Carl Wilkens is the former head of the Adventist Development and Relief Agency International in Rwanda. In 1994, he was the only American who chose to remain in the country after the genocide began.

Since 1978, when he first went to Africa as part of a college volunteer program, he has spent 13 years working on the continent. After training as a highschool shop teacher he later went back to night school and earned an MBA at the University of Baltimore.