Loren Lynch is the executive director. She comes to the Observer from The Trace, where she was the first director of development, established their membership and major gifts programs, and oversaw all organizational fundraising efforts. This is a return to the Observer for Loren, as prior to The Trace, she was with the TO for more than four years, directing fundraising programs and assisting with overall publication strategy. Loren began her career as part of the development team at The Nation magazine, where her responsibilities included digital fundraising and creative strategy and managing special revenue programs and events. She holds bachelor’s degrees in English and philosophy and an MA in international affairs with a focus on media and culture from The New School in New York City.
Gus Bova is the editor-in-chief of the Texas Observer. In 2016, he joined the Observer as an intern, later becoming a staff writer and an assistant editor. He’s covered immigration, homelessness, labor, politics, and other major Texas stories. Before coming to the Observer, he worked at a shelter for recently arrived immigrants and asylum-seekers. He studied Latin American Studies at the University of Kansas.
Ivan Flores is the creative director at the Texas Observer. Before joining the Observer, Ivan was a freelance photographer covering the conflict in Afghanistan and its impacts on Afghan civilians. Originally from Miami, he has a masters degree in journalism from the City University of New York. His work has appeared in The New York Times, The Guardian, NPR, and Foreign Policy.
Lise Olsen is a Houston-based investigations editor at the Texas Observer. Lise has investigated many twisted Texas tales, including crooked judges, an unjust execution, massive environmental disasters, myriad cases of corporate and public corruption, and unsolved serial killings. Her reports in three states over 20 years contributed to the prosecutions of a former congressman and a federal judge, inspired laws and reforms, helped solve cold cases, restored names to unidentified murder victims, and freed dozens of wrongfully held prisoners. She is the author of The Scientist and the Serial Killer.
Justin Miller covers politics and state government for the Texas Observer. He previously worked for The American Prospect magazine in Washington, D.C., and has also written for The Intercept, The New Republic, and In These Times. Originally from the Twin Cities, he received a journalism degree from the University of Minnesota.
Alyssa Nickel is the director of development. She comes to the Observer from Houston Public Media, where she managed membership and annual campaigns that helped raise over $8 million a year. She started at Houston Public Media first as a fundraising intern, later overseeing digital fundraising efforts before finally becoming the manager of community fundraising. She holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Houston and is currently earning a master’s degree at Tulane University.
Michelle Pitcher is a staff writer at the Texas Observer covering criminal justice. She received her master’s in journalism from the University of California, Berkeley and was part of the team at The Marshall Project that won the Pulitzer Prize for national reporting. Her reporting has been featured on NPR, FiveThirtyEight, The Dallas Morning News, and more. Michelle was born and raised in Dallas and is now based in Austin.
Josephine Lee is a staff writer at the Texas Observer. She has previously worked as an educator and community organizer. Her reporting on labor, environment, politics, and education has been featured in Salon, The Daily Beast, Truthout, and other outlets. She was raised and lives in Houston.
Francesca D’Annunzio is the Texas Observer’s 2025-26 David McHam investigative reporting fellow. D’Annunzio has reported on topics ranging from deportations in the Dominican Republic, Christian nationalism, US-Mexico border colonias, right-wing sheriffs, to zoning and housing policy in Texas. She received her master’s in investigative journalism from the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University. She is proficient in Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, and Arabic.
Steven Monacelli is a special investigative correspondent for the Observer and a freelance investigative journalist based in Dallas. He covers extremism, disinformation, and other topics. His reporting has been featured in Rolling Stone, The Daily Beast, The Real News, Dallas Observer, Dallas Weekly, and more. He is also the publisher of Protean Magazine, a nonprofit literary publication.
Candice Bernd is a special investigative correspondent for the Observer covering the climate and ecological crises. She is a freelance journalist based in Austin whose work has also appeared in The Nation, The American Prospect, In These Times, Salon, Truthout, and Earth Island Journal. She’s received awards from the San Francisco Press Club, the Fort Worth chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, the Native American Journalists Association, and the Dallas Peace and Justice Center.
Mary Tuma is a special investigative correspondent for the Observer focused on reproductive rights. She is an Austin-based freelance reporter whose work has also appeared in The Guardian, The New York Times, The Nation, Mother Jones, and The Intercept. She has worked as a staff reporter for the Austin Chronicle, San Antonio Current, the Texas Independent, and the American Independent News Network.
Ben Sargent is the Texas Observer’s longtime cartoonist. He launched his career drawing editorial cartoons for the Austin American-Statesman in 1974. He was born in Amarillo into a newspaper family and learned the printing trade from age 12 and started working for the local daily as a proof runner at 14. He attended Amarillo College and received a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Texas at Austin in 1970. Sargent won the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning in 1982. He has also received awards from Women in Communications, Inc., Common Cause of Texas, and Cox Newspapers. He is the author of Texas Statehouse Blues (1980) and Big Brother Blues (1984).