Robert “Archie” Archuleta, CDEA’s much-loved board member, died on January 25, 2019, at the age of 88, in SLC. Archie was a celebrated Utah educator; Civil and Human Rights Activist; builder of SOCIO (Utah’s Spanish Speaking Organization for Community, Integrity, and Opportunity); mentor to a new generation of Chicano-Hispano community organizers; and a mischievous rabble rouser and truth seeker.
He was president of the board of the Utah Coalition of La Raza and served on the boards of Centro Civico Mexicano, Alliance for Unity, and many others. He received the Quixote Lifetime Achievement Award from the Utah Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and awards from the Mexican Consulate, Utah Education Association, and Salt Lake City NAACP.
One of five children, Archie was born on July 22, 1930, in Grand Junction, CO. As a freshman in high school, he suffered a severe football injury, developed gangrene, and compelled local doctors to remove the toes of his left foot and, later, part of his leg. Ironically, the injury spurred his parents to push him out of railroad work and “into something else.” That something else became a college education and a teaching license.
Archie was the first in his family (and his Pocatello, Idaho barrio) to graduate college. In 1953, he moved to Utah to teach public school. Over the ensuing decades, he married, became the father of five children, and one of the state’s most recognized civil and human rights activists. In the 1960s he worked with the NAACP to end local segregation and repeal the state’s anti-miscegenation law. In the 1970s and 80s, he helped develop the Spanish Speaking Organization for Community, Integrity, and Opportunity (SOCIO), Utah’s most effective Chicano-Hispano civil rights organization. He worked for jobs and educational opportunities for Chicanos; he fought against police abuse; he rallied for immigrants; and he mentored young activists, women as well as men; and he helped CDEA grow and take on new challenges. His bright spirit was on the forefront of social justice issues for more than half a century.
David Baddley, Photography Professor, Westminster College, is an avid cyclist, back-country hiker, and soft-core mountaineer. He is passionate about making art, mostly action-based land art and photography. He also works with film, video, concept work, and performance art. His work has been included in dozens of group exhibits from Salt Lake City, Utah, to Budapest, Hungary.
He has had thirteen solo exhibits, the most recent one at the Utah Museum of Contemporary Art. His artwork and his writings have appeared in several publications, including ArtWeek, Leica View, and Lens Work. He has created publications, received grants, and won awards for his work. A book of his photos, Peace, was published by the Center for Documentary Expression and Art in 2006, and an exhibit of the photos in the book was simultaneously presented by the Utah Museum of Contemporary Art.
About his process as a photographer, he recently said: “The idea of perception, and exploring the nature of perception, is probably the one thing in common with all the work that I make. Not being a religious person, I believe that it is through perception that we literally create reality for ourselves. Therefore, at least from our own perspective, we create the universe as we experience it.”
Larry Cesspooch calls himself “a modern storyteller” who uses film, music, and the oral tradition to create narratives. In Ute, Cesspooch means “White Belly” and refers to his great-grandfather’s birthmark. “Eyeepooch,” Cesspooch’s Ute name, means young man. Cesspooch grew up on the Uintah & Ouray Reservation; served as a Radioman in Vietnam; and then attended the Institute of American Indian Arts and the Anthropology Film Center.
In 1979, he returned to the Uintah and Ouray Reservation to create the “Ute Tribe Audio-Visual” department, one of the first tribal production units in the U.S. Over the ensuing 25 years, “Ute Audio-Visual” produced 600 films on culture, language, and history. Cesspooch also edited the Ute Bulletin, the tribal newspaper. In 2002, he left tribal employment and created a production company, “Through Native Eyes Productions,” where he currently produces documentaries and tells Ute stories. With his Appah relatives, he maintains one of the reservation’s active sweat lodges.
