Deborah Fikes

Deborah Fikes is the Permanent Representative to the United Nations for World Evangelical Alliance, which represents a constituency of 650 million with alliance offices in 129 countries.[1] Fikes has served as an Executive Advisor to WEA since 2009[2] and continues in this role in addition to her United Nations duties. She is a lifetime member on the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR)[3] and is also a board member of National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) in the United States.

Fikes received her undergraduate degree from Texas A&M University and a master's degree in international human rights law from Oxford University.

Biography

As the former spokesperson and advisor for Human Rights Advocacy for the Ministerial Alliance of Midland, Texas, Fikes led Protestant, Catholic, and Evangelical parishes in the hometown of President George W. Bush to network with their national and international counterparts to promote human rights advocacy efforts[4] The Midland Ministerial Alliance is well known for participating in interfaith dialogue and contributing to the peace negotiations that formed the Comprehensive Peace Agreement between North and South Sudan.[5] Fikes has been involved with conflict resolution outreach initiatives in Africa and North Korea where she has traveled as an advisor to the Pyongyang University of Science and Technology.

She is a board member of the International Center for Religion & Diplomacy.[6] She also serves on the Advisory Board of the Center for Health and the Global Environment[7] at Harvard School of Public Health. Fikes participated in the Scientist-Evangelical Partnership the Harvard Center founded in 2005 and was part of the Alaska expedition featured on the NOW on PBS documentary, God and Global Warming,.[8][9]

Fikes has been an advocate for environmental stewardship and the promotion of sustainable energy as part of Creation Care Initiatives that the World Evangelical Alliance has supported.[10] She has spoken at public events about “Greening the Golden Rule," sharing her observation that the topic of climate change has become politicized and controversial among U.S. evangelicals which is not the case among the greater evangelical global body. Fikes was included as one of the opening speakers for NYC Climate Week 2012[11] hosted by The Climate Group, a non-profit independent organization promoting economic growth though cleaner energy sources. She is an ambassador for the Clean Revolution,[12] a partnership of international statesmen and governments, business leaders and corporations, thinkers and opinion formers coordinated by The Climate Group. Fikes supports clean energy as vital to advancing a holistic approach to addressing humanitarian needs in third world countries and mitigating conflict over competition for resources.[13]

She has been a vocal advocate for supporting younger evangelical environmentalists who have not been embraced in their conservative faith traditions. She is a member of the Interfaith Moral Action on Climate Coalition[14] and the National Climate Ethics Campaign Coalition[15] Fikes also serves as an Ambassador for Oxfam Sisters on the Planet, which raises awareness about hunger, poverty, and climate change, especially as they affect women worldwide.[16][17]

References

  1. ↑ http://www.worldea.org/whoweare/introduction
  2. ↑ http://www.worldevangelicals.org/news/article.htm?id=2659&cat=main
  3. ↑ http://www.cfr.org/about/membership/roster.html?letter=F
  4. ↑ Hertzke, Allen D. (2006). Freeing God's Children: The Unlikely Alliance for Global Human Rights. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 421. ISBN 978-0-7425-4732-2.
  5. ↑ http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2004/08/30/040830fa_fact1?currentPage=2
  6. ↑ http://icrd.org/board/
  7. ↑ http://chge.med.harvard.edu/about/advisboard/index.html
  8. ↑ http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/08/070829120500.htm
  9. ↑ http://www.pbs.org/now/shows/343/index.html
  10. ↑ http://www.worldevangelicals.org/projects/creation_care.htm
  11. ↑ http://www.theclimategroup.org/what-we-do/events/climate-week-nyc-2012
  12. ↑ http://thecleanrevolution.org/ambassadors/deborah-fikes
  13. ↑ http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/11/02/idUS153818+02-Nov-2012+BW20121102
  14. ↑ http://www.interfaithactiononclimatechange.org/endorsers.html
  15. ↑ http://climateethicscampaign.org/statement/
  16. ↑ http://www.oxfamamerica.org/whoweare/sisters-on-the-planet
  17. ↑ http://www.oxfamamerica.org/articles/files/All%20SOP%20ambassadors

External links

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