The Rev. Dr. James T. Laney, former ambassador of the United States to South Korea, has had a formative role in efforts to stabilize relations with North Korea and is credited with playing a key role in defusing the 1994 nuclear crisis. In a speech in 1996 in New York before the Council on Foreign Relations and later at the National Press Club in Washington, he laid out the basis for a fresh U.S. policy on the Korean peninsula, now termed “engagement.” For his work there he received highest awards from both the South Korean and the U.S. governments, as well as the James Van Fleet Award from the Korean Society and the first International Human Rights Award in Seoul.

Prior to his ambassadorship, Dr. Laney served as president of Emory University for sixteen years. Under his leadership Emory came to be ranked in the top tier of American universities, and the endowment grew tenfold, to sixth among all colleges. He also served as dean of Candler School of Theology (1969–77) and taught at Vanderbilt and Harvard Universities. An elder in the United Methodist Church, Dr. Laney has pastored churches in Connecticut, Ohio, and Tennessee, served in Army counterintelligence in Korea from 1946 to 1948 and later, with his wife, Berta Radford Laney, served as a United Methodist missionary in South Korea, where he taught at Yonsei University.

Dr. Laney was educated at Yale University (BA, MDiv, PhD) and received an honorary degree and the Wilbur Cross Medal from Yale. He is the recipient of twenty-two honorary degrees from institutions in the United States, Africa, Korea, Japan, and Great Britain, including Emory University.

Dr. Laney continues to be engaged in conversations regarding South and North Korea, having co-chaired the Council of Foreign Relations Task Force on Korea. He has chaired the United Board for Christian Higher Education in Asia, is a trustee of the Henry Luce Foundation, and co-chairs—with former ambassador Andrew Young—the Faith and the City program. Dr. and Mrs. Laney have five children, two of whom are Candler graduates, and sixteen grandchildren, five of whom are enrolled at Emory University this year.

This biographical sketch is reprinted from the website of the Center for Ethics at Emory University. For more information on the Center, visit http://ethics.emory.edu/.