About
Hello!
My name is J. Daniel Sims. I’m an author, speaker, and consultant. I currently serve as International Justice Mission’s Country Director in Cambodia where I live with mi amor Rachel and our baby daughter.
I speak and publish frequently on cultural, political, economic, and theological issues facing our Church, country, and world.
You can receive updates about my: forthcoming book WanderLOST; speaking schedule; and recent published work by subscribing to my newsletter.
Alternatively, feel free to send me an e-mail to request more information about working together.
Getting Started
If you are new to my site, here are a few articles as an intro to my thinking:
Also, read up on my forthcoming book WanderLOST!
You can also take a look at some of my other published work.
Bio
I’m Texan born and DC Metro-raised but my heart home lies further west. I fell in love (both with Rachel and the mountains) in Colorado, so that’s where I claim.
I attended Grove City College (BS) and The London School of Economics (MS), but never claimed dogmatic Calvinism or Fabian Socialism. Go figure.
I began my career (as it were) working in and around the active war zones of Karen and Shan State, Myanmar — leading humanitarian programs for internally displaced villagers with the Free Burma Rangers and assisting with legal research for Harvard Human Rights Clinic.
After grad school, I married the love of my life. We helped co-found an NGO with a partner in Uganda and lived on rice and beans for several years while paying off student loans.
In 2015, Rachel entered grad school and I started a job at the College of William & Mary. I led an international development consulting practice and served as adjunct faculty—teaching and guest lecturing in courses on Education, Human Rights, Migration, and Global Health.
The nature of my work for the university facilitated a period of extensive global travel including a lengthy stint working through South America in 2018 as chronicled in the journey, together.
The culmination of these experiences led us to begin two new journeys in 2020: 1) accepting a job leading International Justice Mission’s work in Cambodia; and 2) welcoming a daughter into our life overseas.
My forthcoming memoir WanderLOST leverages the ups, downs, and paradoxes of this journey to convey larger takeaways about the inability of selfish pursuits to help us find significance, meaning, and belonging in a broken world.
Feel free to get in touch. Thanks for visiting!
