Eboo Patel

Dr. Eboo Patel

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Dr. Eboo Patel is the Founder and Executive Director of the Interfaith Youth Core, a Chicago-based international organization that brings young people from different faith communities together to build understanding and cooperation.

He received his doctorate in the sociology of religion from Oxford University, where he studied on a Rhodes scholarship. Eboo is a regular guest on Chicago Public Radio and a frequent contributor to the Op-Ed pages of The Chicago Tribune. Additionally, he has written for The Harvard Divinity School Bulletin, Utne Magazine, The Journal of Islamic Law and Culture and National Public Radio and has been featured on a range of media, including The New Republic, American Public Media, the BBC, and CNN.

Eboo serves on the Boards of the Aga Khan Foundation USA, the International Interfaith Center, CrossCurrents Magazine and Duke University's Islamic Studies Center. He is also an active member of the Council on Foreign Relations’ Religious Advisory Committee and the Chicago Council on Global Affairs’ Task Force on American Muslims.

Eboo is a sought-after speaker whose addresses include the keynote speech at the Nobel Peace Prize Forum with President Jimmy Carter and the Baccalaureate Service Address at the University of Pennsylvania. He is coeditor of Building the Interfaith Youth Movement: Beyond Dialogue to Action (Rowman & Littlefield, 2006) and is currently writing a book on the role of religious youth in the 21st Century with Beacon Press. Eboo is an Ashoka Fellow, part of an elite network of social entrepreneurs with ideas that have the potential to change the world.