Team - The Margin

Bryce Cracknell

FOUNDER & EDITOR IN CHIEF

Bryce Cracknell (he/him) is a writer, filmmaker, and journalist from North Carolina based in Los Angeles, CA. As a storyteller, Bryce seeks to elevate narratives, histories, and experiences that are often overlooked, cast aside, or forgotten. Bryce is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of The Margin, an independent, award-winning, non-profit publication dedicated to investigative and data-driven journalism on environmental and climate justice. Previously, he wrote for Season 6 of the CBS series FBI: MOST WANTED and led social impact campaigns for narrative and documentary features and television shows, including DESCENDANT, FLEE, JUST MERCY, and WHEN THEY SEE US. Bryce is a Morris K. and Stewart L. Udall Scholar and a graduate of Duke University, where he earned a B.A. in Public Policy. Forbes named Bryce as one of 68 climate leaders changing the film and TV industry. He is a member of the National Association of Black Journalists, the Society of Environmental Journalists, a 2026 Rideback Rise Circle Fellow, 2025 Film Independent Episodic Lab Fellow, a 2025 MJ Bear Fellow, a 2024 NBC TV Writers Fellow, and is repped by Kronicle Media.

Ko Bragg

MANAGING EDITOR

Ko Bragg (she/her) is a writer and editor based in and focused on justice in the U.S. South, Mississippi in particular. Previously she served as the Race & Place Editor at Scalawag, where she launched a newsletter about popular culture and the criminal-legal system called "pop justice." You can find her work in The Atlantic, Frontline, Harper’s Bazaar, Columbia Journalism Review, Southerly, Reveal from the Center for Investigative Reporting, and more. Ko is an alumna of Spelman College, Columbia Journalism School, and Sciences Po Ecole de Journalisme.

Ese Olumhense

Investigations Editor

Ese Olumhense is an investigative journalist and educator. She’s worked at a number of journalism outlets, including Reveal from the Center for Investigative Reporting, THE CITY, City Limits, the Chicago Tribune, and The Investigative Fund. For more than a decade, she’s covered beats ranging from housing, health, politics, technology, policing, and the law. Her multimedia investigations have won a Sidney Award, a national Edward R. Murrow Award, and a Knight Public Service Award, among other honors. A native New Yorker, Ese is also an adjunct professor at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, working with investigative reporting fellows there. She’s taught at Columbia since 2019. During the summer, she’s an instructor at The School of The New York Times.

Jasmine Williams

PRODUCER

Jasmine Williams (she/her) is a writer, creative producer, and curator whose passion is creating programming and digital media to highlight the Southern Black experience. Using art as a tool to connect communities and share stories, her goal is to inspire everyday folks to see the art in their existence. Jasmine is the creator of ‘Sipp Talk Media, a digital platform that uses storytelling to shift the narrative of Mississippi, by centering Black experiences and culture. Exploring themes of language, food, history, art, and lifestyle. Jasmine is committed to the visibility of Black Southern stories and our creative legacy.

Diara J. Townes

AUDIENCE & ENGAGEMENT MANAGER

Diara J. Townes (she/her) is an engagement journalist with a background in environmental science and disinformation research, focused on building solutions for underrepresented communities affected by the dual climate and information crises. Her career includes program management with the Aspen Institute, the Sunlight Research Center, and NC Local, where she supports the Emergency Mode for News disaster preparedness initiative. Through a Wake Forest environmental fellowship, Diara also reports on energy and environmental justice issues across North Carolina and published "The Curious Scout" newsletter, which features community-centered stories, curiosity-driven reporting, and a behind-the-scenes look at local journalism. Diara is from Long Island, NY.

Ode Partners

Ode is a data and design agency focused on creating digital products and platforms to address environmental challenges. The team includes scientists, strategists, designers, and engineers with experience from NASA, the White House, and Google X. Ode specializes in artificial intelligence, earth observation, and data storytelling, working on projects that drive meaningful environmental change - transforming complex data into actionable insights and compelling narratives.

Ariana Carella

Ariana Carella (she/her) is the Managing Director at Root to Flourish Collective, where she leads programming and network weaving to transform the environmental sector towards full belonging. A skilled strategist, facilitator, and community builder, she is considered a “heartbeat” due to her ability to keep steady while always centering purpose and love. Her work focuses on resourcing and supporting BIPOC individuals and groups in the environmental movement. Prior to Root to Flourish Collective, she led Spark Bird Group, a boutique consulting firm helping arts and environmental nonprofit and philanthropic organizations grow, plan, and evolve. She also led donor organizing and network engagement at Rachel’s Network, where she resourced frontline organizations on a variety of environmental issues and created the Catalyst Award, which provided over $1.6 million unrestricted, multi-year, wraparound support to mid-career women of color across the movement. Previously, she served on the steering committee of Oasis: A Green Equity Collective and the Rainmakers Giving Circle (now defunct) at the Washington Area Women’s Foundation. She was proudly born and raised in Brooklyn, NY, and now lives with her family in Northeast DC, on the traditional homelands of the Nacotchtank and Piscataway peoples.

