Human Rights/Civic EngagementFord Foundation
Louis Bickford is a member of the Civic Engagement and Government team and also manages the Global Human Rights program at the Ford Foundation. Based in New York, he works with international NGOs in every world region. Prior to joining the Ford Foundation in 2012, he was on the Executive Leadership team of the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights, where he also acted as the Secretary General of RFK Europe and managed the Center’s office in Florence, Italy. Before that, Bickford was the Director of the Policymakers and Civil Society unit at the International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ), where he was an original staff member in 2001. During his time at ICTJ, he developed the organization's work on memory, as well as in various national contexts including in in Bosnia, Burma, Cambodia, Liberia, Mexico, Morocco, and Nigeria; and managed global networks of transitional justice activists and practitioners. He has also been a consultant for the Oak Foundation, the Bertha Foundation, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP-Sarajevo), and the Canadian Truth and Reconciliation Commission, among others. Bickford is an adjunct professor and teaches regular graduate seminars on human rights at Columbia University and New York University. He received a Ph.D. from McGill University and a master's degree from the New School, both in Political Science.