Meet our team.
Roman R. Williams, PhD
Founder
Joshua Polanski, MTS
Director of Engagement
Megan Ribbens, MA
Facilitator & Coach
Lauren Pupillo, MA
Visual Storyteller
Our Story
Our work began in early 2017 at a time when tensions around religion, ethnicity, and inclusion in the United States were abnormally high. Like most good ideas, it began as a conversation between friends over lunch. Our founder Roman Williams was catching up with his friend Rev. Michael Bos, who was a senior minister in New York City at the time. Michael’s career had included eight years directing the Al Amana Centre in Muscat, Oman, where his work focused on interfaith understanding and peacebuilding.
As Michael and Roman talked, both expressed concerns about the newly elected American president’s rhetoric toward immigrants. As signs written in Spanish, Arabic, and English began to appear in front lawns around the United States in support of immigrants and diversity, they worried about the negative statements against Muslims cropping up in newspapers and public conversation. Roman and Michael wondered what a sociologist and a pastor could do.
By the end of their lunch, Roman and Michael were energized by an idea: Perhaps they could use photovoice to strengthen ties and pursue change among Christians, Muslims, and the communities in which they live. They turned to a few people they thought would share their vision. Michael’s longtime friend Bill Sachs, an Episcopal priest and interfaith professional, was eager to join the work. Bill’s enthusiasm drew in Imam Ammar Amonette (Islamic Centre of Virginia). So too was sociologist Cathy Holtmann, who had done work with immigrant Muslims. A grant from the Louisville Institute set the group in motion.
We adapted photovoice — a technique combining amateur photography and structured dialogue — for interfaith engagement. Our work started in three locations in the United States and Canada and initially focused on Christian–Muslim dialogue. We brought together Christians and Muslims to explore what their beliefs, practices, and values look like in everyday life. They snapped photos to show the ways religion and spirituality “show up” during a typical week, then met together to share and discuss their pictures. As conversations unfolded, the sacred became more visible in everyday life. After a series of meetings, participants curated their photographs into art exhibitions designed to engage their communities. Along the way, we completed an ethnographic study of our work, which helped us to improve our process and begin to understand the positive impact we were having.
While our aspiration was to be more inclusive by inviting people from other religions to participate, we recognized the advantage of focusing on Muslims and Christians in our initial projects. By limiting ourselves in this way, we could focus more attention on learning how to use photovoice to build understanding, empathy, and a shared sense of purpose. After these initial projects, we have happily opened our work to people from any spiritual, religious, or secular belief systems.
PARTNERS
We are pleased to work with a variety of partners. These are just a few of them.
