Thomas Farr, President

Tom Farr is President of the Religious Freedom Institute, an NGO working to achieve worldwide acceptance of religious freedom. Farr served in the U.S. Army and Foreign Service for 28 years. He has spent the last two decades advocating for religious liberty, including as founding Director of the State Department’s Office of International Religious Freedom and from 2008-2018 as Associate Professor of the Practice of Religion and International Affairs at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, and also as Director of Georgetown’s Religious Freedom Project at the Berkley Center. Farr is a senior fellow at Baylor University’s Institute for Studies of Religion and a consultant to the U.S. Catholic Bishops Committee on International Justice and Peace. Arguments from his 2008 book, World of Faith and Freedom: Why International Religious Freedom is Vital to American National Security (Oxford University Press), have shaped U.S. religious freedom legislation and foreign policy. More

eric patterson, Executive vice president

Eric Patterson, Ph.D. serves as Executive Vice President of the Religious Freedom Institute.  Patterson is scholar-at-large and past dean of the Robertson School of Government at Regent University and a Research Fellow at Georgetown University’s Berkley Center for Religion, Peace & World Affairs, where he previously served full-time.  Patterson’s interest in the intersection of religion, ethics, and foreign policy is informed by two stints at the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, with work in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Congo, Angola, and elsewhere.  He also served as a White House Fellow and worked for the Director of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management.  Patterson is the author or editor of over a dozen books, including Politics in a Religious World: Toward a Religiously Informed U.S. Foreign Policy, Just American Wars: Ethical Dilemmas in U.S. Military History, Ending Wars Well, Ethics Beyond War’s End, and Military Chaplains in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Beyond.  He has published on religious freedom, democracy, and democratization in International Studies Perspectives, Review of Faith and International Affairs, International Politics, and the International Journal of Religious Freedom.  In addition to scholarly journals such as Survival, Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, Providence, and Security Studies, he has been featured in popular outlets like The Washington Post and Washington Times.  He continues to serve as an officer and commander in the Texas Air National Guard. More 

David Trimble, Vice President, Public Policy and Director, Center for religious freedom education

After serving as a principal and Of Counsel at the leading D.C. firm of Van Scoyoc Associates for many years, Mr. Trimble now leads the Religious Freedom Institute’s public policy efforts, as well as, its nationwide and international initiatives in secondary and higher education. He brings a wealth of experience in international affairs, domestic and foreign policy, and higher education. With a degree in law, expert knowledge from working with the executive and legislative branches of the federal government at the highest levels, and years of teaching religion at the graduate level, Mr. Trimble understands the vitally important role of education to stable societies and the myriad threats that challenge both academic and religious freedom.

Throughout his career, Mr. Trimble has focused on the intersection between religion and policy. He is recognized in the U.S. and abroad for his international religious freedom advocacy on behalf of ethnic and religious minorities and for his acute knowledge of legislative process.

Mr. Trimble holds a Juris Doctorate from Texas A&M University School of Law, a Master of Divinity from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, and a Bachelor of Arts from Campbellsville University. In addition, Mr. Trimble has completed post-graduate studies at both Southwestern and Baylor University. More

Byron R. Johnson, Senior Fellow

Dr. Byron Johnson serves as Senior Fellow at the Religious Freedom Institute and a Distinguished Professor of the Social Sciences at Baylor University. He is the founding director of the Baylor Institute for Studies of Religion (ISR) as well as director of the Program on Prosocial Behavior. Professor Johnson is a leading authority on the scientific study of religion, the efficacy of faith-based organizations, and criminal justice. His most recent publications have examined the impact of faith-based programs on recidivism reduction and prisoner reentry. Before joining the faculty at Baylor University, Johnson directed research centers at Vanderbilt University and the University of Pennsylvania. He has directed grant projects from private foundations as well as the Department of Justice, Department of Labor, Department of Defense, National Institutes of Health, and the United States Institute for Peace. More