and graduate degrees in English, Caty works as a freelance writer and editor. She now resides in the Washington, DC area with her husband, Zach, and their son, James.

Read Caty DiDonato Anderson’s blog here.

Eryn-Ashlei Bailey is a Bostonian native who currently resides in the Metro New York area. She completed her B.A. in Psychology from St. John’s University where she also studied Mandarin, Chinese. Eryn has conducted psycho-social, medical, and environmental research. When she’s off the clock, Eryn spends time learning about world cultures, languages, and the best restaurants in town. She is currently working on her first novel A Beautiful Autymn. You can find more of Eryn’s work ranging from free-writes, poetry, and social analysis at http://autymn.wordpress.com

Read Eryn-Ashlei Bailey’s blog here.

Krista D. Ball was born and raised in Newfoundland, where she learned how to use a chainsaw, chop wood, and make raspberry jam. Krista currently lives in Edmonton, AB with her partner, two crazy but likeable step-boys, seven cats, and a very understanding corgi.

Like any good writer, Krista has had an eclectic array of jobs throughout her life, including strawberry picker, pub bathroom cleaner, oil spill cleaner-upper, and soup kitchen coordinator. These days, when Krista isn’t working hard as an intern at Bards and Sages Quarterly, she writes full-time. You can follow her writing adventures at kristadball.com.

Read Krista D. Ball’s blog here.

Laura Bramble is a freelance writer living in Atlanta. She is inspired by the courage shown by everyday people in making the world a better place and believes that courage is in every one of us. Just as we have inalienable rights, we also have an inalienable responsibility to look out for our fellow man and to use our rights responsibly. http://www.thewrite-woman.com

Read Laura Bramble’s blog here.

Austin Brentley is a born and bred Washingtonian who has spent the last 9 years traveling the globe, living in New York, Hawaii, Japan, Thailand, France, and most recently, Malaysia.  Through these varied adventures, he has witnessed both the indescribable destruction of the planet as well as the growing international grassroots movement poised to halt climate change and restore Mother Earth to a gentler, greener time.

Having recently completed his MBA studies at the University of Nottingham, Austin is anxious to lend a hand to sustainable initiatives, applying his business training and experiences towards the rapid deployment of solar energy and other renewable technologies.  You can follow his blog,www.heliosapien.com, or just shoot him a friendly email to say what’s up.

Read Austin Brentley’s blog here.

Johnnie Chamberlin currently lives and works in Bloomington, IN. He holds a MS in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Duke University and a degree in Cognitive Science from UC Berkeley. Johnnie has years of experience in environmental conservation, outreach, and policy work. He is the author of “Trails of Little Rock: A Guide to Little Rock’s Land and Water Trails”. In his free time he enjoys hiking, kayaking, backpacking, and reading in his hammock. For more on Chamberlin’s work with the Little Rock, Arkansas Fourche Creek Watershed Initiative click here.

Read Johnnie Chamberlin’s blog here.

Chris Conklin was born in Upstate South Carolina where he spent his childhood.  He spent his teenage years in the Catskill Mountains of Upstate New York where he was an avid outdoorsman and environmentalist.  Chris enjoys fishing, whitewater rafting, hiking, snowshoeing, skiing, skating, geocaching, and camping.  Chris was a member of the National Honor Society and Eco-Challenge in high school and placed first in the New York State Future Business Leaders of America Entrepreneurship Competition.  He also participated in Quiz Bowl Academic Trivia, winning regional competitions and competing in several national invitation tournaments.  Chris obtained his Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science at the University at Albany in 2005, minoring in sociology and concentrating in public law.  He was an active member of the political scene, assisting in campaigns and advocating for viewpoint neutral student group funding on campus as well as the residential quad board.  He completed an internship with the New York State Assembly and went on to study Alternative Dispute Resolution and Law.  Chris has worked in the private sector in health insurance and real estate and pursues many interests in his free time, including writing poetry and fiction, painting, composing music, playing guitar, and performing at open mics.  Chris also enjoys spending hours nitpicking poorly or oddly written laws, live music, and browsing Wikipedia.  Areas of activism include civil liberties, fighting government corruption, urging corporate responsibility, and reforming health care.  Chris’ occasionally updated blog can be found at theworstpage.blogspot.com.

