James Mark Brinkmoeller
Founder/Principal, Assisi Strategy, LLC
From 2012 to 2017, Mark served as the director of the Center for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives at the U.S. Agency for International Development within the Obama Administration. While at USAID, he built relationships and leveraged faith and community leaders to support Agency priorities and initiatives such as food-aid reform, child survival, humanitarian relief such as the Nepal earthquake, and typhoon relief in the Philippines and beyond. He led USAID’s participation in the first-ever conference on Impact Investing sponsored by the Holy See. Brinkmoeller secured multimillion-dollar public/private partnerships within priority regions and technical areas.
These include Global Development Alliances supporting faith-based peacemaking work in the Central African Republic, South Sudan, and the Asili social enterprise on health/WASH/agriculture in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. Brinkmoeller led USAID's collaboration with the German government to establish the Partnership for Religion and Sustainable Development. This partnership now includes over ten national governments and an array of multilateral and non-governmental organizations. He led the Faith Works Africa initiative convening 300 religious and community leaders from across the African continent in the fall of 2017. Within USAID and the White House/Inter-Agency, Brinkmoeller led high-level events, including the African Leaders Summit, Pope Francis' visit to Washington, and support for the President's annual Easter Prayer Breakfast.
In 2018 and 2019, Mark led priority aspects of a study of religious communities for one of the world's leading foundations to increase their practical understanding of and engagement with faith communities. In 2019 and 2020, he played significant roles in the conceptualization, organization, and execution of international religious freedom roundtables in Bahrain and Sudan.
In January 2020, Brinkmoeller served on the U.S. Department of State's team to launch the Abrahamic Faiths Initiative held in Rome at the Pontifical Gregorian University, leading on media, partner relations, and follow up efforts.
He concurrently serves as Vice President of Community Development and Engagement for the International Interfaith Peace Corps, leading advocacy campaigns on behalf of religious freedom and justice for the Rohingya people and similar groups. In this work, diverse religious leaders address health, peacemaking, and freedom of religion and belief globally.
For five years, Brinkmoeller served on the leadership team at the ONE Campaign, organizing partnerships and advocates from diverse NGOs, faith and private sector institutions, community organizations, and influential individuals, such as faith music artists and related industry leaders. In collaboration with Malaria No More and the Masie Center, Brinkmoeller led the Malaria Griots distance learning project to train highly committed advocates in curbing malaria worldwide.
Brinkmoeller also served as director of Church Relations of Bread for the World, the leading U.S. Christian anti-hunger advocacy organization, lead a talented team to build strategies, partnerships, and actions with the broad range of Christian and non-Christian leaders and organizations working to end hunger in the U.S. and around the world. Brinkmoeller raised funding from local and national religious organizations and foundations of over a million dollars annually in this position.
Immediately after college, Mark worked for two members of Congress as a special assistant. Following his Hill time, Mark served as social action director for three mid-western Catholic dioceses, representing the diocesan bishop in building community organizations, coalitions, and mobilizing diverse constituencies around a broad array of domestic and international issues. Over the 15 years of his diocesan appointments, Mark served on the U.S. bishops’ committees on domestic and international policy. Peers among diocesan social action directors elected Brinkmoeller to the board (three years as chair) of the Roundtable: The National Association of Diocesan Social Action Directors.
He currently serves on the Advisory Board of the University of Dayton Human Rights Center, the board of OneWorld Health, and the International Campaign for the Rohingya. He was a founding board member of the Interfaith Committee on Worker Justice.
Mark was the inaugural recipient of Islamic Relief USA’s Award for Excellence in 2016. He is a graduate of the University of Dayton. Mark, his wife Sara, and daughter Imogen Clare currently reside in Fairfax, Virginia.
Bringing together diverse groups of people to accomplish positive social change is a hallmark of J. Mark Brinkmoeller’s career. From his local actions in greater Dayton, Des Moines and Madison as a Catholic social action director through his national and international work while serving on the Hill, at Bread for the World, the ONE Campaign, and the U.S. Agency for International Development.