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Jim Pate
Jim Pate
01:05

Jim Pate

Habitat For Humanity

New Orleans, LA USA

"It doesn't matter if you're a Democrat or a Republican-none of that stuff matters. We can all agree on one thing and that's that everybody ought to have a decent place to live."

Career Roadmap

Jim's work combines: Engineering, Non-Profit Organizations, and Working with Others

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Day In The Life

Executive Director

I lead the New Orleans area Habitat for Humanity, building homes for hard-working low-income families.

Skills & Education

Here's the path I took:

  • High School

  • Bachelor's Degree

    Psychology, General

    Emory University

  • Doctorate

    Law

    The University of Tennessee

Life & Career Milestones

My path in life has been direct

  • 1.

    Calls New Orleans the most interesting city in America-no matter what your background is, everyone has a place in New Orleans.

  • 2.

    Growing up, he expected he'd go into a more "traditional" profession like his parents, have a nuclear family.

  • 3.

    Studied and practiced law-started to resent the "us vs. them" mentality; lawyers were pursuing money rather than justice.

  • 4.

    Says the greatest part about Habitat for Humanity is that there's no one there who resents it; everyone there wants to be there.

  • 5.

    He left law, found Habitat through his church, where he'd been running a soup kitchen.

  • 6.

    Started as a "house leader" volunteer in 1984; says he caught "infectious Habit-itis."

  • 7.

    Seeing the families they were impacting, the areas they were rebuilding had him hooked.

  • 8.

    Now he's committed himself to rebuilding his favorite city, New Orleans; says little by little, the city is rising back up like a "phoenix out of the ashes."