About Us — Holder of the Chair

An anthropologist and lawyer, Dr. John Grayzel holds a JD from Stanford University and a PhD from the University of Oregon. As an attorney he specialized in problems of law and psychiatry. As an anthropologist he focused on areas of culture and personality studies, ethnic identity, socialization, agro-pastoral production systems, and mitigation of conflict situations.

In 2005, he retired from the US Senior Foreign Service to assume the Baha’i Chair from its first incumbent, Dr. Suheil Bushrui. For over 27 years, Dr. Grayzel held positions at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) spanning program design, implementation, and administration. He was Director of several USAID Offices: Governance (Philippines), Agriculture and Natural Resource Management (Philippines); Private Sector and Technology Development (India); Irrigation and Natural Resources (India); Program and Policy Coordination (Washington); and Education and Training (Washington). Dr. Grayzel also served as USAID Mission Director to the Democratic Republic of the Congo/Kinshasa.

With his family, Dr. Grayzel resided for over twelve years in Africa and nine in Asia. He oversaw activities from Fiji to Mongolia and Madagascar to Morocco. He was the US technical representative to UNESCO for the global initiative “Education for All” and was US technical representative for poverty reduction to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

Dr. Grayzel has taught a variety of courses in international development, applied anthropology, and African studies at Boston University, the School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) at Johns Hopkins University, the University of Oregon, and LaSalle University in Manila. He has published original research on issues of conflict in relation to ethnic identify, land tenure, and resource management. His career includes deep involvement in conflict mitigation, social reconstruction, and institutional and human capacity development.