Kathleen Christy is originally from Compton, California. She moved to Utah to attend the University of Utah in 1970, where she received her B.S. degree in education in 1975. Two years later, in 1977, she obtained her M.A. degree in education. She later went on to receive her Ph.D degree in education, culture, and society from the University of Utah’s College of Education.
From 1975 to 2017, Christy was an educator in the Salt Lake City and Utah public school systems. She served as a teacher for ten years; she was then an equity specialist at the Utah State Office of Education for seven years. She later became an elementary school principal for five years, and finally she was Salt Lake City School District’s Assistant to the Superintendent for Equity and Advocacy. Christy retired in June 2017, but remains actively involved in a variety of community roles, from serving on advisory boards to leadership in community-based organizations. Diversity and multicultural education are her specialties, and she continues to conduct numerous trainings and presentations on diversity issues.
Beside her long-term involvement with CDEA, her board memberships included the Utah Commission on Criminal and Juvenile Justice as part of the Office of the Governor for the State of Utah, Utah Foster Care, and the Intermountain Primary Children’s Hospital. In 2008, she served as chairwoman of the board of directors for the inaugural Pastor France A. Davis University of Utah Scholarship Fund, raising funds for scholarships specifically to assist traditionally marginalized African-American students.
Amos N. Guiora is Professor of Law at the S.J. Quinney College of Law, University of Utah. He teaches International Law, Global Perspectives on Counterterrorism, Religion, and Terrorism, incorporating innovative scenario-based instruction to address national and international security issues. Professor Guiora has published extensively on issues related to national security; limits of interrogation, religion and terrorism; and the limits of power, multiculturalism, and human rights. He is the author of many book chapters and books, including In the Crosshairs of Unfettered Executive Power: The Moral Dilemmas of Justifying and Carrying Out Targeted Killings; Establishing a Drone Court: Restraints on the Executive Branch; Earl Warren, Ernesto Miranda, and Terrorism; and The Rise of the Right: The Flight of Liberalism (co-authored with Professor Paul Cliteur)
Professor Guiora’s research and book, The Crime of Complicity: The Bystander in the Holocaust, helped build a foundation for legislation introduced in the 2018 and 2019 Utah Legislative Sessions by Representative Brian King that would require Utah citizens to assist others who are suffering, or are threatened with serious bodily injury associated with a crime or another emergency.
Professor Guiora has been deeply involved over a number of years in “Track Two” negotiation efforts regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict predicated on a preference and prioritization of analytical tools. Guiora has testified before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee; the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Homeland Security; and the Committee on Foreign Affairs in the Dutch House of Representatives. He served for 19 years in the Israel Defense Forces as Lieutenant Colonel (retired), and held a number of senior command positions, including Legal Advisor to the Gaza Strip and Commander of the IDF School of Military Law.
David E. Litvack, born April 25, 1972 in Salt Lake City, is a former Democratic member of the Utah State House of Representatives. From 2000 through 2012, he represented the state’s 26th House district in central Salt Lake City and part of West Valley City. He also was the minority leader in the Utah House and a tireless champion of social justice and human rights issues.
In 2008, Litvack began to serve as the coordinator of the Criminal Justice Advisory in the office of Salt Lake County Mayor Peter Corroon. In this role, he worked closely with local officials within the county and state criminal and social justice system to develop strategies to reduce recidivism, improve information-sharing between agencies, and enhance the use of data-driven decision making.
In 2016, Litvack was selected to become Deputy Chief of Staff for Salt Lake City Mayor Jackie Biskupski. “In order to realize the full potential of Salt Lake City,” Biskupski said, “we need a strong advocate for responsible and strategic policy at the city, county and state levels. With his years of leadership in the legislature and experience at the county level, Litvack is the perfect choice to help move the capital city forward.”
