Thomas E. Gouttierre serves as the Dean of International Studies and Programs at the University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO) and the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC), and as the Director of the Center for Afghanistan Studies at UNO.
Gouttierre was raised in Maumee, Ohio, where he worked in his father's pastry shop from age 8 to age 24 receiving his Master Baking Certificate at the age of 18. Prior to assuming his present position in 1974, he lived and worked for nearly ten years in Afghanistan. While in Afghanistan, Gouttierre served as a Peace Corps Volunteer, a Fulbright Fellow, and Executive Director of the Fulbright Foundation. Throughout his time in Afghanistan, Gouttierre coached the Afghan National Basketball Team
Gouttierre was selected by the US Department of State to serve as Senior Political Affairs Officer on the United Nations Peacekeeping Mission to Afghanistan in1996/1997. He has participated in Fulbright Programs in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Norway, France, India, Nepal, and Germany. He served as a member of the International Rescue Committee's Citizens Commission on Afghanistan Refugees from 1988-1993. In 1995/1996, he served as President of the Omaha Rotary Club.
Professor Gouttierre holds honorary doctorates from the University of the City of Manila, the Technological University of Tajikistan, Bowling Green State University (his alma mater), and Seton Hall University. In addition, he was appointed Honorary Senator of the Technical University of Braunschweig (Germany) and the Distinguished Alumnus Award from Bowling Green.
Gouttierre has testified on various topics related to Afghanistan, US-Pakistani Relations, International Terrorism, and Human Rights before hearings of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the US House of Representatives Committee on International Relations. He has also testified on Afghanistan and Human Rights issues in hearings before committees of the British Parliament, the French National Assembly, the Norwegian Storting, and the UN Select Committee on Human Rights. Since 1986, Gouttierre has served on the US-Russian (formerly Soviet Union) Task Force (Dartmouth Conference) on Regional Conflicts. He is a Board Member of the International Institute for Sustained Dialogue.
Gouttierre has made presentations on topics as diverse as Afghanistan, Regional Conflicts, Education Development, Global Terrorism, US Foreign Policy, Third World Development, the Persian Gulf War, etc. at US State Department conferrences and meetings, world affairs and foreign relations organizations, university and college campuses, service clubs, church organizations, and schools. He has conducted orientation programs for US military assigned to Afghanistan. Gouttierre is regularly called upon by representatives of the international, national, and local media and by various organizations to present his opinion on these topics; in the first ten months after 9/11, he had more than 2000 presentations and interviews.
Gouttierre speaks, reads, and writes Afghan,Persian (Dari), Iranian Persian (Farsi) and Tajikistani Persian; he has also studied Arabic, French, German, Latin, Russian, and Spanish. His publications include numerous articles about Afghanistan society, culture, and politics.; a co-authored, two-volume language textbook, Dari for Foreigners; a co-authored Bibliography of Persian Works in English; original Dari poetry; and a variety of magazine and newspaper articles on other international topics. He was the project director for the development of the 23,000-word Dari-English Dictionary.
Gouttierre and his associates at UNO have obtained grants and contracts in excess of $80 million. Through one series of grants awarded by USAID between 1986 and 1994, the Center for Afghanistan Studies helped Afghans deliver education to over 130,000 Afghan children in refugee camps in Pakistan and 1,300 sites inside war-torn Afghanistan; under another series, beginning in 2002, the Center trained teachers and printed the textbooks needed by the Afghans to reopen their schools after decades of war that had culminated in the fall of the Taliban; under still another grant, the Center assisted the Department of State re-start the US Fulbright Program in Afghanistan in 1993/94 after a hiatus of 25 years.
During the years Gouttierre has served as Dean, UNO has established active institutional linkages with universities in Afghanistan, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, China, the Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, India, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Mexico, Moldova, Nicaragua, Norway, Pakistan, the Phillipines, Romania, Russia, South Africa, Tajikistan and Ukraine. Often in conjunction with these linkages, UNO has conducted exchange programs and provided training to educators and other professionals in teacher training; American business communication, management and insurance practices; project management; public administration; higher education reconstruction and development; intensive English; conflict resolution; and related areas.
