Mary Ann Brussat (President, Executive Director, Co-Founder)
Frederic Brussat (Senior Editor, Co-Founder)
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat have been covering contemporary culture and the spiritual renaissance for five decades. (They have always worked together under a joint byline.) In 1973, the Brussats founded a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to increasing the use of the arts/media by religious and community organizations. In the 1990s, they refocused their work on how spiritual practices can be used to create lives of meaning and purpose. This emphasis is evident on SpiritualityandPractice.com, a multifaith website launched in 2006 that provides resources for spiritual journeys.
The Brussats are the authors of Spiritual Literacy: Reading the Sacred in Everyday Life, a collection of more than 650 examples of spiritual perspectives on everyday experience, which is the basis of a 26-part film series. In that book, they introduced the Alphabet of Spiritual Literacy — 37 spiritual practices that are common in the world’s religions, around which SpiritualityandPractice.com is organized. Their book Spiritual Rx: Prescriptions for Living a Meaningful Life recommends resources and exercises for exploring the practices. They are also the authors of two gift paperbacks, 100 Ways to Keep Your Soul Alive and its sequel 100 More Ways to Keep Your Soul Alive.
The Brussats have published reviews and other resources on the arts and media through a number of publications over the years. You can read more about this work here.
From 1996 to 2007, the Brussats were the Media Editors for Spirituality & Health magazine, providing book and movie reviews to the print magazine and the website. From 2001 - 2005, they were also the Web Editors for SpiritualityHealth.com, the 2005 Webby Awards People's Choice Winner for Religion and Spirituality. Mary Ann was a consultatant and a regular guest talking about films on New Morning, a daily show on the Hallmark Channel.
Mary Ann is an interfaith minister, ordained by the One Spirit Interfaith Seminary. Frederic is an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ. The Brussats are members of Judson Memorial Church in Greenwich Village, New York City. They are also initiates of the Mevlevi Sufi Order that traces its inspiration to Mevlana Jelaluddin Rumi. After residing in New York City for 46 years, they moved in 2015 to Pilgrim Place, an intentional community in Claremont, California, where they live with their Maine Coon cats Rumi and Shams.
Scott Evenbeck (Chairperson)
Scott Evenbeck earned his undergraduate degree in Psychology at Indiana University and his MA and PhD in Social Psychology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He joined the faculty of Indiana University Purdue University at Indianapolis (IUPUI) where he was Founding Dean of University College which became a national model for serving students.
Scott was recruited by the City University of New York to found Stella and Charles Guttman Community College which has a good record of student-centered work, demonstrating the impact on student outcomes through support of the students. He has published and presented nationally and internationally on practices and programs to enhance student success. He joined the faculty of Baruch College in January 2021 charged with the development of a doctoral program in higher education.
Scott has served on many boards in Indianapolis and also on a national basis including the Opera Board in Indianapolis and the Board of the Indianapolis Arts Center as well as the Consortium of Endowed Episcopal Parishes, the Association for Continuing Higher Education, the Congress of Academic Deans, and other higher education and church organizations including the Vestry of Trinity Church: A Parish in the City of New York. He regularly serves on accreditation teams, working with three of the regional accrediting bodies. He served on the faculty for the AAC&U General Education Institute for decades as well as the Learning Community Institute and the BEAMS project. He currently serves on the board of the Gardner Center for the Improvement of Undergraduate Education, the boards of three postsecondary institutions, and the Task Force for HBCUs for the Episcopal Church and the Association of Episcopal Colleges.
Damian Geddry
Damian is a blue-collar theologian; a working person who sees the divine in unlikely places. He started as a “creative” at a big New York ad agency in the early aughts and does digital ads today. A four-year journey at the Claremont School of Theology turned his attention to the biggest market in the universe: existential questions. Now he sees spiritual need everywhere.
Damian has discovered that marketing has two basic tenets: provide a solution or engage a question. He knows meaning, purpose, ethics, beauty, suffering, and mortality are universal issues. He learned this working at an HIV clinic in the 90s and working with homeless addicts today.
After studying and teaching about religious outsiders and their spiritual curiosity he’s clear we must meet the seekers where they are -- using organic language and life situations. He’s adamant we start with Google, Youtube, Meta, TikTok, Discord, Bluesky and whatever else comes up between now and the end of this sentence. We have to ask questions, bring our own curiosity, and think about new spiritual experiences. Dogma be damned; religions need to listen, love, and learn with the human family. That’s wisdom. And that’s what he’s here to do.
Lucas Hackett-Provenzano
A graduate of Pomona College ‘22 where he majored in religious studies, Lucas Hackett-Provenzano was first exposed to Spirituality & Practice as an intern with the Practicing Democracy Project. He has contributed articles to the website, often covering the spirituality of sports. He credits the resources and guidance provided him during his internship as being instrumental in his spiritual formation.
