Luna Anna Archey
Associate Visuals Editor
Location: Colorado
Luna wrangles and assigns art and photos for the magazine and website, takes photos herself, and designs HCN materials and magazine pages. In her free time she can be found taking her camera and her dogs, Rhubarb and Fig, for a walk.
email: lunaarchey at hcn.org
X (twitter): @la_archy
Emily Benson
Science & Climate Editor
Location: Idaho
Emily oversees coverage of the northern part of our region, including Alaska, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana and Wyoming.
She is based in Moscow, Idaho. Her lifelong love of the outdoors was sparked by a childhood spent swimming and paddling the lakes and rivers of New York State’s Adirondack Mountains. She earned a bachelor’s degree at Colgate University in central New York, a master’s degree in biology at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, and a graduate certificate from the University of California Santa Cruz’s Science Communication Program. She spends most of her free time cross-country skiing or cooling off in the nearest lake or river, depending on the season.
email: emilyb at hcn.org
X (twitter): @erbenson1
Nick Bowlin
Contributing Editor*
Location: Colorado
Nick provides contributing editor services for HCN and is a freelance journalist. He is based in Colorado’s Gunnison Valley, which he wrote about in a cover story for the magazine. After graduating from St. Olaf College, a small school in southeastern Minnesota, Nick got his journalism start at a newspaper in the Philadelphia area as a general assignment reporter. He then moved to Washington, D.C., where he covered campaigns, lobbying, and money in politics for E&E News, an environmental and energy publication.
email: nickbowlin at hcn.org
X (twitter): @npbowlin
Melissa Chadburn
Books and Culture Editor
Location: California
Melissa Chadburn manages HCN’s books, culture and commentary section. Her writing has appeared in The LA Times, NYT Book Review, NYRB, Longreads, Paris Review online, and dozens other places. Her essay on food insecurity was published in Best American Food Writing 2019. She’s done extensive reporting on the child welfare system and appears in the Netflix docuseries The Trials of Gabriel Fernandez. Her debut novel, A Tiny Upward Shove, was just released from Farrar, Straus, & Giroux. She is a Ph.D. candidate at USC’s Creative Writing Program. Melissa is a worker lover and through her own work and literary citizenship strives to upend economic violence. Her mother taught her how to sharpen a pencil with a knife and she’s basically been doing that ever since.
Sunnie Clahchischiligi
Indigenous Affairs Editor
Location: New Mexico
Sunnie R. Clahchischiligi is Diné from T’iis NásBąs, Arizona. She has reported for the Navajo Times, the Osage News, The Guardian, USA Today, Rolling Stone magazine and The New York Times, to name a few. Clahchischiligi’s stories have won numerous awards including the $20,000 Doris O’Donnell Innovations in Investigative Journalism Fellowship from the Center for Media Innovations at Point Park University. In 2022 she was inducted into the inaugural class of the North American Indigenous Athletics Hall of Fame in the media category for sports writing and is a 2022-2023 Russell J. and Dorothy S. Bilinski Fellow. Clahchischiligi holds a Ph.D., in rhetoric and writing from the University of New Mexico, serves on the board of directors for the Indigenous Journalists Association (formally the Native American Journalists Association) and teaches at Arizona State University.
email: sunnie.clahchischiligi at hcn.org
X (twitter): @clahchischiligi
Marissa Garcia
Graphic Designer and Social Media Coordinator*
Location: Colorado
Marissa works behind the scenes providing graphic design services for digital, print and social media content. She loves using her creativity to elevate the brand and showcase HCN as a leading news source. Although she is based in Colorado, Marissa is from a small town in Texas and has lived abroad in five other countries. She recently graduated from Cambridge School of Visual and Performing Arts in Cambridge, UK with her Masters in Graphic Design. Whilst at CSVPA, she obtained an internship at Hearst UK with Delish, creating a video series introducing British delicacies to expats. Previously, she has worked for two international airports, two international nonprofits and a clothing brand. Marissa is a Returned Peace Corps volunteer with a love for nature, travel and altruism. When she’s not designing, Marissa loves exploring the west (and everywhere else), dancing, cooking and taking photos.
email: marissa.garcia at hcn.org
Ben Goldfarb
Correspondent*
Location: Colorado
Ben Goldfarb is a longtime High Country News contributor whose work has appeared in the magazine since 2014. His environmental journalism has also been featured in National Geographic, the Atlantic, Smithsonian Magazine, and many other publications. He is the author of Crossings: How Road Ecology Is Shaping the Future of Our Planet, named one of the best books of 2023 by the New York Times, and Eager: The Surprising, Secret Life of Beavers and Why They Matter, winner of the PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award. He lives in Colorado with his wife, Elise, and his dog, Kit — which is, of course, what you call a baby beaver.
