Ruth Schowalter, visionary folk artist, certified InterPlay Leader and Life Practice Program Leader, co-founded InterPlay Sustaining International Sisters (SIS). Ruth is dedicated to bringing together women from diverse backgrounds (geographical, cultural, spiritual, racial, educational, and generational) through play. Through InterPlay SIS, she found the structure to connect women in ways that support them and allows them to share, learn, and inspire one another. Ruth has an M.S. in Applied Linguistics and ESL and taught international students English communication at the university level for 30 plus years, applying InterPlay to her instruction for more than a decade. In addition to InterPlay SIS, she leads a Deep Play group twice monthly. Ruth is a certified Art of Ensoulment coach and has been a dance chaplain for six years, leading CPR for the Soul every Monday through Cynthia Winton-Henry's Hidden Monastery, where she leads participants to blend dance, prayer, and making marks. In 2022, Ruth co-led a monthly Ensoulment Creativity Studio with Cynthia Winton-Henry and is currently co-leading with Cynthia the Art of Ensoulment Wisdom Circle. She is in the process of creating art work to accompany Cynthia's intergenerational book, The Great Dance, to be published in 2026. Ruth's colorful figurative paintings and drawings express her inner world of dreams and psychological meanderings. She lives in Decatur, Georgia, with her author husband, Anthony J. Martin and four cats, Tao, Sapelo, Ossabaw, and Durga.