Upon graduating, he dabbled in professional rugby, traveled, worked as a special education teacher, and now will begin a yearlong residency as a hospital chaplain in San Francisco. Some of his proudest achievements are his undergraduate thesis called How to Have Habits of Healing and Hope, a high school state football championship, and a college rugby national championship. Lucas currently enjoys dancing, singing, praying, practicing yoga, and spending time with his family, including his three mothers and twin brother.
Pat Repinski
Pat Repinski has been involved in the work of Mary Ann and Frederic Brussat since 1972. She was an occasional contributor of articles on art and movies for their first magazine Cultural Information Service. She also worked with the organization in the area of advertising and promotion for several years. Later as a volunteer, she has led discussion groups in various churches using the materials and books developed by the Spirituality & Practice founders and contributors.
Pat’s educational background is a BA in French and Library Science and a MA degree in Instructional Systems. With that degree, she worked as a trainer at several high tech companies.
Pat’s spiritual practices center around her love of art, music, and film. Additionally, she is a practitioner of zazen meditation and belongs to a dharma group at her Unitarian Church in Saint Paul, Minnesota.
Sophia Said
Sophia Said is a visionary and transformational interfaith leader who has led teams and executed ground-breaking projects locally. She has worked at the cross-section of interfaith and public policy for over 20 years and has advised faith leaders, nonprofit executives, government officials, and CEOs about topics ranging from refugees resettlement, women’s empowerment, interfaith relationship, DEI, and community development.
Sophia helped start the Interfaith Center of Arkansas, a nonprofit organization dedicated to creating inclusive communities and reducing prejudice among diverse communities, and led it for ten years as the founding executive director. Sophia is the also founder and president of Madina Institute of Arkansas, a full-service Islamic Center serving spiritual, social, and educational needs of a growing Muslim population in Central Arkansas.
Currently Sophia is serving as the director of strategy for Madina Institute International, a global network of mosques and Islamic centers in fourteen countries. She is providing leadership to grow the organization into new communities and countries.
Maggie Oman Shannon
The Reverend Maggie Oman Shannon, M.A., is an ordained Unity minister, workshop and retreat facilitator, artist, and the author of nine books: Prayers for Healing; The Way We Pray; A String and a Prayer (co-author); One God, Shared Hope; Prayers for Hope and Comfort; Crafting Calm; Crafting Gratitude; Crafting Love; and her latest, Have Hope.
The former editor of three national magazines, including The Saturday Evening Post, Maggie also served as Director of Marketing for the Institute of Noetic Sciences. In 2000, she founded The New Story, a coaching and consulting business focused on helping people to create purposeful lives. Her work has been featured in periodicals ranging from the San Francisco Chronicle to Spirituality and Health; and she has taught workshops at venues including California Pacific Medical Center’s Institute for Health and Healing and Chautauqua Institution.
A graduate of Smith College, Maggie also holds a master’s degree in Culture and Spirituality from Holy Names University. A 2010 graduate of Manhattan’s One Spirit Interfaith Seminary, she was ordained as a Unity minister in 2014. She served as the senior minister of Unity Spiritual Center of San Francisco for 12 years, and was named Minister Emeritus upon retiring.
Jon Sweeney
Jon M. Sweeney is an award-winning author and independent scholar who has been interviewed by the Dallas Morning News and The Irish Catholic, on radio with NPR and the BBC, and on national television at CBS Saturday Morning, and NBC’s “Morning Blend” and CBS Sunday Morning in Milwaukee. His work is found in scholarly journals as well as Romper.com and Catster Magazine.
Jon’s books on Franciscan spirituality have sold a quarter million copies. He’s also the author of 40 other books on spirituality, mysticism, biography, and memoir including Meister Eckhart’s Book of the Heart, coauthored with Mark S. Burrows (Hampton Roads, 2017), Thomas Merton: An Introduction to His Life and Practices (St. Martin’s Essentials and Penguin Random House Audio, 2021); and Sit in the Sun: And Other Lessons in the Wisdom of Cats (Broadleaf, 2023). The Pope Who Quit (Doubleday/Image, 2014) was optioned by HBO.
Jon is religion editor at Monkfish Book Publishing, editor of Living City magazine, and book reviewer at SpiritualityandPractice.com. As S&P’s Contributing Editor for Books and New Media, he has developed an “Off the Page” series featuring free and recorded interviews with spiritual authors about their latest books. He has also led e-courses at S&P on St. Francis, Meister Eckhart, and the spirituality of cats.
Jon speaks at literary and religious conferences, in churches and synagogues and independent bookstores, and is a pluralist Roman Catholic married to a Reconstructionist rabbi. Their interfaith marriage has been profiled in national media. They live on Milwaukee’s east side.
