Meet the Team

Founder, Editor-in-Chief

Stacia Wilson is a writer and entrepreneur. She grew up traveling between the US and Japan as the child of Christian missionaries, and has been to over 20 countries as a digital nomad. To empower others to travel, she wrote the ebook How to Travel Without Time or Money.

Stacia’s background as a partner dance instructor and world traveler has given her a unique perspective on human connection, language, and culture. She has a wide-ranging skillset that allowed her to freelance remotely before becoming an entrepreneur. She has managed teams while working as editor-in-chief of multiple commercial blogs, such as Wandering Westie, a lifestyle brand, and SwayD, a dance shoe brand.

She has a BS in Anthropology from the University of La Verne (magna cum laude) and is a member of the Lambda Alpha National Anthropology Honor Society. As part of receiving her degree, she conducted multiple hands-on ethnographic studies. These included on-the-ground networking, interviews, and documentation of cultural events. Her senior thesis was an ethnography which involved conducting and analyzing research in Europe, Asia, and across the United States.

 
Stacia has completed personal development and leadership programs with Landmark Worldwide, Powerteam International, and Mindvalley. Her last entrepreneurial endeavor before Covid was an online dance training program (in Japanese) for women in Japan. Most recently, she was a volunteer for Unity2020, a movement designed to encourage solutions-oriented perspectives and uncover options beyond the two-party political system that dominates American media and politics.

 
Stacia founded 2ndLook News from a desire to reimagine news—from a system of bad incentives producing bad information which results in division and chaos, to one that facilitates sound decision-making and common understanding.

Managing Editor

Craig Carroll is a retired Marine and US defense intelligence analyst with a degree in intelligence studies from American Military University (magna cum laude). He began his career in the US Marine Corps at age 18 and served for 15 years. During that time, he completed six combat deployments and received recognition as an innovator in the intelligence field, pioneering new methods of analysis. While deployed to Iraq, Craig trained under the tutelage of the creator of the Marine Corps Martial Arts Program, attaining a black belt and becoming a martial arts instructor.

As a senior enlisted leader of Marines, Craig led multiple teams of warriors and intelligence professionals at every level of command. He was recognized with awards in each of these environments, including multiple Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medals and the Joint Service Commendation Medal. He was highly regarded within these communities as an exceptional analyst, instructor, leader, and mentor.

After retiring from the Marines in 2016, Craig became an intelligence contractor for the Defense Intelligence Agency at USINDOPACOM, again innovating methods of analysis that would improve intelligence up to the national level while continuing to mentor younger military professionals. He retired from this industry in 2020.

Craig now works to defend the US from the deep divisions he sees within it. He teaches Gracie Jiu Jitsu in an effort to empower individuals. He was a volunteer on the Red Team of the Unity2020 movement. He has published multiple essays, including in publications such as Areo Magazine, and he works as managing editor for 2ndLook News in order to repair the sensemaking process of the American people.

Writer, Editor

A copywriter and marketing strategist by trade, Nathan Smolensky has also worked as a magazine editor, as the president of an educational nonprofit, and as a New York City schoolteacher.

As a longtime champion of non-partisan political innovation, Nathan has been associated previously with the Centrist Project (which later became Unite America) and with Unity2020. In 2018, he ran for congressional office as an independent candidate. Throughout these experiences, he maintained a presence as a political essayist and writer whose work has appeared in various publications, including Arc Digital.

As a writer with 2ndLook, Nathan is focused primarily on highlighting innovative solutions in the political sphere, getting to the root of longstanding issues, and helping to build a common language to break down tribal barriers and allow our national discourse to heal.

Nick Ramos is a Cuban-born writer and consultant with 3 years of experience in policy research for businesses looking to expand operations into Cuba. He attended NYU’s Gallatin school and now consults on Cuban/American history for television, news media, and individual clients. He is the host of The History of the Cuban Revolution podcast.

A former debate national champion, he has coached kids to overcome speech impediments.

As a writer on 2ndLook, he focuses on the ways in which history has been misunderstood or distorted, and how to use that information to bridge partisan divides.

Data Stories

Bri Holmes is a truth seeker who aims to walk the line between intuitive insight and objective truth. She holds a BS in business administration. Now a business intelligence analyst with five years of experience, she loves data, in-depth research, and finding connections between seemingly disparate and unconnected phenomena.

Bri has consulted for Fortune 500 companies on the implementation of multichannel decision strategies for customer relationship management systems. She has also worked with multiple IT, business, and data teams to utilize customer data to inform critical business decisions.

Becoming increasingly frustrated with the extreme polarization she's seen throughout US society and politics in recent years, Bri joined Unity2020. Currently, her work with 2ndLook aims at transforming unproductive conversations into meaningful discourse and powerful insights. She hopes to shed light on important topics with Data Stories and put the power of knowledge directly into the American people's hands.