Roberto (Bear) Guerra
Visuals Editor
Location: Arizona
Bear assigns photography and art, works to expand our circle of photographers, takes photos himself, and designs pages for the magazine.
Bear’s photography focuses on social and environmental justice issues, the impacts of globalization and development, and the human condition in communities often underrepresented in the media. His work and collaborations with media, nonprofit and arts organizations have been published and exhibited widely. Amongst other recognitions, he has been a finalist for a National Magazine Award in Photojournalism; and was a Ted Scripps Fellow in Environmental Journalism at the University of Colorado. Originally from San Antonio, Texas, Bear lives in Tucson, Arizona, with his wife and frequent collaborator, journalist (and HCN correspondent) Ruxandra Guidi, and their daughter.
email: bearguerra at hcn.org
Instagram: @bearguerra
Ruxandra Guidi
Correspondent*
Location: Arizona
Ruxandra Guidi has been telling nonfiction stories for more than two decades. Her reporting for public radio, podcasts, magazines and various other publications has taken her throughout the United States, the Caribbean, South and Central America, as well as Mexico and the U.S.-Mexico border region.
Guidi holds a master’s degree in journalism from U.C. Berkeley and has worked on the award-winning series Lost & Found Sound, Latino USA, The World, Fronteras Desk and KPCC Public Radio. Formerly, she was an assistant professor of practice and assistant director of the Bilingual Journalism Program at the University of Arizona’s School of Journalism. In 2018, she was awarded the Susan Tifft Fellowship for women in documentary and journalism by the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University, and in 2023, she became a Soros Equality Fellow. Alongside her freelance work, Guidi is the president of the board of Homelands Productions and serves on the board of El Tímpano.
LinkedIn: @ruxguidi
Gina Gurreri
Human Resource Associate
Location: Arizona
Gina (she/her) works in Human Resources with a particular focus on recruitment and onboarding. She also helps our Executive Director stay on track.
Originally a Pennsylvanian with ties to Western North Carolina, Gina made her way to bigger mountains and wider skies, and has called the West home since 2012. Her background in social work and love of data led her to manage evaluation and research efforts at a Denver nonprofit and to manage public health programs on Colorado’s Western Slope. Her greatest adventure to date was traveling the Western U.S. solo for a year, living on public lands, hiking at national parks and visiting friends scattered across the vast landscape. In her spare time, she frets over which outdoor sport to do each weekend and which podcast to listen to on the drive.
email: gina.gurreri at hcn.org
Greg Hanscom
Executive Director/Publisher
Location: Washington
Greg oversees the organization’s governance and finances, broadly, raises money and manages the senior team. He is an award-winning journalist and news industry trailblazer. In more than two decades in the business, he has helped for- and nonprofit news organizations from coast to coast adapt to a fast-changing business environment, and reach broader, more diverse audiences. It all began at High Country News, where he started as an intern and worked his way up to the editor’s chair. He is honored to be back at HCN after 14 years away, helping to write the next chapter of a long-running story about the region he loves.
email: greghanscom at hcn.org
X (twitter): @ghanscom
Barbara Harper
Customer Service Assistant
Location: Colorado
Barbara was born and raised in Colorado but was absent from her home state for the last 20 years. She has since moved back and is so happy to enjoy all four seasons again. Barbara has led an adventurous life of backpacking, and visiting national parks and wilderness as these things are close to her heart. She is thinking of giving up her passion for organic gardening to raise grasshoppers to feed the fall bird migration.
