Ronald E. Osborn is an Associate Professor of Ethics and Philosophy at La Sierra University; an adjunct professor in the Department of Political Science and International Relations at the University of Southern California; and Executive Director of The John Henry Weidner Foundation for Altruism. He was a U.S. Fulbright Scholar to Burma/Myanmar and a Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow in the Peace and Justice Studies Program at Wellesley College. 

Osborn grew up in Thailand, Taiwan, and Zimbabwe. He brings a wealth of international experience to his writing and teaching. He has worked with humanitarian and human rights organizations in Kosovo, Guinea, and Sudan, and conducted field research in Peru and East Timor. He participated in an Ultimate Frisbee “tournament for peace” in North Korea, and in the Ngalawa Cup in Tanzania (a nine-day, 500 km sailing race in traditional dugout fishing canoes with sails). While researching his most recent book, A Good Man in Dark Times, Osborn hiked across the Pyrenees mountains between France and Spain, retracing the steps of evaders fleeing the Nazis during World War II.

Some of Ron’s favorite things include: used book stores, mindless movies, walks with his parents, the life aquatic, cappuccinos in a proper mug, sticky rice and mango, elephants in the wild, stained glass windows, old hymns, clean rooms, quality conversations with kindred spirits, moxie, the scent of eucalyptus, the joy of hating social media, Oxford commas, a carved wooden head from Victoria Falls that he bartered his watch for when he was 12 years old, The Odyssey by Homer, and film scores by John Barry. When not ensconced behind books or plotting trips to far-flung corners of the globe, Ron can be found skiing in the Sierras or swimming with his nephew and nieces at the jumping rocks at Dog Bar on Bear River.