Executive Director
As an international human rights lawyer, advocate, and author, Knox Thames spent 20 years in key U.S. governmental positions advocating for religious freedom abroad, including at the State Department and two foreign policy commissions. Known for his expertise and nonpartisan approach, both the Obama and Trump administrations appointed Knox as the Special Advisor for Religious Minorities in the Near East and South / Central Asia at the State Department.
Since leaving government service in 2020, Knox has written extensively on human rights and religious freedom in USA Today, TIME, Newsweek, The Dispatch, Christianity Today, the Harvard Human Rights Journal, and other publications. Knox's book, Ending Persecution: Charting the Path to Global Religious Freedom, was published by Notre Dame Press in 2024 and explores strategies to combat religious oppression worldwide. He also produced the graphic novel, Blood & Water: The Life and Martyrdom of Shahbaz Bhatti, published in March 2026 by Ignatius Press.
After leaving the State Department, Knox served as a Senior Visiting Expert on strategic religious engagement, religious freedom, and peacemaking at the U.S. Institute of Peace from 2020 to 2025. From 2023 to 2026, he led the Program on Global Faith and Inclusive Societies at Pepperdine University. In 2026, Knox was named a Research Fellow at Regent’s Park College, University of Oxford.
Originally from Kentucky, he grew up Baptist and attended a Baptist college. He and his wife, Shelley, live in the Washington, DC, area and are the parents of two teenage sons—one a freshman at Virginia Tech and the other a high school junior.