email: barbara.harper at hcn.org
KHowe
Associate Product Manager – Customer Success
Location: Colorado
KHowe handles web-originated subscriptions and donations, as well as working directly with our customers. She grew up in Salt Lake City, Utah and graduated with a B.A. in Environmental Studies and Art from Western State Colorado University. KHowe interned at Thistle Whistle Farm in Hotchkiss, spent a year as a Fellow with the Rocky Mountain Farmers Union and worked for two years with the Delta County Libraries. She enjoys spending time with her dairy goats, exploring for petroglyphs and hiking the Black Canyon National Park.
email: khowe at hcn.org
Jane C. Hu
Contributing Editor*
Location: Washington
Jane C. Hu provides contributing editor services to HCN’s North Desk, where she writes and edits stories at the intersection of science, the environment, and society. Her work has also appeared in publications like Undark, The Guardian, WIRED, Smithsonian, National Geographic, The Atlantic, Science, and the 2022 Best American Science and Nature Writing anthology. She lives in Seattle and loves to hike, bike and climb.
email: jane.hu at hcn.org
Gretchen King
Executive Editor
Location: Colorado
Gretchen (she/her) manages the flow of all of HCN’s journalism, manages its fellowship program, oversees digital content, including its website, social media and newsletters, and edits stories. She’s to hear from HCN readers and help them forge a stronger connection to the stories of the West. Gretchen holds a B.S. in journalism and master’s in professional communications and has worked in public relations, multimedia and journalism before landing at the magazine. Raised on the Western Slope of Colorado, Gretchen has lived in Boulder, Indiana, Oregon and Fairbanks, Alaska. Now in Gunnison, Colorado, she loves any mountain experience, chocolate and spending time with her husband, Mike, her 17-year-old son, Riley, their two dogs and fat cat.
email: gretchenk at hcn.org
X (twitter): @gbtking
Brooke Larsen
Editorial Fellow
Location: Utah
Brooke is the Virginia Spencer Davis Fellow for HCN, covering rural communities, agriculture and conservation. She is based in Salt Lake City, Utah. Brooke studied environmental policy at Colorado College and researched conservation and water issues in the West with the College’s State of the Rockies Project. She went on to receive her MA in Environmental Humanities from the University of Utah, focusing on climate justice issues in the Southwest and the role of storytelling in movement building. Brooke is a recipient of the High Country News Bell Prize and co-editor of the anthology New World Coming: Frontline Voices on Pandemics, Uprisings, and Climate Crisis. When not writing, Brooke enjoys gardening, riding her bike, and running rivers with her partner, Lauren.
email: brooke.larsen at hcn.org
Michael Leveton
Community Outreach Manager
Location: Washington
Michael connects High Country News with new communities and readers through a myriad of means.
Raised in Vancouver, Washington, he later jumped around Washington state and also spent a couple of years in Portland, Oregon. During his senior year at the University of Puget Sound, he fell into (pun intended) lucha libre mexicana and began moonlighting as a professional luchador. Since graduating, he has spent a number of years moving back and forth between the U.S. and Mexico City chasing his dream of performing in Mexico’s grandest arenas. Spandex aside, he’s managed digital marketing and social media for several brands and companies, ranging from Gatorade and Google, to the ACLU of Washington and The GenderCool Project. He’s based out of the western Puget Sound region, where he tends to small livestock, vegetable plants and his two dogs.
email: michael.leveton at hcn.org
X (twitter): @miggy_smalls
Gary Love
Director of Product and Marketing
Location: Washington
Gary oversees marketing strategy, digital product development and manages the marketing and customer service teams.
He has bounced around the West throughout life, born in California, raised in Colorado, attended school in Idaho, and settled in Washington. He began his career sleeping under a desk trying to rebuild the Boulder Daily Camera’s site from scratch and has helped teams at Disney, Hearst and Tegna make sense of new audiences and technologies. When not working on introducing new audiences to High Country News, he can be seen playing for several roller derby leagues in the northwest.
email: gary.love at hcn.org
Natalia Mesa
Editorial Fellow
Location: Washington
Natalia is an editorial fellow for High Country News. Born in Cali, Colombia and raised on Colorado’s Front Range, Natalia now reports from Seattle, Washington, where she writes about science, and environmental and social justice. She embarked on her career in science journalism after receiving her Ph.D. in neuroscience from the University of Washington. Her work has appeared in publications like Science, The Atlantic and National Geographic. In her free time, she is usually dancing, playing guitar or finding an excuse to go into the mountains.
