Join us as we welcome Tom Baker from the Bridging Divides Initiative at Princeton University and Joseph Wiinikka-Lydon, Ph.D., Senior Research Analyst, Intelligence Project, Southern Poverty Law Center to discuss different types of extremism and the impact these views have on our democracy.
GUEST SPEAKERS
TOM BAKER IV
Tom Baker IV is a Senior Research Specialist and the North Carolina State Lead for the Bridging Divides Initiative. Having been born and raised in Wake County, where he now resides, Tom holds a deep connection to the community. Following high school graduation in 2003, he joined the Navy and served as an avionics technician, an unmanned aircraft mission coordinator, and an aircrew member on the EP-3, specializing in intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance sensor operations. His career led him into the private military contracting industry, where he worked with special operations forces during Operations Enduring Freedom and Inherent Resolve. Tom left the military sector in 2015 to work in electoral politics. He has experience working with federal and state-level candidates, as well as coordinating issue-based campaigns. In the 2020 election cycle, Tom worked as a consultant on a team of intelligence professionals monitoring political violence, providing threat analysis to civil society groups as part of a coalition to protect elections against malign actors.
His honors include graduation from the Student Veterans of America Leadership Institute in 2019 and a legislative fellowship awarded to him by the Veterans of Foreign Wars and Student Veterans of America in 2020. Tom has a B.S. in Political Science from Arizona State University, which he pursued using the Post 9/11 G.I. Bill.
JOE WIINIKKA-LYDON
Joe Wiinikka-Lydon is a senior research analyst at Southern Poverty Law Center where he monitors and researchers antigovernment movements and Christian extremism. Trained in religious and philosophical ethics, he also writes on issues of moral injury, war and peace, and religion and extremism. His latest work is
Moral Injury and the Promise of Virtue, published with Palgrave MacMillan.