Dr Tenzin Dorjee appointed Commissioner to the US Commission on International Religious Freedom
By Lobsang Tenchoe
DHARAMSALA, Dec 9: A Tibetan Associate Professor at the Department of Human Communication Studies, California State University, Fullerton has been appointed as the Commissioner to the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF).
Dr Tenzin Dorjee was appointed as the Commissioner to the USCIRF on the recommendation of the House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, an old friend of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and a firm supporter of the Tibetan movement who was recently re-elected to an eighth term as House leader over Representative Tim Ryan.
“USCIRF welcomes Dr. Tenzin Dorjee as our newest Commissioner. He will be a great asset to our Commission as we work to fulfill our mandate of highlighting serious threats to religious freedom throughout the world and making policy recommendations to the President, Secretary of State, and Congress on behalf of the cherished right of freedom of religion or belief and its fuller integration into U.S. foreign policy,” uscirf.gov, the official website of the Commission quoted its Chair Rev. Thomas J. Reese as saying on the appointment.
Dr Dorjee is an eloquent writer and a former Member-At-Large in the Executive Council of the Western States Communication Association. He has written and co-written multiple articles on Tibetan culture, identity and communication, non-violence and middle way approaches to Sino-Tibetan conflict. He was also the President of the Tibetan Association of Southern California. Earlier in 2013, he volunteered for over two months at the office of the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala, India.