email: natalia.mesa at hcn.org
Carol Newman
Fundraising Coordinator
Location: Colorado
Carol writes thank-you notes by the hundreds and helps coordinate our major donor work. Carol calls Colorado her home state, although, she was born in the midwest, and spent 12 years in Charlotte, North Carolina, prior to moving back to Colorado in 2014. As a Coloradan, she became interested in environmental issues at a young age and supports efforts to protect our natural resources. Her other passion is art, and the thriving arts community in the Paonia prompted Carol’s move to the Western Slope. Carol has wide-ranging experience working with nonprofits both as a staff member and as a board member. In her spare time, Carol loves to create art (of course!), spend time with family and friends, and go on adventures.
email: carolnewman at hcn.org
Michelle Nijhuis
Contributing Editor*
Location: Washington
Michelle began her journalism career in 1998, as a High Country News intern, and has written and edited for High Country News ever since. Now a project editor for The Atlantic, Michelle is the author of the 2021 book Beloved Beasts: Fighting for Life in an Age of Extinction, a history of the modern conservation movement. She has also written about science and conservation for National Geographic, The New York Times Magazine, and many other publications, and her reporting has won several national honors and been included in four Best American anthologies. Until 2013, Michelle and her family lived off the electrical grid near HCN’s home base in Paonia. They now live on the north side of the Columbia Gorge, in Washington state.
email: michelle at hcn.org
X (twitter): @nijhuism
Alyssa Pinkerton
Director of Philanthropy
Location: Colorado
Alyssa oversees all of our fundraising efforts and nurtures relationships with major donors across the country.
Alyssa was born in Florida, but don’t hold that against her. She has worked for High Country News in the development department since October 2008. She enjoys building relationships with the remarkable readership, staff and board of directors. When she’s not working with donors, you can find her romping out in the wild lands, painting pictures, dancing, or soaking in hot springs.
email: alyssap at hcn.org
Paisley Rekdal
Poetry Editor*
Location: California
Paisley Rekdal is the author of four books of nonfiction and six books of poetry, the most recent of which is NIGHTINGALE (Copper Canyon Press, 2019), winner of the Washington State Book Award. Her newest book of poetry, WEST: A TRANSLATION, is a hybrid documentary poem that explores the history and cultural impact of the transcontinental railroad on American culture. A digital version of the poem can be found at www.westtrain.org. She is the former poet laureate of Utah.
email: paisley.rekdal at hcn.org
X (twitter): @PaisleyRekdal
Jennifer Sahn
Editor-in-Chief
Location: California
Jennifer oversees all of HCN’s editorial content, including the magazine and website, and serves as a key spokesperson for the org at events and with other media.
Jennifer has logged two decades at nonprofit magazines, editing award-winning journalism and narrative nonfiction and leading teams to new heights. She grew up in California, settled in New England to become editor of Orion magazine, then returned to California as executive editor of Pacific Standard. Her work has been recognized by the National Magazine Awards, Utne Independent Press Awards, Pushcart Prize, O. Henry Prize, John Burroughs Essay Awards, and the Best American Series anthologies. She lives in Santa Barbara, where she walks the frontcountry trails and wild stretches of coast.
email: jennifer.sahn at hcn.org
X (twitter): @throwin_shadows
Kate Schimel
News and Investigations Editor
Location: New Mexico
Kate oversees HCN’s news coverage, focusing on how our stories can serve readers and support their decision-making. She also shepherds HCN’s investigations and develops major projects focused on accountability in the Western U.S.
She grew up in Colorado and lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She has led award-winning investigations of subjects ranging from unethical medical practices to discriminatory policing and public lands use. Her career has revolved around questioning why things are the way they are — and what it would take for them to change. She has a degree in biology from Reed College.
email: kate.schimel at hcn.org
X (twitter): @kateschimel
Michael Schrantz
Marketing Communications Manager
Location: New Mexico
Michael works on engaging HCN’s audience and welcomes any and all feedback from readers.
He grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and worked at newspapers in Fairbanks, Alaska, and Steamboat Springs, Colorado, before joining the Texas Observer in Austin.
email: michael.schrantz at hcn.org
Bradon Schwarz
Charitable Gifts Advisor
Location: California
Bradon helps to advance our fundraising efforts by nurturing relationships with major donors on the West Coast.
Raised as a homeschooled kid from California, Bradon made most of his childhood memories at his family’s cabin on the Grand Mesa in Colorado. After researching centuries of old records and articles, he grew fascinated by his heritage throughout the West. Bradon has grown into a seasoned fundraiser over six-years working with various causes. When he’s not working with donors, he fills his time up searching for dog-friendly trails, over-watering healthy plants, and replacing dead plants with ones that aren’t.
email: bradon.schwarz at hcn.org
X (twitter): @bradonschwarz
Susan Shain
Headway Fellow
Location: Montana
Susan Shain is a reporting fellow at HCN, where she is completing the second year of her Headway fellowship for The New York Times. Headway is a unique initiative that examines the world’s challenges through the lens of progress. Its fellows spend their first year reporting for The Times, and their second year working in a local or regional newsroom in collaboration with Times editors.
That said, Susan is a full-fledged member of the HCN team — she even moved her family from Brooklyn to Helena! Continuing her work at Headway, she reports on progress throughout the West, especially in Montana. When she’s not wrangling her wild toddler or dog, she enjoys hiking, skiing and cooking.
email: susan.shain at hcn.org
X (twitter): @susan_shain
Anna V. Smith
Associate Editor
Location: Oregon
Anna joined the High Country News team in Paonia as our editorial intern in July 2016 and is now an assistant editor based in Oregon, where she writes and edits for HCN’s Indigenous Affairs Desk.
She has spent the majority of her life in the Pacific Northwest, from growing up in rural Oregon to becoming a news reporter on a small cluster of islands in northern Washington. In 2018 and in 2019 she received Best Coverage of Native America from the Native American Journalism Association.
email: annasmith at hcn.org
Leah Sottile
Correspondent*
Location: Oregon
As a correspondent for High Country News, Leah Sottile specializes in stories on political and religious extremism, policing, class and power. Her work has been featured by the Washington Post, The New York Times Magazine, Playboy, Rolling Stone, Outside and The Atlantic. She is the author of the book When the Moon Turns to Blood, and the host of the podcasts Burn Wild and Two Minutes Past Nine, produced with the BBC, and the acclaimed series Bundyville. She lives in Oregon.
X (twitter):@Leah_Sottile
Instagram: leah.sottile
Bluesky: leahsottile.bsky.social
McKenna Stayner
Features Director
Location: Oregon
McKenna oversees and edits HCN’s long-form feature stories.
She has backpacked, biked, and rafted in every state in HCN’s area of coverage and has covered much of the Southwest and California by foot. She went to St. John’s College in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and recently moved back West from New York, where she received her Master’s In Oral History from Columbia University and worked as an editor at The New Yorker Magazine, focusing on features, books and politics. She was also an organizer of The New Yorker Magazine Union and remains committed to employees working together to advocate for their rights, values and leadership within all types of organizations. She loves sleeping outside, preferably under bright stars, and is happiest in the desert.
email:mckennastayner at hcn.org
Diane Sylvain
Copy Editor
Location: Colorado
Diane ensures that editorial, marketing and fundraising copy meets HCN style.
She is a one-time Air Force brat who grew up all over the country but lost her heart to western Colorado. When she’s not copy editing, she writes rambling essays about nothing in particular and occasionally even finds the time to do a bit of artwork. She’s worked for HCN since 1990 and lives in a very old and indescribably ramshackle house in Paonia, surrounded by mountainous piles of books, interesting rocks and seashells, and patrolled at night by the ghosts of all the cats who have gone before. Her hobbies include making bad puns, complaining about sciatica, displaying an obnoxious certainty about grammar, and enjoying long walks, leisurely train trips and periodic retreats to the nearest Trappist monastery, which as everybody knows is a great place to meet interesting guys.
email: diane at hcn.org
Jonathan Thompson
Contributing Editor*
Location: Greece (yes, Greece)
Jonathan Thompson was born and raised in southwestern Colorado. He owned and edited the Silverton Standard & the Miner newspaper in the tiny town of Silverton, Colorado, and was the editor-in-chief of High Country News from 2007 to 2010. He is the editor of The Land Desk, the author of two non-fiction books, River of Lost Souls and Sagebrush Empire, and one novel, Behind the Slickrock Curtain. He currently lives in Greece with his wife, Wendy.