Read Chris Conklin’s blog here.

L. A. Corralez is a senior Apparel Merchandising & Management student at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona whose main interest is in the animal- and eco-friendly textile industries. Aside from apparel, Corralez is also interested in the arts and has had various pieces showcased in galleries around the Pomona area.

Read L.A. Corralez’s blog here.

Mike Patrick Dahlke has always placed the potential of human creativity at the core of his endeavors, throughout his professional life as an architectural designer, builder and proactive community activist. From coordinating the efforts of hundreds involved in building interactive community playgrounds to working way back in the 1970s on the Colorado Affordable Housing Commission headed by former Senator Gary Hart, his focus has been on human creativity and the potential that creativity has to affect en masse the growth of artistic, technologically advanced and organically grounded 21st century American communities.

He consistently writes on the subject of alternative energy, alternative education and alternative architecture. As he believes alternative solutions to long festering socio-economic ills are in fact, not alternatives but essential tools needed to correct those ills, his writing is thought provoking.

When indeed does every house in America actually have a solar collector attached to it? When indeed does every house in America come to represent the whole health architectural footprint of the family who lives in that house? When do communities at large come to represent the full potential of the neighbors living and working in that community?

Mike’s blog, “The Green Collar Blue Industrialist” is a collection of essays he has written on the subjects he is devoted to.  http://bluecollarindustrialist.blogspot.com/

Read Mike Patrick Dahlke’s blog here.

Candace Edwards is a New Yorker with a passion for travel, writing, research and the arts. She is a recent graduate of Ithaca College, with a background in politics and an insatiable interest in sociology. Candace is a freelance writer and amateur film maker/ photographer. Her inspiration comes from the intersection of intellect and art, where she is perpetually in awe of the potential of human creativity and the dynamic of human interaction.

Read Candace Edwards’s blog here.

KeriLynn Engel is a feminist college student in New England majoring in Linguistics and Communication and minoring in Women’s Studies. Though she is interested in a career in the field of speech-language pathology, she has always been passionate about crafts and creative writing. You can read more of her writing at her personal blog, http://dreamingiris.wordpress.com.

Read KeriLynn Engel’s blog here.

Melissa S. Grant is originally from a small town in Connecticut. I relocated to New York City about three years ago. I graduated cum laude with my BA in psychology from Western Connecticut State University and my MA in Clinical Psychology from Teachers College, Columbia University. I hope to get my PhD in Clinical Psychology as well, but that is a story in progress. I am a sucker for the psychology scene in New York and that is really where I would like to base my career. My research interests include evolutionary psychology (I just think it is really interesting to think about), neuroscience, psychoanalytical psych, issues of control, personality disorders, and depression among others. In my spare time I love readiing, watching TV shows with no laugh track, and spending time with my boyfriend and my cat.

Read Melissa S. Grant’s blog here.

Jasmine Greene has always loved writing and has been a freelance writer for three years. Currently, she writes for care2.com as an environmental writer and also owns her own site pieces-zine.com. She lives in Brooklyn and works as a bartender at a trendy soho restaurant. She believes that even the smallest actions can have a huge impact.

Read  Jasmine Greene’s blog here.

Dr. Kathryn Hahner is a New York based psychologist in private practice.  Her Ph.D. was in academic psychology, geared toward teaching and research, and she has done each.  She also received extensive clinical training and has spent most of her career as a clinical psychologist.

Dr. Hahner’s dissertation area was the psychology of humor.  She is a stand-up comedian, as well as a musician and award-winning artist.  She believes that humor is what she terms, “transcendent,” when it helps us to work through tragedy by transforming it into humor.  She considers the late Richard Pryor to be the greatest practitioner of transcendent comedy and tries to follow in his footsteps, while humbly admitting that she has much smaller feet.

