Rick Halperin is the Director of the Southern Methodist University Human Rights Education Program. Rick holds degrees from George Washington University, Southern Methodist University and Auburn University. He has also studied at The Sorbonne in Paris, France. Rick has held numerous positions of importance in organizations concerned with human rights and social justice. He is a past Chair of the Board of Directors of Amnesty International, USA. He served on the Board of Directors for several organizations, including the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty (NCADP), Human Rights Initiative, Capital Punishment Investigation and Education Services, Jefferson-Titus Refugee Foundation, Center for Survivors of Torture and the International Rescue Committee. Rick's awards and recognition include: Amnesty International Frederick Douglass Abolitionist Award; Dallas Peacemaker of the Year; DCTV Freedom of Speech Award; NCADP Grassroots Activism Award; NCADP Lifetime Abolition Achievement Award; SMU Robert O. Cooper Fellowship in Peace and Justice. Rick has been a member of TCADP since 1998.

Since 1972, Rick Halperin has been actively involved in the effort and struggle to abolish the death penalty in the United States. He works with many anti-death penalty organizations, capital defense attorneys, representatives of various communities of faith, newspaper editorial boards, victims' rights groups, members of the families of the condemned, and many death row inmates throughout the country. He is president of the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. For more than a decade he has organized monthly anti-death penalty rallies in downtown Dallas. He was elected as a chairperson of the Board of Directors of Amnesty International USA from 1992 to 1993. Halperin operates the Web site Death Penalty News and Updates. He is also devoted to other areas of human rights and has been working with a variety of organizations that seek improvements in human rights.

In his personal statement on the Journey of Hope Web site, Halperin stated, "My entire life has been spent defending and advocating the idea that there is no such thing as a lesser person, and that all persons, regardless of whatever they have done, still have and remain worthy of their inherent dignity and must not, for any reason, be tortured or be put to death" [Halperin, Rich. "Rick Halperin's Bio". Journey of Hope, 2004. Accessed April 26, 2005]

Halperin still travels widely and speaks and monitors a variety of human rights concerns around the world. Over the past three decades, his uncompromising opposition to capital punishment has catapulted him to the forefront of the worldwide human rights movement.