Justin Barnes—Freelance Photographer
After more than 20 years in the photography business, Barnes can be found driving from athletic complexes to shoot sports and team photos, to apartments and houses to shoot lifestyle images all over the Midwest. Living in Louisville, Nebraska, he is familiar with the Omaha and Lincoln metro area, as well as everywhere in between. From corporate headshots to high school senior photos to weddings anywhere in the world, Barnes always has his camera gear and is ready to take photos in any situation.
Karen Campbell—Contributing Writer
An Omaha native, Campbell graduated with a B.A. in English from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. She’s mother to a son, now a freshman at the University of Kansas, and a daughter attending Westside Middle School. Campbell’s main job title over the past several years has been PTO Mom. She has also served on guilds for The Rose Theater, Children’s Hospital, and Omaha Performing Arts. Along with her pug Pugsley (RIP), she was part of the pet therapy team at Children’s Hospital. She currently serves on the board of directors for Child Saving Institute. Campbell loves spending time with her family and her therapist. She excels at taking herculean naps and obsessing about everything, and enjoys seeing movies at Film Streams theaters (and really hopes the Alamo Drafthouse opens soon.)
Greg Echlin—Contributing Writer
Echlin has traveled to Omaha from his home base in the Kansas City area through the years so often, he says he feels like the NBA franchise of the early 1970s when the then-Kansas City-Omaha Kings played games in both cities. In the same Omaha Civic Auditorium where the Kings lit up the scoreboard, Echlin covered his first NCAA men’s basketball tournament in 1977. What he didn’t anticipate was being left behind by his ride back to Southern Illinois University in Carbondale. So Echlin took his longest, and last, hitchhiking trip and got back before sunset. He still enjoys the travel to cover sports and its personalities, but mostly as the driver.
Dwain Hebda—Contributing Writer
Hebda is an award-winning journalist, editor, and photographer, as well as president of his editorial services company Ya!Mule Wordsmiths. Based in Little Rock, Arkansas, Hebda’s work appears in more than 35 publications in multiple states. He was recently awarded Best Reporter/Columnist by the readers of AY Magazine; a runner-up Diamond Journalist of the Year by the Arkansas Society of Professional Journalists; and repeatedly awarded by the SPJ and Arkansas Press Association for excellence in the written word. Nebraskan by birth, Southern by the grace of God, he and his wife lavish time on their four grown children and two lovely dogs, Hootie and Cash.
This article originally appeared in the October 2021 issue of Omaha Magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe.