Ben McBride
Reverend Ben McBride, a San Francisco native, is not just a spiritual leader but a dedicated activist for peace and justice in California.
In 2008, he boldly moved his family to the challenging Oakland neighbourhood called the "Kill Zone." His goal was to gain a firsthand understanding of the gun violence epidemic and respond to it. During his tenure, he played a key role in relaunching Oakland's first successful iteration of Operation Ceasefire, a data-driven violence reduction strategy. This initiative significantly contributed to a near 50% reduction in homicides over five years.
Ben engages in practices that foster belonging, serves as a national leader in gun violence prevention, and works to reconstruct public safety systems. In 2014, he launched the Empower Initiative to support bridging and belonging work nationwide. He has also trained over 100 law enforcement departments and executives.
Between 2015 and 2020, Ben was co-director of PICO California, the state's largest grassroots community organisation, representing 450,000 people across 73 cities. There, he founded a national peacemaking initiative to address police violence. At the request of Vice President Kamala Harris, he also served as co-chair of California's Racial and Identity Profiling Advisory Board, which sought to end racial profiling in California.
Ben's peacemaking work was featured in the Sundance Film Festival award-winning film THE FORCE. He is also the author of Troubling the Water | The Urgent Work of Radical Belonging (Broadleaf Books), which was released in October 2023.
In addition to his work as a peace activist, Ben is an experienced trainer around equity, diversity, and inclusion. He has worked with companies and values-based organisations to launch an emerging organising model based on bridging and belonging across the United States.
He has been married to his wife, Gynelle, for 25 years, and they have three amazing young adult daughters.