After closely working with the Mexican Diabetes Federation, James proved to be a professional and sensitive advisor. He was deeply involved in the details of our collaboration with the Australian group, Life for a Child, and displayed a deep understanding of Mexico's particular situation, and its complex health system.
James' work has helped us do a better job in caring for young people in Mexico with type 1 diabetes.
I loved working with Jim on the conceptualization and founding of OpenGlobalRights.
When I was just launching a $50M initiative to support the global human rights movement at the Ford Foundation, Jim came to me with an idea to create a forum for the international movement.
In the perfect example of donor/grantee collaboration, we discussed it at length and collaborated to develop the idea, which I then took with me as a proposal to a key grantee meeting in Sao Paulo. The grantees assembled then made further suggestions and endorsed the idea with enthusiasm. I then took the proposal, with these tweaks, back to Jim, who continued to work on the idea.
What emerged from this highly collaborative process was OpenGlobalRights, with Jim as the Founding Editor, which is now one of the most important forums and resources for exchanging ideas within the international human rights movement.
This could not have happened without Jim's spirit of dialogue, openness, resourcefulness, and good-natured willingness to work together to create the best possible outcome.
I am very grateful for that, and consider Jim to be among the best partners that I have worked with as a donor!
James was my valued colleague at the University of Minnesota. We recruited him for the Harold E. Stassen Chair in International Affairs, a highly prestigious professorship with joint appointment in the Hubert Humphrey School of Public Affairs and the Department of Political Science.
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As Chair of the Political Science Department at the time, I was thrilled that he accepted our offer of the position, because he had emerged as our clear top choice after a thorough and extensive international search in which we considered scores of the best scholars in the field.
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He is an outstanding colleague, fully meeting our hopes and expectations for the holder of the Stassen Chair, in exemplifying scholarly commitment to innovative and top-notch research on crucially important topics in global affairs, and leading creative initiatives to translate such cutting-edge scholarship into practical action to enhance human rights worldwide.
One of the especially admirable and distinguishing qualities of James' work is his sensitivity to and ability in bridging cultural differences, as beautifully evidenced by the multi-language and cross-national collaborations he has led.
In 1994, when I was Head of Protection at the International Committee of the Red Cross, Jim conducted an evaluation of the ICRC program in Bosnia and Herzegovina for me. He focused on the ICRC's relationships with all other actors in the field, including collaboration and rivalries. Jim did an excellent job interviewing many stakeholders and analyzing the complex synergies between the various humanitarian organizations. His highly analytical and comprehensive approach produced an excellent report, which was presented to the Directorate of Operations and played an important role in steering this complex operation.
Jacques Stroun, MD, formerly senior manager at the International Committee of the Red Cross. Duties included Director of Human Resources, Director of Finance, Deputy Director of Operations, Director of Protection, Head of Delegation, and more.
James stepped in to research the situation for civilians during the second war in Chechnya, in the Russian Federation.
This was during the very early phases of the armed conflict, in 1999, before it received widespread attention, before most human rights groups and foreign journalist were traveling there, at a time when certain aspects of the armed conflict itself were still inchoate.
He very quickly and capably mapped out how to get himself and another Human Rights Watch colleague close to the conflict as safely possible and interview civilians.
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James established a strong relationship of trust both interviewees and HRW's Russia-based colleagues. With the civilians he interviewed, he worked with tremendous empathy.
He quickly and with great integrity conveyed information, accurately outlining the problems fleeing civilians were facing and constructing from disparate information a cohesive picture of the situation inside Chechnya.
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James puts the interests and well-being of survivors of human right abuses first and foremost, together with substantive accuracy and integrity. He is a top-rate, deeply skilled investigator with a big heart.
James is our 'go to' at Engage Health for social research.
He possesses strong skills in developing methodology, statistics, and has the pragmatic knowledge to implement social research projects in a thoughtful but efficient way.
When I first worked with Jim at Human Rights Watch in the early 1990s, he was bold, dedicated, and enterprising. He was self-motivated while always consultative.
When he finished his first research and writing project, we published it and immediately hired him to carry out a second one, which he did successfully.
