Who We Are

Stephen Kaye, editor and publisher, became intrigued with publishing when he heard the wheezing sounds of a flat-bed press and the clanking of the lino type machines while working on his weekly school paper towards the middle of the last century. Since then he worked on a college paper, studied and practiced law for a few decades, went into real estate, farming organic vegetables and grass-fed beef. After a few months of retirement he reverted to childhood fantasies and started The Millbrook Independent to replace the Millbrook Roundtable whose demise created a vacuum that needed filling.  He can be reached at tminewsroom@gmail.com.

Carola Lott, managing editor, has lived here in Millbrook for the past 30 years. She has worked as a freelance writer and photographer for a number of magazines. Working at The Millbrook Independent has given her the chance to meet new people and broaden her horizons.  She feels that the best thing about Millbrook is the beautiful countryside that remains miraculously unspoiled. She can be reached at carolalott@gmail.com.

Rona Boyer: Food Editor & Director of Business Development, had a 27 year career with McCann-Erickson, handling accounts such as L'Oreal, Coca-Cola, Nestle, General Motors, Black & Decker and dozens more household names, rose to Managing Director of the Paris office and later managed the Los Angeles office. She turned her attention to the web in the 1990s and has been a Web Developer and Internet Marketing consultant ever since. She has lived in Finland, Portugal, Italy and France. She speaks fluent French and rusty Italian. Her passions are food, cooking, bridge and shooting the breeze with friends and family. She can be reached at ronaboyer@gmail.com.

Arvolyn HillArvolyn Hill is a reporter from Kent, CT. She attended Drew University in Madison, New Jersey where she majored in Pan African Studies and minored in English and Writing. During her time at Drew she was wrote for the college newspaper The Acorn in addition to writing poetry for the campus literary magazine Insanity's Horse. She worked as a research assistant for Caribbean Literature professor and writer Tiphanie Yanique, assisting Yanique in developing the Caribbean Literature book collection for the university library.

During her junior year at Drew she took an international seminar on Activist Writing during Apartheid in South Africa spending a week in Cape Town and a week in Johannesburg. After the seminar was complete she stayed in South Africa for a semester studying abroad to take classes at University of Cape Town. While in Cape Town she volunteered with the organization Ubunya and taught the basics of Journalism to high school students in a township. 

She graduated from Drew University in 2011 and began working as a reporter for The Millerton News. Arvolyn spent two years at The Millerton News as the Millbrook reporter before starting at The Millbrook Independent. Arvolyn Hill enjoys writing, photography and traveling. When she is not writing for the newspaper she works as a Disc Jockey at The Lantern Inn in Wassaic, NY. She can be reached at arvolyn45@gmail.com.

Tonia Shoumatoff, senior reporter, has worked extensively in radio, television, film, print and events production.  She produced for The Body Human series on CBS, OMNI-The New Frontier on ABC, as well as documentaries and feature films.  In the Hudson Valley she co-produced the first five Amenia World Peace Festivals, served as Media Specialist for Clearwater and has written articles for print that have been published in Omni, Dutchess Magazine, Lapis Journal and purchased by The New York Times Magazine.  Since 2004 she has been the New York Watershed Manager for the Housatonic Valley Association and has headed up many environmental stewardship projects in the Harlem Valley. She can be reached at toniashou@gmail.com.

Tom Parrett, science editor, is a writer and editor living in Millerton and Greenwich Village, New York. He has written numerous science and technology articles for national magazines, including Connoisseur, Geo, Money, Science Digest, and Technology. He can be reached at parrett@bway.net.

Pat Ike, photography editor, has taken pictures all her life. She built her first darkroom when she was thirteen, in a spare bathroom at her house. After she rigged up her father's slide project as an enlarger, her father decided she was indeed serious and bought her a proper enlarger at a thrift shop for $15.00. She says "it was the best birthday present I ever received." She can be reached at patike@optonline.net.

Kevin T. McEneaney, cultural reporter, is the author of Russell Banks: In Search for Freedom (2010) and Tom Wolfe’s America: Heroes, Pranksters, & Fools (2009), which won an Outstanding Academic Title award from the American Library Association in 2010. He is the author of two major poetry collections, The Enclosed Garden and Longing, which has been translated into French and Japanese. He is the Poet Laureate of Smithfield Valley. He can be reached at  k.t.mceneaney@gmail.com.