Ric Schumacher is an ordained Unity minister, nationally recognized speaker, trainer, and writer whose work has appeared in Unity Magazine, Daily Word, Journey Magazine, and various newspapers and anthologies. He serves as an adjunct professor at Youngstown State University, teaching Religious Studies, American Identity, Cultural Anthropology, and Human Geography. An avocational archaeologist, Ric has participated in digs at Megiddo in Israel through Tel Aviv University, mapped unexcavated Mayan sites with the Maya Research Program in Belize, and conducted vernacular architectural research on San Salvador Island in the Bahamas. He has held memberships in the Society of Biblical Literature, the American Academy of Religion, the North American Patristics Society, and the American Anthropological Association, and is a Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland. His board service includes the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, the American Lung Association, the Northeast Ohio Task Force on AIDS, the Kidney Foundation, and Warrior's Journey Home, a national organization providing spiritual healing for veterans and their families. Ric holds a bachelor's degree in religious studies with concentrations in archaeology and Islamic and Judaic studies, master's degrees in English and American Studies, and post-master's work in Working Class Studies. He lives in Akron, Ohio with his wife Heather, two dogs, and a grey cat named Earl, and enjoys video production, photography, and watercolor painting in his free time. Follow his writing at RicSchumacher.Substack.com.