Rick Sforza is a spiritual director, photographer, veteran, and co-facilitator of an anti-racism workshop. He worked for more than 30 years as a photojournalist, journalist and photo editor. During that time, Rick discovered that simply listening to a subject helped put them at ease and yield better stories and photos. As a military photographer, he also served as a mental health coordinator for airmen returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. He again saw the benefits of deep listening for veterans recovering from moral injury and PTSD.

After retiring from the military, Rick discovered spiritual direction as a way to continue supporting vets. He currently serves as a staff member for year one of the Center for Spiritual Development’s The Art of Spiritual Direction program. Rick also attended Suzanne Edwards-Acton’s My Work to Do workshop and became a co-facilitator. The program is an “online affinity group designed to help white people build stamina for discussing racism, systemic injustice, racial healing, reconciliation, and justice in their everyday lives.” Rick’s experiences have coalesced into a practice of holding space for other white people who are working their way through their own internalized biases and racism.

Storyteller: Exploring the Injustices of Racism

Imam Amiin Al-Musaddiq is a native of the United States of America’s urban community who reverted to Islam in 2001. Currently a student at Madina Institute in Atlanta, he serves as acting Imam at Masjid al-Mu’un in Chicago. Imam Amiin also is a certified life coach focusing on transformational, solution-focused, and positive psychology. He is a member of the Interfaith Roundtable and of Bring Chicago Home, an effort to end homelessness.

Storyteller: Exploring the Injustices of Racism

Walt Cunningham, Jr. is an accomplished pianist and musical creator and producer with an eclectic background. He attended West Point Academy, the distinguished military school, where he became one of just over a thousand Black American graduates and served as a national spokesperson. Walt further honed his skills in business as an award-winning national salesperson for Pfizer, Inc., and at Wilson Learning, a national executive sales and leadership development company.

Walt created and has served since 2008 as producer of Dartmouth College’s annual musical competition, Dartmouth Idol. He also is artistic director of the college’s Gospel Choir, for which he writes music and arranges and conducts concerts and tours. In addition, Walt is founder and CEO of One Soul In Prosperity (OSIP) Productions, LLC, a Chicago-based live and recorded music production and publishing company. He and OSIP have performed at President Obama’s inaugural brunch; the White House holiday event; Jazz at Lincoln Center; the New Orleans Jazz Festival; the Venite International Christmas Forum in Luzern, Switzerland; and other major national and international events.

Storyteller: Exploring the Injustices of Racism

Forrest S. Cuch is an enrolled member of the Ute Indian Tribe. Born in 1951, he grew up on the Uintah and Ouray Ute Indian Reservation in northeastern Utah. Forrest was raised in the sacred Ute/Shoshone Sundance religion and joined his father and uncles as a sun dancer. He has also participated in sweat lodge ceremonies throughout his life and currently conducts ceremonies on his ranch. The ranch includes eight horses, some of which are used for equine therapy (horse medicine).  In addition to practicing Native traditions, Forrest serves as senior warden at St. Elizabeth’s Episcopal Church, Whiterocks, Utah.

Forrest holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in behavioral sciences from Westminster College in Salt Lake City. In his 38-year career, he has held many challenging positions, beginning with education director for the Ute Indian Tribe. He later served as tribal planner/administrator for the Wampanoag Tribe in Aquinnah, Massachusetts. Forrest also taught social studies and led the department for his high school alma mater, Wasatch Academy in Mount Pleasant, Utah. As executive director of the Utah Division of Indian Affairs (1997-2011), he published A History of Utah’s American Indians (Utah State University Press, 2000).

Throughout his career, Forrest has called attention to the ancient presence and contributions of American Indian people throughout the Western Hemisphere. He has addressed critical issues facing all American Indians, including racial injustice and environmental racism. Currently, he is working with spiritual leaders throughout the Western Hemisphere to usher in the new shift in feminine consciousness known as the New Earth and call attention to climate change and harm to Mother Earth. Forrest strongly believes racism and environmental injustice are interrelated. “How man treats man is reflected in how we treat the environment. We are witnessing a high degree of environmental violence and destruction which correlates with how we treat each other.”

Storyteller: Exploring the Injustices of Racism