May 15, 2018

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 15, 2018

Tenzin Dorjee Reappointed, ­Tony Perkins Appointed to USCIRF

WASHINGTON, DC – House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), on May 10, 2018 reappointed Dr. Tenzin Dorjee to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) yesterday appointed Tony Perkins as a Commissioner.

Tenzin Dorjee (Ph.D., University of California, Santa Barbara, UCSB) is Associate Professor at the Department of Human Communication Studies, California State University, Fullerton (CSUF). His primary teaching and research interests are intergroup, intercultural, and intergenerational communication, identity issues, peacebuilding, and conflict resolution. At CSUF he has received faculty recognition awards for outstanding achievements in teaching (2011), research (2013), and community service (2015).

Dr. Dorjee is also a recognized scholar of Tibet who has authored and co-authored articles on Tibetan culture, identity, nonviolence, and middle way approach to conflict resolution. He received the 2017 Distinguished Faculty Marshall of the College of Communications and Distinguished Faculty Member of the Department of Human Communication Studies awards. On behalf of USCIRF, Dr. Dorjee has traveled to Burma and Iraq to monitor religious freedom conditions and has testified before the U.S. Congress.

Dr. Tenzin Dorjee was first appointed to the Commission on December 8, 2016, by Leader Pelosi.

Tony Perkins has served as the president of the Family Research Council (FRC), a religious public policy organization that provides research and advocacy on issues related to religious freedom, since 2003. Before joining FRC, he was a representative in the Louisiana Legislature, to which he was elected in 1996. A veteran of the United States Marine Corps, Mr. Perkins began his early career in law enforcement before working as a contractor with the U.S. State Department’s Anti-Terrorism Assistance Program, where he oversaw the training of foreign police officers in anti-terrorism techniques.

Perkins is also an ordained minister and remains active in ministry, speaking in churches from various denominations and associations in the U.S and abroad. He has testified before the U.S. Congress on international religious freedom and raised religious freedom concerns with foreign leaders, including King Abdullah II of Jordan and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. 

Perkins holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Liberty University, a Master of Public Administration degree from Louisiana State University, and was awarded an honorary doctorate of divinity from Liberty University.

 

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The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom is an independent, bipartisan U.S. federal government commission, the first of its kind in the world.  USCIRF reviews the facts and circumstances of religious freedom violations abroad and makes policy recommendations to the President, the Secretary of State, and Congress.  USCIRF Commissioners are appointed by the President and the Congressional leadership of both political parties.  To interview a Commissioner, please contact USCIRF at [email protected] or Isaac Six, Director of Congressional Affairs and Communications ([email protected] +1-202-786-0606).