In 2020, following Mayor Biskupski’s choice not to run for a second term, Litvack was selected to hold the position of Senior Policy Advisor by new Salt Lake Mayor Erin Mendenhall. In the new administration, Litvack will coordinate and direct the policy efforts on key issues such as equity, diversity, human rights, and criminal justice
Russell Minas (pronounced “Mihnóss”) is CDEA’s current Board Chair. He graduated from the University of Utah College of Law in 1989 and practiced in Salt Lake City for 29 years until his appointment as a Family Law Court Commissioner for the Third Judicial District Court.
Russell is a former staff attorney, Domestic Violence Program Director and Executive Director of the Legal Aid Society of Salt Lake. In 1994 he entered private practice and over the years worked in law firms large and small, and as a sole practitioner. He specialized in matrimonial and family law, collaborative law and domestic mediation. Russell is a member and past chair of the Executive Committee of the Family Law Section of the Utah State Bar. In 2013 he was recognized as the Utah State Bar’s Family Law Attorney of the Year. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers and a member of the Utah Council on Conflict Resolution. He also served as a court-qualified master mediator and as a private Guardian Ad Litem.
Brittney Nystrom is the Executive Director of the ACLU of Utah. She previously served as Director for Advocacy at Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service in Washington, D.C. where she advocated on behalf of refugees, unaccompanied children, and immigrants in detention. Earlier in her career, she was the Director of Policy and Legal Affairs at the National Immigration Forum, where her advocacy focused on due process concerns and overdue reforms to the immigration system. She also had represented detained individuals facing deportation and advocated for humane detention conditions as the Legal Director at the Capital Area Immigrants’ Rights Coalition.
Through her extensive work on immigration and refugee issues, Brittney is a recognized national expert and has testified before the U.S. House of Representatives and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. Prior to her extensive legal advocacy work, she was in private practice as part of the litigation team at Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobsen, LLP, in Washington, D.C. She holds degrees from the University of Notre Dame and Northwestern University School of Law, and is admitted to the bar in D.C. and Illinois.
Brian Patrick has been directing award-winning documentaries for over 30 years. Three films he directed, produced, and edited aired on National Public Television: “Testimony,” “On Their Honor,” and “The Hideout.” Patrick collaborated with director Steven Spielberg, interviewing survivors of the Holocaust for The Shoah Foundation.
Patrick holds a Master of Fine Arts degree from the Ohio University School of Film, and has taught film production at Ohio University, University of Colorado, Southern Illinois University, and UC Santa Cruz. During this time, he developed and taught courses in film/video production, film history survey (documentary, experimental, animation), and film directing. He has been teaching at the University of Utah since 1978, where he is a Professor in the Department of Film and Media Arts.
Patrick recently completed a feature documentary titled, “Burying The Past: Legacy of The Mountain Meadows Massacre,” which garnered eleven awards. “Burying the Past” recounts the 1857 event when 120 immigrants, traveling from Arkansas to the West Coast in a wagon train, were murdered by Utah’s Mormon settlers. The story exposes a coverup as descendants from both sides struggle to reveal what occurred and to heal past wounds.
Natalya Rapoport, Ph.D. is a research professor in the Department of Bioengineering at the University of Utah. She graduated in 1960 from Moscow State University with a master’s degree in chemistry and received her Ph.D. in polymer science from the Karpov Institute of Physical Chemistry in Moscow in 1966. In 1986, she was awarded a Doctor of Science degree (one step above the Ph.D. in Russia and Europe).
In 1990 she immigrated into the United States at the invitation of the University of Utah where she held a position of a Research Professor. She is currently a Research Professor Emerita at the Department of Bioengineering, the University of Utah. She has been awarded a number of prestigious awards and several patents in the nano-material field. She published more than 100 papers in high-ranking journals and served as an editorial board member of reputable journals.
Natalya also is a writer of fiction and non-fiction. In 1988, the Pushkin Foundation in Russia published a collection of her stories. Her second book was published in Russia in 2005 to great success. She recently published an autobiographical collection titled, Stalin and Medicine: Untold Stories. She also has two screenplays awaiting a producer.