A Bit About Me

I was born and raised in Whittier California, President Richard Nixon’s hometown, and reacted by becoming a progressive political activist as a teenager. After earning my undergraduate degree at UC Berkeley, I spent two decades deeply involved in California politics, as staff to the California Legislature and as an advocate (with a detour in the middle to earn a master’s degree at Harvard University). In 1991, my wife, Lynn and I spent our first year of marriage as volunteers in an orphanage in Cochabamba, Bolivia and returned there in 1998 for what was supposed to be a year – we stayed for nineteen.  In 1992 I founded an organization called the Democracy Center, which has trained and supported activists on five continents. I also serve as a global advocacy advisor to UNICEF.  As a writer I have written four books and more articles than I can remember. I have also taught university, read a lot of stories to children, am a contributing writer to the New York Review of Books, and a columnist with the Lockport Union-Sun and Journal.  I am also a bike and coffee zealot.  Lynn and I have three fine children and, after two decades in Bolivia, we now live in Lockport, New York across the street from our two crazy granddaughters. I tweet here. 

Feel free to reach me by email at: jimshultzthewriter@gmail.com