A feminist from back in the day when, “I’m a feminist,” were fighting words, Dr. Hahner is proud of the young women today who acknowledge the gains made, yet know the work is far from over.  For the past two decades, Dr. Hahner’s passion has been to end animal abuse.  She served for twelve years, along with MDs, on the board of directors of an organization that advocated, on scientific grounds, for alternative methods to animal experimentation, without needing to cite the obvious humane issues.  Her twenty-five year Buddhist practice helps her to deal with the animal atrocities she is confronted with daily.

Read Dr. Kathryn Hahner’s blog here.

Corey Hill After living a quasi-nomadic life which began in South Carolina and went to Europe and across a good part of the East Coast, Corey Hill has settled into the Bay Area with his family and is finding the location quite agreeable.  It is likely that the nomadic lifestyle will end.  A writer and  an activist, Corey draws from years of private sector and nonprofit experience to write about the environment, foreign policy, fair trade, and anything else that should be talked about more but isn’t.

Read Corey Hill’s blog here.

Robert Janis has been a professional writer for more than 30 years. His experience includes writing for daily newspapers; trade, regional, business and consumer magazines; online publications and sites; blogs; and website. He holds a masters degree in Journalism and a Bachelors degree in History/Political Science.

Read Robert Janis’s blog here.

Greg Jorgensen hails from a wee town in mid-western Canada with a name that’s hard to pronounce and even harder to remember. After spending a few years in film school and learning how to lift heavy equipment for abusive producers, his path took a rather circuitous course, eventually ending in Bangkok in 2001 where he currently lives, works and sleeps. Since landing in Thailand, he has held jobs as varied as corporate trainer, stand-up comedian, tour guide, proofreader and actor (usually playing a bad guy or a bodyguard that gets killed). These days he’s happy spending much of his time as a writer and fondly thinking about how many kilometers lie between him and a Canadian winter. His blog can be found at www.GregToDiffer.com.

Read Greg Jorgensen’s Blog here.

Katie Kelley is a Colorado native currently living in Anchorage, Alaska where she works as a freelance writer specializing in environmental, travel and culinary journalism. She received her undergraduate degree in journalism from Colorado State University and has also been certified in digital photography and web design from the Art Institute of Colorado. She has been published in a variety of media including The New York Times and is currently working on her first book, A Misdiagnosed Mind.

Read Katie Kelley’s Blog here.

Neia Mack is a freelance writer and production assistant living in New York City. Despite being encouraged to enter into a field with more security, she knows that her passion is in being able to be creative. She has a BA in Communications with a concentration in Radio and Television Production from State University of New York at New Paltz. In her free time, she practices photography and videography, and catches up on current pop culture news. She and her partner own two pets, a cat named Nala, who was adopted from the ASPCA and a dog named NuNu, who was purchased as a Christmas present for her. She loves the essence of dining out and her dream is to get a spot on ABC’s The View. You can follow up to find out more about Neia at her personal site: www.NeiaNeia.com.

Elizabeth Maginnis A native of western New York State, Elizabeth holds a political science degree from the State University of New York Empire State College. After over twenty years in the legal profession, Elizabeth decided to turn her extensive writing, editing and proofreading experience into a freelance writing career. During that same twenty years, Elizabeth and her husband opened up their home and their hearts to numerous mischievous cats and three loveable dogs, all rescues. Elizabeth’s love for animals has led her to pursue veterinary technology studies and training as an animal Reiki practitioner. Her deep love for the Earth and belief in the interconnectedness of all things informs her interest in green living and environmental issues.

Elizabeth’s articles on animal health can be found at eHow.com and in Veterinary Technician magazine and Animal Reiki Source’s newsletter complication Tails From the Source.

Read Elizabeth Maginnis’s Blog here.

