Thomas Farr is President of the Religious Freedom Institute. A leading authority on international religious freedom, Dr. Farr served for 28 years in the U.S. Army and the U.S. Foreign Service. In 1999 he became the founding director of the State Department’s Office of International Religious Freedom (IRF). He subsequently directed the Witherspoon Institute’s IRF Task Force, was a member of the Chicago World Affairs Council’s Task Force on Religion and Foreign Policy, taught at the National Defense University, and served on the Secretary of State’s IRF working group.
From 2007 – 2018, Dr. Farr was Associate Professor of the Practice of Religion and International Affairs at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service. He also directed Georgetown’s Religious Freedom Project, the precursor to the Religious Freedom Institute.
A PhD in History from the University of North Carolina, Farr serves as Senior Fellow at Baylor University’s Institute for Studies of Religion, and as consultant to the U.S. Catholic Bishops Conference. His many published works include World of Faith and Freedom: Why International Religious Liberty is Vital to American National Security (Oxford University Press, 2008).
