Patrick Riccards is executive director and CEO of Life After Hate, the nation’s leader in the violence intervention community and the first nonprofit in the United States dedicated to helping individuals disengage from violent hate groups and hateful online spaces.
During his career, Pat has advised three presidential administrations and more than a half-dozen cabinet-level agencies on policy and public engagement. He has also worked for a member of the U.S. House of Representatives and three U.S. Senators, as well as for the Senate Appropriations Committee.
Pat is the founder the Driving Force Institute for Public Engagement, a national effort transforming the teaching and learning of American history and civics through short-form films, an effort that now has 52M users. He is a former university vice president and served as the chief communications and strategy officer for the Woodrow Wilson Foundation.
An award-winning author, he writes and tweets under the handle Eduflack. He is the author of two award-winning books and primary editor and contributing author of two other books. Patrick regularly speaks on the intersections of policy, research, media, and community engagement, as well as on how to successfully disengage and deradicalize from violent extremism.
Patrick earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Virginia and graduate certificates from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business and the University of Southern California. He is currently a doctoral student at USC’s Rossier School of Education.
The inaugural Eradicate Hate Summit was a truly impressive gathering of leaders dedicated to finding lasting and effective solutions to violent extremism. I was particularly moved by the prominence given to survivors and family members of victims of hate and violence throughout the event. Their stories and those of so many others must be at the center of what we do and why we do it.