Katrina Majkut is a born and bred Bostonian now residing in Berkeley, California. A marketing professional in asset management for years, she has finally traded in her excel spreadsheets for stretched canvas. Now as an artist with extensive business knowledge, Majkut approaches the world with an instinctive, practical yet conceptual eye and ear. It is her hope to bring both rhyme and reason to today’s issues, but perhaps just a little madness too. www.TheArtisanSquare.com

Read Katrina Majkut’s Blog here.

Marlo McKenzie is a writer and filmmaker originally from the Detroit area. She has studied language in France, worked in theater in Germany, helped to start a video production company in Australia that trains homeless youth, and now resides in San Francisco, California where she works in documentary film and runs her own video production company, m1m2creative.  She believes in leveraging the power of media to create a shift in thought and action that will positively transform the world.

Read Marlo McKenzie’s Blog here.

Ryan Miller Graduate of Sacramento State University, has worked on several political campaigns. Started writing while in college and currently resides in Miami Florida.

Read Ryan Miller’s Blog here

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Delia Montgomery My name is Delia and I get my kicks by discovering people who design and make eco-green products utilizing trash and salvaged materials. From clothing to home and garden stuff, I think it’s cool. My pursuit is to connect suppliers with retailers as a broker. Something crazy about me favors small businesses. www.ChicEco.com is the web address to my business.

I constructed a yurt home on my tiny piece of Pahoa paradise early 2009. Itis in a lava zone, but then everybody here is. I happen to dig the vibrations. Indeed a challenge to build sustainable style. See blog on http://chiceco-yurtliving.blogspot.com. Damn building inspectors. Yet I’m determined to walk the green talk, and to artistically recycle especially where islands have trash problems.

Paradise suits me well to benefit my mind, body and spirit. Growing own food from banana, mango and avocado trees. Vegies galore, but still under construction on this fifth-acre semi-urban lot. Hope to fulfill my beer-bottle wall dream and maintain a pet someday.

Read Delia Montgomery’s Blog here.

Jessica Ocheltree is a writer and editor living in the exciting, interesting and sometimes confusing city of Tokyo. She loves traveling and learning new languages and is rarely to be found without a book or two within arm’s reach. She writes a regular column on NPO/NGOs and volunteer work in Japan for Metropolis Magazine and specializes in English as a Foreign Language materials.

Read Jessica Ocheltree’s Blog here.

Joanne O’Donnell is a life long environmental activist and nature lover– just ask her family with whom she still yells at to this day if they forget to put that coke can in the blue bin! Joanne has a background in environmental policy and analysis, as well as energy efficiency and sustainable development. Her favorite things to do in her free time include yard sales (reduce, REUSE, and recycle!) and dance parties.

Read Joanne O’Donnell’s blog here.

Jennifer Schwartz has always loved writing and the study of psychology. For fun, she enjoys yoga and swimming.

Read Jennifer Schwartz’s blog here.

Kenda Swartz Pepper, originally from Pennsylvania, is now a self-proclaimed Santa Crustacean residing joyfully in Santa Cruz, California.  Her undergraduate studies in Organizational Communication were at Penn State, and she received a Masters in Art Therapy Psychology at Notre Dame in Belmont, Ca.

Kenda spent ten years providing art therapy to high risk children – mostly children dealing with loss and grief issues.  For the past eleven years, she has worked independently with diverse organizations as a staff and management development consultant and facilitator.  Her blog Xtreme Customer Service www.xtremecustomerservice.blogspot.com focuses on solutions to interpersonal issues.

As the daughter of a former District Forrester, she learned at an early age the importance of conserving natural resources and caring for the earth.   Kenda’s newest blog, Earth Souldierswww.earthsouldiers.wordpress.com, provides her with a forum to advocate for a healthy symbiotic relationship between humans and the earth.  She plans to publish her first eco-oriented children’s book in 2010.

Kenda describes herself as vegan, an ever-evolving normal neurotic, a gardener, a painter, writer and photographer, a dog-lover, incredibly fortunate to have such a fantabulous husband and adorable step-daughter, and one who whole-heartedly appreciates wildlife and the awe-inspiring natural beauty provided by our earth.

