Jim Shultz has been an advocate and campaigner on social justice and environmental issues for more than forty years and has trained thousands of citizen advocates across five continents, from indigenous communities in Bolivia to senior leaders in the UN. As the founder and executive director of The Democracy Center since 1992, Jim has led policy and advocacy development programs in more than two dozen countries. Since 2007, he has also served as a global advocacy advisor to UNICEF. As an advocate, Jim has helped lead winning citizen action campaigns at the state, national, and international level, including the campaign that forced the Bechtel Corporation to drop its $50 million legal action against Bolivia following the Cochabamba Water Revolt. Before founding the Democracy Center, Jim served as staff to the California Legislature and as an advocate with Common Cause and Consumers Union. In California he was a co-founder of Health Access and the lead founder of the California Budget Project. In academia, he has been faculty at both San Francisco State University and the Salzburg Global Seminar, and currently teaches advocacy at UC Berkeley. He is the author of four books, including the award-winning The Democracy Owners' Manual (Rutgers University Press, 2002) and Dignity and Defiance- Stories from Bolivia's Challenge to Globalization (UC Press, 2009). He is currently a contributing writer at the New York Review and his articles have been published in the New York Times, Nation, Stanford Social Innovation Review and other publications. Born and raised in Whittier, California, Jim earned his bachelor's degree (in political science) from UC Berkeley and his master's degree (in public administration) from Harvard University.