Joe Eldridge, the Executive Director of WOLA in its early years from 1974 to 1986, returns to the organization as a Senior Fellow after nearly 20 years as the University Chaplain and director of the Kay Spiritual Life Center at American University (AU). Mr. Eldridge was adjunct faculty at AU’s School of International Service, founded the university’s Alternative Break program, and was instrumental in fostering the school’s culture of service. He helped to launch the university’s Human Rights Film Series, created the Human Rights Defender Lecture Program and helped initiate an M.A. in Social Enterprise.
Before joining AU, he served as the founding director of the Washington office of the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights (now Human Rights First); and during the late 1980s he worked in Honduras consulting on human rights and development issues.
Mr. Eldridge has an M.A. in International Relations from American University, an M.Div. from Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University, and a D.Min. from Wesley Theological Seminary. He serves on several boards, including the United States Institute for Peace, the Arca Foundation, the Center for International Policy, the International Labor Rights Forum, and Santiago College in Chile.