Read Kenda Swartz Pepper’s blog here.

John Pietaro is a cultural worker and labor organizer from Brooklyn, New York. He is a contributing writer to ‘Political Affairs’ magazine, ‘the People’s World’ newspaper, ‘Z’ magazine and other Left periodicals and journals. He wrote a chapter for the Harvey Pekar/Paul Buhle book Students for a Democratic Society: A Graphic History (Hill & Wang, 2008) and is currently preparing a book of his own for publication, The Cultural Workers: Radical Arts and Revolutionary Artists in the USA- 1900-Today. Pietaro is also a musician and songwriter, singing and performing on electric banjo or drums and percussion for a wide variety of progressive events throughout the New York area. He has shared the stage with Alan Ginsberg, Amiri Baraka, Pete Seeger, Dar Williams, Amina Baraka, Matt Jones, Anne Feeney, Bev Grant, Fred Ho, Tuli Kupferberg of the Fugs, Jonathan Edwards and many other artists of conscience. Pietaro acts as front-man for his ensemble The Flames of Discontent which has recorded two CDs to date: “I Dreamed I Heard Joe Hill Last Night” (2005) and “Revenge of the Atom Spies” (2007). Lastly, Pietaro is a cultural organizer, producing numerous concerts for social change including the annual Dissident Folk & Arts Festival, festivals dedicated to Hanns Eisler, Phil Ochs and Woody Guthrie, benefits, commemorations of May Day and many others in New York City or New York’s Hudson Valley. His website is www.flamesofdiscontent.org

Read John Pietaro’s blog here.

Tuula Rebhahn is a freelance farmer and food security advocate. She grew up in Oregon,  where she recently received undergraduate degrees in Environmental Studies and journalism. Immediately thereafter, she escaped to Canada for a practical education as an apprentice on an organic farm on Vancouver Island. Tuula enjoys being on the move; her travels have included Central America, the Galapagos Islands, Europe, and South India, where she spent three months as an intern with an agricultural NGO. Her passions include writing, cooking, eating, goat-walking, and plotting the local food revolution. She proudly blogs for Conducive as well as at notulips.blogspot.com.

Read Tuula Rebhahn’s blog here.

Sheree Shatsky has advocated for others ever since that long ago day a neighborhood kid poked fun at her brother’s homemade Halloween costume. Armed with the gift of gab and a mean left blogger hook, this long time Floridian speaks up for those who cannot via her blog Talk to Me and as a member of the Florida Progressive Coalition. She describes her work as observations on the often astonishingly absurd brunt of lawmaking on everyday citizens, who once impacted, wake up from a disinterested unconscious to find themselves down for the count without realizing they were ever involved in a fight. In their corner—brandishing a keyboard and a wicked sense of justice—stands Sheree Shatsky, warming up her voice.

Read Sheree Shatsky’s blog here.

Danijel Štriga – I’m a part-time writer from the city of Zagreb, Croatia
- a small country hidden deep within Europe. I studied Political
Sciences, volunteered in Transparency International and freelanced as a
journalist and a movie reviewer. I’m a long-time Science Fiction fan
enjoying (and sometimes dreading) the fact that we finally live in the
future. Aside of books, movies, TV and role-playing games my main
pastime is kayaking in the chaotic waters of the Internet where I
occasionally write on http://www.couchslobs.com/.

Read Danijel Štriga’s blog here.

Jane Jeong Trenka was sent to the U.S. for adoption with her older sister in September 1972, and their Korean mother found them by Christmas that year. Jane is the author of two memoirs: The Language of Blood and Fugitive Visions, and co-editor of Outsiders Within: Writing on Transracial Adoption. She works at Yonhap News Agency in Seoul, South Korea, where she has lived since 2005, and is president of TRACK (Truth and Reconciliation for the Adoption Community of Korea).

Read Jane Jeong Trenka’s blog here.