President & CEO, International Center for Religion and Diplomacy (ICRD)

James Patton has conducted international development, conflict transformation and social reconciliation for over two decades in more than a dozen countries, building collaborative networks and programs with the entire range of social and political actors in complex conflict environments. His non-governmental experience includes assessing the impact of drug policies and military responses in Bolivia, training Cambodian Buddhists on their role in post-conflict stability, and coordinating citizen security and conflict transformation efforts in the Andean region. His governmental experience includes working with the Special Envoy for Sudan, leading stability operations assessments for the US State Department in South Sudan, and enhancing the Latin America and Religion and Conflict portfolios for USAID’s Office of Conflict Management and Mitigation. In his role as ICRD’s President, James serves as a member of a number of collaborative efforts to advance the field of peacemaking, including: the U.S. Department of State’s Working Group on Religion and Foreign Policy; the Council on Foreign Relations’ Religion and Foreign Policy Working Group, and; the public-private partnership advancing national dialogue on reconciliation in Colombia, Reconcilación Colombia. He is a Senior Visiting Fellow at Brigham Young University’s Wheatley Institution and the co-author, with Rev. David Steele, of the forthcoming U.S. Institute of Peace publication, Religion and Conflict Guide: Religion and Reconciliation. James holds a Master of Law and Diplomacy degree from The Fletcher School at Tufts University and a Master of Divinity degree from Harvard Divinity School. He has taught and lectured widely, and is fluent in Spanish, with practical experience in a number of other languages. Biography as at 16.10.17