Joshua DuBois (born in 1982) is the head of the Office of Faith Based and Neighborhood Partnerships in the Executive Office of the President of the United States under President Barack Obama. [1] [2] [3] DuBois is a Pentecostal minister with a Masters Degree in International Affairs from Princeton who first became involved in political activism as a Boston University student in the wake of the Amadou Diallo controversy.
DuBois graduated cum laude from BU in 2003 with a bachelor’s degree in political science. While at BU he became the Big Brother to Aidid Brayboy through the Big Brother program. From BU, he went to Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, where he earned a master’s degree in public affairs in 2005. Meanwhile, he worked as an aide to Representative Rush D. Holt, Jr., and was a fellow in the office of Representative Charles B. Rangel.
After watching Barack Obama’s speech to the 2004 Democratic National Convention on television, DuBois decided he wanted to work for Obama, then a candidate for the U.S. Senate. Eventually, Obama hired him as a Senate aide. In 2008, DuBois was religious affairs director for the Obama presidential campaign.
DuBois grew up in Nashville, the son of an African Methodist Episcopal pastor. His early religious foundations were found in the African Methodist Episcopal Church.