email: jonathan at hcn.org
X (twitter): @land_desk
B. ‘Toastie’ Oaster
Staff Writer
Location: Oregon
Toastie (they/them) is a staff writer at the Indigenous Affairs Desk and a member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma. They grew up in California’s Santa Cruz Mountains and along Colorado’s Front Range, and now report from the Pacific Northwest. Toastie has written for national publications like Indian Country Today, and at a local level for publications like Portland’s award-winning weekly street paper Street Roots. At High Country News, their focus is addressing social and environmental justice for Natives, highlighting the consequences of colonialism in the West, and celebrating underreported success stories for Indigenous communities and all our relations.
email: b.toastie at hcn.org
Raksha Vasudevan
Contributing Editor*
Location: Colorado
Raksha provides contributing editor services for HCN’s South Desk, where she writes and edits stories of environmental justice in the American Southwest.
Before becoming a writer, Raksha was an aid worker, spending five years in sub-Saharan Africa and then moving to Denver. Since landing in the U.S., she’s written for Harper’s Bazaar, Guernica, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, and more. She’s especially drawn to stories at the intersection of colonialism and community organizing.
Born in India and raised in Western Canada, Raksha is glad to be close to the mountains once more. When she’s not writing, she can be found hiking with her dog, Chutney.
email: raksha.vasudevan at hcn.org
Eva Videla
Fundraising Associate
Location: New Mexico
Eva is responsible for managing the Sustainers Club and providing support for the organization’s fundraising efforts.
Eva was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico, but grew up in Chihuahua, Mexico. She holds a Master’s degree in Communication Studies from New Mexico State University and a Bachelor’s in Communication and International Studies from The University of New Mexico. During her studies, she focused on exploring the cultural identity of the fronterizos and its intersectionalities. She enjoys traveling, gardening, and spending time with her family and pets in her free time.
Erin X. Wong
Editorial Fellow
Location: California
Erin is an editorial fellow at High Country News, covering clean energy supply chains and environmental justice. Their work has appeared in Bloomberg, Grist, Rest of World, Slate and Seattle Met magazine. In 2022, they completed a master’s degree in investigative reporting at Columbia Journalism School.
Originally from Seattle, Washington, Erin has roots up and down the west coast and a deep love of the ocean. Outside of work, they may be found reading, writing, running, and open water swimming.
Cindy Wehling
Art Director
Location: Colorado
Cindy is responsible for the design and look of the magazine, and ensures that materials from across the organization adhere to the HCN brand.
She has been responsible for making High Country News look its best since 1990, including shepherding its transition from newspaper to magazine and from black and white to full color. A former newspaper reporter and editor, she works with photographers and artists and heads up the design and production of the magazine. Cindy and her husband, Don Olsen, also work on the family farm and are continuing to add on to the Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired Usonian house they built overlooking their hayfields.
email: cindy at hcn.org
Tammy York
Customer Service Manager
Location: Colorado
Tammy works directly with our customers to solve any problem with subscriptions and donations.
She grew up in the finger lakes region of New York State but set out for Colorado after receiving her bachelor’s degree in Cultural Anthropology from SUNY Potsdam. She has been helping High Country News readers since 2008. In her spare time she enjoys hanging out with her husband and four kids, camping, hiking, swimming and playing guitar.
email: tammyyork at hcn.org
Mary Zachman
Finance and Payroll Administrator
Location: Colorado
Mary manages our books and makes sure everyone gets paid on time.
She grew up in Santa Barbara, California, and lived on the west coast of Florida. The West called her back, and she moved to Colorado in 2009, first landing Montrose and then in Ridgway. In 2015 Mary found Paonia and has felt at home ever since. She shares her home with her husband, John, and their two dogs. Mary has three grown kids who followed her to Colorado. She loves hiking and exploring the beautiful Colorado landscapes. Mary’s passion is real, healthy, organic food, and she loves spending time cooking with the bounty that Paonia offers.
email: maryz at hcn.org
*independent contractor