About Us

Press Release — Louis Bickford Appointed Executive Director

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Train Foundation Names Louis Bickford Executive Director of the Civil Courage Prize

A human rights leader who helped build the field of transitional justice will now work to build a global field of civil courage: steadfast resistance to evil at great personal risk.

NEW YORK, November 1st, 2026 — The Board of Trustees of the Train Foundation today announced the appointment of Dr. Louis N. Bickford as Executive Director of the Civil Courage Prize. Bickford, a human rights leader with more than three decades of experience in over 30 countries, has served as Acting Executive Director since July 2026 and as a member of the Board of Trustees since 2019.

He takes the helm as the Foundation enters a new period of institution-building following the death of its founder, the Hon. John Train (1928–2022). His mandate is to expand the Foundation’s reach, strengthen the Civil Courage Prize, and build a worldwide field around civil courage as a way for citizens to stand up against tyranny and unchecked power.

"For decades, human rights advocacy has relied on naming and shaming," said Ariadne Calvo-Platero, President of the Train Foundation. "That work remains essential. But hope and inspirational stories move people to act. The Civil Courage Prize has always named and ‘famed,’ lifting up people whose courage shows the rest of us what is possible. Louis understands this deeply."

A new chapter for the Prize

"Louis has spent his career building institutions that stand with people who refuse to be silenced," said George Biddle, Chairman of the Train Foundation. "John Train believed the world must always be saved anew, by fearless individuals willing to combat evil in all its forms. Louis is the right person to make sure those individuals are seen, honored, and supported."

"Civil courage is the virtue our moment demands," said Bickford. "Around the world, and increasingly in the United States, judges, journalists, lawyers, and ordinary citizens are paying a steep personal price for refusing to go along with the abuse of power. Twenty-five years ago, a small group of us helped turn transitional justice from an idea into a global field. Civil courage can follow the same path. My task is to build on the record of the Prize's laureates, and on John Train's extraordinary legacy, so that civil courage is understood, celebrated, and practiced everywhere."

Under Bickford's leadership, the Foundation will pursue three purposes: promoting the idea and practice of civil courage; celebrating laureates and offering them sustained recognition and support; and honoring the legacy of John Train. Since 2000, the Prize has celebrated figures including Dr. Denis Mukwege, Lydia Cacho Ribeiro, Alexei Navalny, Gonzalo Himiob Santomé, and Nasrin Sotoudeh. The 2025 laureate is Mykola Kuleba of Ukraine.

"Every winner of the Civil Courage Prize has paid a price for standing up against evil”  said Musa Train Klebnikov, Trustee of the Train Foundation and Civil Courage Prize.  “We have been proud to give them recognition and are now seeking ever better ways to continue to do so.  Louis is exactly the right person this organization needs as we enter our next chapter."

Building a field

Bickford was a founding staff member of the International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ) in 2001 and served on its leadership team through 2010, the years in which transitional justice consolidated into a recognized global field. As director of ICTJ's Capacity-Building and Memory, Monuments, and Museums programs, he worked with governments, truth commissions, and civil society organizations in every world region, from Afghanistan and Bosnia to Liberia and Peru. During his tenure, ICTJ grew from under a dozen staff to more than 100.

Bickford now brings that field-building experience to civil courage: convening practitioners, scholars, funders, and the public around a shared vocabulary, and showing that individual acts of resistance to tyranny are part of a tradition worth naming and sustaining.

A career at the center of global human rights

• Ford Foundation (2012–2017): Led the Global Human Rights program, overseeing a $50 million grantmaking portfolio, and chaired the Human Rights Funders Network.

• RFK Human Rights: Served as co-Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer, and as Secretary General of its European office in Florence.

• Front Line Defenders (USA): Chairs the Board of the U.S. affiliate, which protects human rights defenders at risk.

• HURIDOCS: Member of the Board.

• Social enterprise: Founded Memria, which has helped hundreds of libraries, historical societies, and museums collect community memory, and co-founded the ARCS Roundtable.

• Teaching: Teaches nonprofit management and human rights at Columbia University; has also taught at NYU, the University of Chile Law School, and the New School.

He holds a PhD in Political Science from McGill University and an MA from The New School.

About the Civil Courage Prize

The Civil Courage Prize honors steadfast resistance to evil at great personal risk. The Hon. John Train (1928–2022), who worked closely with Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, proposed "civil courage" as the name for the virtue Solzhenitsyn exemplified, and established the Prize in 1987. Bestowed by the Train Foundation, it recognizes those who fight tyranny as a personal mission. Since 2000, the Prize has honored some who are known around the world and some who remain anonymous. Learn more at www.civilcourageprize.org.

Media contact The Civil Courage Prize · The Train Foundation executivedirector@civilcourageprize.org