Lederach was born in Indiana into the family of a local preacher, whom he was named after. He graduated from Bethel College in 1980 with a degree in History and Peace Studies. During this time he was working for the Mennonite Board of Missions in Barcelona, Spain. He then pursued a Ph.D. in sociology with a concentration in the Social Conflict Program from the University of Colorado, receiving his degree in 1988. During this time (from 1975 to 1996) he was also active with the Mennonite Central Committee serving for a time as the Director of the Mennonite Conciliation Service.[3][4]
Academic work
Lederach's theories of elicitive methods of conflict resolution have been influential[how?] in the fields of political science, peace studies, international relations and conflict transformation. His works have been published in English, Catalan and Spanish.[4]
His academic work draws on his experience in the field as a mediator, negotiator, peacebuilding practitioner, trainer and consultant. At the international level, this has involved input into peace processes in Somalia, Northern Ireland, Nicaragua, Colombia and Nepal. Within communities, his work has often been at the level of reconciliation within church and family. In 2014 he said:
Change only comes through ensuring that people are represented. In Somalia where I did a lot of my early work, there was no government and it was a chaotic situation. My job was to engage in longer term bottom-up grassroots work. You do this by establishing organisations for elders, women's associations and so on which build strength into a community by creating space for civil society.[5]
Lederach has given keynote speeches, commencement addresses, and lectures, among them a keynote lecture entitled "Narratives of Care: The Social Echo of Community Transformation" at the Conversations on Attachment conference at Eastern Mennonite University.[7] and a lecture entitled "Compassionate Presence: Faith-Based Peacebuilding in the Face of Violence" at the University of San Diego's Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace & Justice Distinguished Lecture Series.[8]
In an article in Time Magazine, former U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy describes Lederach's influence on his thinking about social policy and his framing of loneliness as a public health concern: "For John Paul Lederach, an international peace builder and expert in conflict transformation, the first step is to promote a mutual sense of belonging. That means meeting and serving people where they live, by physically going to their homes or neighborhoods."[9] Murthy quotes Lederach in Time, as well as in his book, Together: The Healing Power of Human Connection in a Sometimes Lonely World, as observing that "a lot of our isolation…is the degree to which people feel invisible. So, when you come and show up and have concern and conversation from their location, you're rehumanizing the situation that has lost that connection at a very deep level."[10]