Pam Dempsey

Pam Dempsey (she/her) is the program director for the Data-Driven Reporting Project at Medill | Northwestern. She also works with New Mexico In Depth on development and is the past executive director of Investigate Midwest. Dempsey is an online, print and radio journalist who has developed community engagement programs, investigative reporting workshops and helped coordinate the start-up of two online newsrooms that heavily emphasize data journalism. 

Clare Fox

Clare Fox (she/they) joined Sustainable Agriculture and Food System Funders (SAFSF) as Executive Director in January 2024. For over 20 years, SAFSF has led the field as the largest national network of philanthropies and impact investors supporting an equitable and climate resilient food and agriculture system. Having first worked as a radio producer and media educator at Youth Radio and NPR, Clare stepped into a lifelong passion and commitment to food justice. She served as Executive Director of the Los Angeles Food Policy Council, where she built a collaborative network of over 400 partners across public, private, nonprofit and philanthropic sectors working together to expand access to healthy food for low-income residents, improve conditions for food workers, and increased local and sustainable farming in the region. Clare then joined Everytable, a growth stage public benefit corporation, as Vice President of Strategic Partnerships, where she partnered with nonprofits, government, schools and healthcare on a $10m+ vertical focused on addressing food access and food security. While there, she spearheaded philanthropic partnerships that led to the creation of a $12m blended capital vehicle to offer franchise business ownership to BIPOC entrepreneurs through training, mentorship and access to capital. In addition to The Margin, Clare serves on the Board of the Los Angeles Community Garden Council, and the Leadership Council of the Los Angeles Food Policy Council. Clare is a proud graduate of Mount Holyoke College and the University of California, Los Angeles. She is in love with her hometown of LA, where she lives with her husband, and a rich community of "angelic troublemakers."

Adina Luo

Adina Luo (she/they) is a filmmaker and media executive. She is currently COO at Antigravity Academy (DÌDI), a production company and incubator building Hollywood’s first-ever community-centered studio. Previously, Adina led strategy work at Participant, holding the pen on the corporate planning process, supporting impact-driven film and TV (e.g. Judas and the Black Messiah, Descendant, The First Wave), and developing best-in-class approaches to content and campaigning. Adina also produced For Our Children (2022, Netflix), a documentary feature following the mothers behind Black Lives Matter, with support from Sundance, Tribeca, IDA, SFFILM, among others. With a background in venture capital and entrepreneurship, she is particularly focused on advancing work at the intersection of media, technology, and culture change. Adina studied business at the Wharton School and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania.

Cameron Oglesby

JOURNALIST

Cameron Oglesby (she/her) is an award-winning environmental justice (EJ) organizer, strategist, oral historian, and journalist whose storytelling centers histories of injustice, joy, resilience, and land stewardship in Black, Indigenous, rural, and southern communities. She is the Founder and Executive Director of the Environmental Justice Oral History Project, an educational repository documenting environmental justice across the U.S. and U.S. South. Cameron is a National Geographic Young Explorer, Aspen Institute Ideas Fellow and Future Leader Climate Fellow, Young, Gifted, and Green 40 Under 40 Awardee, and NAAEE 30 Under 30 Leader. Her reporting has appeared in Grist, The Nation, Environmental Health News, and Yale Climate Connections and has been recognized by the Sierra Club, Covering Climate Now, Southern Environmental Law Center, and Society of Environmental Journalists. She earned both her Master's in Public Policy and Bachelor's in Environmental Science and Policy from Duke University and currently serves as Senior Consultant for Narrative and Influence at Frontline Solutions.

Rae Spriggs

Rae Spriggs (she/her) is a fifth-year environmental health sciences doctoral candidate at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. Her research examines the intersection of extreme climate exposures, social vulnerability, and mental health outcomes, with a focus on disparities in climate-related mental health mortality. She expects to complete her PhD in spring 2027. Before her PhD program, Rae served as the Manager of Climate Action Research at the UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation, where she led the climate adaptation and resilience team and co-wrote and produced policy briefs on extreme heat research. Rae also spent three years as the Associate Director of the UCLA Center for Diverse Leadership in Science, where she helped build and expand programs advancing environmental and climate justice and anti-racism in the geosciences. She secured more than $1 million in funding from the National Science Foundation and private foundations to support this work.