Jim and I have remained friends ever since. In every conversation, he questions the conventional wisdom and welcomes alternative theories. His work is guided by passion, professionalism, and rigor.
Jim combines a broad and impressive range of skills and experiences that allow him to provide high-level, analytical skills to a range of businesses and organizations. He has a strong and expert commitment to human rights and a clear understanding of human rights concepts, global priorities, and the landscape of the movement.
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At the same time, he has - rarely for human rights activists - exceptionally strong methodological and analytical skills. His expertise in public opinion polling and quantitative analysis was particularly important for Human Rights Watch, where I worked as head of programs for many years.
Jim led a groundbreaking initiative for HRW that addressed a profound need: to better understand attitudes to human rights in the US to better promote more positive and accepting attitudes.
Jim listens carefully and looks for ways to bring his expertise in research, political analysis, data analysis, and more to serve the needs of partners and collaborators.
James Ron Frohlich has provided valuable support to the Life for a Child Program.
He was instrumental in building the connections that led the Program to start in Mexico, and has visited a number of countries to monitor and evaluate our work, including India, Morocco, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.
These visits require rapid adaptation to numerous very different medical and social situations, as well as diplomacy, insight, background knowledge, and warmth. He conducted these visits with great skill.
Furthermore, James established research connections in the USA, Canada and India, which have resulted in various peer-reviewed publications, contributing to the academic community's knowledge of diabetes care for young people in less-resourced settings.
Most recently, we asked James to return to Mexico to meet with diabetes advocates and health professionals with the aim of expanding existing Life for a Child support to other parts of the country.
Given the complex and changing medico-political landscape in Mexico, this is not an easy task. However, James' visit led to valuable new insights and a plan to move forward.
James's exceptional research and project management skills ensured the success of this complex, multi-disciplinary project. James demonstrated an ability to quickly master new subject areas and establish rapid connections with key experts. He and his team worked to consolidate the existing evidence on the topic, and then convened and consulted a network of practitioners and policy-makers. James ensured the consultations were thorough and wide-ranging.
James' exceptional research and project management skills ensured the success of this complex, multi-disciplinary project. James demonstrated an ability to quickly master new subject areas and network quickly with key experts. He and his team worked to consolidate the existing evidence on the topic, and then convened and consulted a network of practitioners and policy-makers. James ensured the consultations were thorough and wide-ranging.
Project deliverables included a report and a conference, and James completed both on time, and within budget.
This project illustrated James' ability to deftly manage complex projects with multiple deliverables and diverse teams in different countries. He is very organized, and demonstrated his commitment to excellence throughout the process.
One of James' key strengths is his ability to master diverse subjects, using his strong foundation of quantitative and qualitative project management skills. This, combined with his excellent oral and written presentation skill, make him a good candidate for feasibility and analytic studies.
I began working with James as he was doing difficult on-the-ground research in Israeli-occupied Palestinian territory. I joined him for part of it and helped to release the resulting report. Already, at a young age, he showed unusual attention to detail, a thoroughness and professionalism in his work, and a drive to make a difference.
Since then, I have worked with James repeatedly as he emerged as the leading pollster on global attitudes toward human rights.
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James' sophisticated polling in pivotal countries around the world, coupled with his deeply analytic assessment of the findings, repeatedly provided enormously helpful insights into how people think about human rights and how best to engage them in the human rights cause.
James also was the founder and editor of the leading on-line forum for the human rights movement to evaluate and improve its work, which became a go-to source to learn about creative new approaches to human rights and to discuss the movement's future.
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Through this all, James has maintained a close, valued working relationship with Human Rights Watch, gaining much esteem among the staff for his skills and contributions.
He combines the best, empirically based academic rigor with a passion for improving the defense of human rights. He is an enormous asset to the human rights cause.
James is a dedicated scholar and analyst whose research and published works have made important contributions to the field of human rights. His writing is thoughtful, clear, and creative. His empirical work has made a genuine and valuable difference to a norm-based discipline that has not often enough been rigorously subjected to qualitative and quantitative analysis.
