John Patterson currently serves as BHA’s Regional Advisor for the Balkans, Caucasus, and Israel/West Bank Gaza. In his nine years with USAID he has also worked as an advisor to the US Southern Command and as Deputy Team Leader (Colombia) for the Venezuela regional crisis response. John has served on three other Disaster Assistance Response Teams (DARTs): deploying to the Philip-pines for Typhoon Yolanda, to Liberia for the West Africa Ebola response and to Haiti for Hurricane Matthew. He also served on the Response Management Teams for South Sudan and Central African Republic Complex Emergencies, the Ecuador Earthquake in April 2016, Peru Flooding in April of 2017 and Hurricanes Maria and Irma in 2017. Additionally John led the USAID humanitarian response to the 2019 Albania Earthquake, the 2020 Conflict in Nagorno Karabakh, and continues to lead the USAID HA efforts in West Bank and Gaza.
Prior to USAID, John worked at the Geneva Center for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces (DECAF) a think tank based in Geneva, Switzerland where he focused on Private Security governance. He has also worked for Edify, an Accra based NGO focused on educational reform is-sues and as a Research Associate at the University of San Diego.
He previously served as a Surface Warfare Officer in the United States Navy from 2004 to 2011, serving on USS Rentz (FFG-46), USS Mobile Bay (CG-53) and as part of the PACOM and PACFLT staffs.
John received his MA in Peace and Justice Studies from the Joan B. Kroc School of Peace Studies at the University of San Diego in January of 2013 and his BS from the United States Naval Academy in May of 2004.