Donovan Arthen
Director of Finance and Operations
Donovan is a community builder, management professional, and musician who grew up in the foothills of the Berkshires. Living and working in the nonprofit world, he found a professional passion for fostering operational and financial sustainability. He has his masters in Managing Mission Driven Organizations from Marlboro Professional and Graduate School, where he focused on leadership development and creating positive productive working environments and culture. Donovan brings with him a wide range of experiences and perspectives from his time traveling and learning from different peoples and places all over the world.
Ananda Bagiackas
Customer Service Specialist
Ananda brings diverse experience engaging with people around land use and conservation in the natural, agricultural and built environments to her role at Orion. She has managed events and programs for an organic olive oil ranch in Northern California, and communications and operations for a historic preservation non-profit in Washington, DC. She holds a BA in English from the University of Vermont and an MFA in Poetry from Mills College.
Amy Brady
Executive Director and Publisher
Amy Brady came to Orion from Guernica, where she served as Deputy Publisher. She is also the author of Ice: An American Obsession (Putnam), co-editor of The World As We Knew It: Dispatches from a Changing Climate (Catapult), and the former Editor-in-Chief of the Chicago Review of Books. Her writing on culture and climate change has appeared in O, the Oprah magazine, The New Republic, The Village Voice, Slate, The Houston Chronicle, and other places. She holds a PhD in literature from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and has won writing and research awards from the National Science Foundation, the Bread Loaf Environmental Writers Conference, and the Library of Congress.
Christopher Cox
Editor-at-Large
Christopher is the former editor of Harper’s Magazine and a former senior editor of The Paris Review. Work that he has edited has won the National Magazine Award, the PEN Literary Award for Journalism, an Overseas Press Club award, and has been included in several Best American collections. He was born in Atlanta, Georgia, graduated from Harvard in 2002, and earned a master’s degree from the University of Cambridge in 2004. He lives in Brooklyn, New York, with his wife and daughter.
Camille T. Dungy
Poetry Editor
Camille is the author of four collections of poetry, most recently Trophic Cascade, and the essay collection Guidebook to Relative Strangers: Journeys into Race, Motherhood and History. She has edited or co-edited anthologies including Black Nature: Four Centuries of African American Nature Poetry and the From the Fishouse poetry anthology. Her honors include a Guggenheim Fellowship, NEA Fellowships in poetry and prose, and an American Book Award. She lives in Colorado with her husband and daughter, where she is a University Distinguished Professor at Colorado State University. (Photo: Beowulf Sheehan)
Amanda Elkin
Proofreader
Amanda began working for Orion in 1996 as the assistant managing editor after earning an MS in environmental studies from Antioch University New England. She is currently the Communications Director for Family Promise Metrowest, a nonprofit family shelter and homelessness prevention program. She also works as a freelance editor and proofreader for organizations and companies dedicated to pursuing a just and sustainable future for all. She lives in a bend of the Charles River in Natick, MA.
Ricky Green
Database Manager
Ricky brings a wide array of skills to Orion, having worked as an English instructor in Turkey, Germany, and Japan, an artisanal baker in the Hudson Valley, a community organizer in Nebraska and Colorado, and a rock climber exploring the boulders wherever he finds himself. But his principal skills relate to computers and data analysis and management. He holds a BA in philosophy with a BS in neuroscience from Duke University.
Tracie Butler-Kurth
Philanthropic Strategist
Tracie has a substantial background in development, having worked in fundraising positions at Smith College, Hampshire College, the Loomis Chaffee School, and Community Involved in Sustained Agriculture. She earned a philosophy degree from Gustavus Adolphus College. She enjoys good food, local microbrews, and spending time with her family (including her mini-schnauzer Boston). A transplant from rural Minnesota, she lives in Easthampton, Massachusetts.
Madeleine LaPlante-Dube
Associate Director of Digital Product & Strategy
Madeleine is a journalist and strategy nerd with a background in product and audience development. A lover of all things outdoors, she comes to Orion from Outside magazine and the Sun Journal, an award-winning community paper in Lewiston, Maine. She studied English at Trinity College Dublin and holds a double degree in journalism and creative writing from Miami University of Ohio, where she won the Senior Prize for Outstanding Creative Work.
Heather McElwain
Copyeditor
Heather is a freelance editor, essayist, poet, and explorer. In addition to Orion, she also edits for National Geographic Books and several other independent and university presses. She has edited for a man who walked on the moon, a woman who studies the deepest oceans, and all sorts of folks and topics between. Her writing has appeared in numerous journals and anthologies. She lives in northern Idaho.
Natalie Middleton
Science Editor
Natalie A. Middleton is a biologist who studies the natural world, from whales to neurons. She holds a Master’s degree in Science Writing from Johns Hopkins University and currently lives in San Diego, California where she works as the Science Editor and author of the column Field Notes, for Orion magazine.
(Photo: Tatum Clark)
Tara Rae Miner
Editorial Production Manager
Tara first joined Orion as assistant editor in 2005. Writing that she has edited won a Pushcart Prize and was reprinted in The Best Creative Nonfiction and The Best American Science and Nature Writing. Tara has written for High Country News and Oregon Humanities, among others, and is the author of Your Green Abode: A Practical Guide to a Sustainable Home. She holds a masters degree in environmental studies from the University of Montana and lives and works in Portland, Oregon, with her family.
Sumanth Prabhaker
Editor in Chief
Sumanth is the founder of two nonprofit literary organizations: Madras Press, a charitable publisher whose catalog includes work by Aimee Bender, Donald Barthelme, Lydia Davis, and David Foster Wallace; and Migrant Books, a pop-up bookstore for international children’s literature. He holds an MFA in creative writing from the University of North Carolina Wilmington, where he was an editor for Ecotone.
Hans Teensma
Designer
Hans and his team have designed Orion since 1998. He is proprietor and publication principal of Impress, a studio specializing in book and magazine design. He launched Outside, co-art directed Rolling Stone, launched Rocky Mountain Magazine and New England Monthly. All of these magazines won the National Magazine Award for General Excellence during his tenure. He was the founding art director of Family Fun, Wondertime, Getaways, Eating Well, and Disney Magazine. Hans has designed more than a hundred pictorial books for his imprint and large publishers including Abrams, Chronicle, Penguin, and Disney Animation Studios in collaboration with Pixar.
Kathleen Yale
Digital Editor
Katie is the author of the award-winning children’s book Howl Like a Wolf! and game Guess My Animal! which both combine ecology, animal behavior, and imagination to engage children in creative play. She’s a former scriptwriter for the educational programs SciShow and Crash Course, and prior to that worked as a wildlife field biologist. She holds an MS in environmental studies from the University of Montana and lives outside of Glacier National Park, with her family.
Other team members include:
Business Manager: Karen Gagne
Bookreader: Gregory Lauzon