MuseumBrian Steidle
Brian Steidle grew up living around the world as the son of a naval officer, including two years in the Philippines, which greatly influenced his desire to work on a global scale helping the less fortunate. Brian graduated with a B.S. from Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University in 1999 and received a commission in the US Marine Corps as an infantry officer. He completed my service with the USMC at the end of 2003 as a Captain. In January 2004 Brian accepted a contract position with the Joint Military Commission in the Nuba Mountains of Sudan working on the North-South cease fire, now peace treaty. Within seven months he worked his way up from a Team Leader to the Senior Operations Officer. In September 2004 Brian was invited to serve in Darfur as an unarmed military observer and U.S. representative with the African Union. He was one of only three Americans serving with a coalition of African countries monitoring the cease fire between the two African rebel groups and the Government of Sudan. Brian was armed only with a pen; his reports were his ammunition. While conducting investigations, Brian observed villages of up to 20,000 inhabitants burned to the ground, hundreds of thousands of displaced civilians and the results of violent atrocities including the rape of women, the torture of men and the murder of children. In February 2005, convinced that he could be more effective by bringing the story of what he witnessed in Darfur to the world, Brian returned to the United States as a witness to genocide. He now works with his sister, Gretchen Steidle Wallace, founder of Global Grassroots, to raise public awareness about the atrocities in Sudan and seek international support for the African Union in stopping the violence.
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In Darfur, My Camera Was Not Enough »
