University of San Diego Magazine - Fall 2025

who had since earned a dual undergraduate degree in international business and international development. From aiding hospital overflow patients in New York City during the COVID-19 pandemic, to supporting senior operations management in Liberia, to vetting local suppliers in South Sudan, the work piqued Richardson’s growing interest in the logistical side of humanitarian work — vital work that many people don’t naturally think about when they think of international aid organizations. “When I first got to South Sudan, we vetted roughly 150 suppliers in seven months,” Richardson recalled. “We needed to revamp the whole supplier database and I got a really good grasp about the capacity of vendors and how to recommend to leadership legitimate suppliers for procurement.” “Although it was an adventure living out in the bush of South Sudan, the best part of my job was supporting locals.” The logistical oversight was critical because there are a lot of nefarious business activities in places like Juba, the capital of South Sudan. “It was fascinating to see the tactics they use to try and gain awards from organizations,” Richardson said. “Juba is an NGO city, basically, so vendors are extremely reliant on the funding and you start to see how they can manipulate the system. It was an interesting challenge to come up with policies to mitigate those risks.” Success through the apprenticeship led to the organization creating a new position for Richardson to stay in the country — emergency response operations coordinator. Through the role, he was able to continue his work in logistics/ procurement and also spend a lot of time training local staff. “Although it was an adventure living out in the bush of South Sudan, the best part of my job was supporting locals. I always say that I’m just a visitor. I’m going to do as much as I can to support those that grow

“When they need someone with a logistics, operations and procurement skill set, they’ll call me,” he said. Richardson is a 2025 graduate of the Joan B. Kroc School of Peace Studies’ Master of Science in Humanitarian Action and the recipient of the school’s prestigious John Patterson Humanitarian Promise Award. He received the award for his “unwavering commitment to humanitarian service in crisis zones around the world and the U.S., where he has supported displaced communities and advanced peace building efforts.” The reward is both validation of the work Richardson has completed, and a way to remain accountable and ambitious as he moves forward in his career. “It’s a promise to continue doing the same quality of work as I move forward into the future.” HUMANITARIAN BEGINNINGS Samaritan’s Purse recruited Richardson in 2018 for a photojournalism internship in South Sudan. At the time an undergraduate at Point Loma Nazarene University, he instantly fell in love with both humanitarian work and the east African country. Following the internship, he joined the organization’s two-year apprenticeship program, which invests in young professionals and integrates them into the global humanitarian aid network. Richardson was slotted into the operations training track, which provided real-world, hands-on experience in logistics, field procurement and operations management. The work was a natural fit for Richardson,

“ Running

The phrase is central to the mission and ethos of the international aid organization, Samaritan’s Purse, and a personal motto adopted by Gabriel Richardson ’25 (MS). Richardson, 29, can be described as many things — a San Diegan, a skateboarder, a surfer, a photojournalist, a Christian, a Torero. But ultimately, at his core, he is a humanitarian. It’s a label that has defined both his professional work and his personal projects. During the past six years, Richardson has traveled to more than two dozen countries and deployed to assist with relief efforts from both natural and man-made disasters to countries such as South Sudan, Sudan, Liberia, Brazil, Syria and Israel. “We are always trying to work ourselves out of a job, because ultimately, NGOs (non-governmental organizations) should always be temporarily helping transition from disaster to recovery to sustainable empowerment for locals to be even more resilient than before,” Richardson passionately described while sitting in the backyard of his childhood home in the Allied Gardens neighborhood of San Diego. A PERSONAL PROMISE Richardson is back in his hometown for a short sabbatical. It’s Aug. 4, and in less than 24 hours, he will depart for Israel to assist with relief nutrition programming in Gaza to support a war-torn and starving Palestinian population. The short-term deployment is one of more than a half dozen Richardson has been sent on as part of the Samaritan’s Purse Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART). to the fire.”

up there,” Richardson said. “They know their culture and their people, and investing in them and seeing sustainability … it’s the most rewarding part to teach people the skills and then seeing their progression.” A CIRCUITOUS PATH “I had never thought about this work until college,” Richardson said. An avid skateboarder as a teenager, Richardson had a pair of run-ins with the law that provided the necessary scare that would eventually lead him to dedicating his life to helping others. At age 17, he was arrested for violating curfew while skateboarding in San Diego’s Gaslamp Quarter. To complete community service hours, he got involved in homeless ministries at Point Loma Nazarene and ended up leading the ministry the following year. A year later, Richardson and some friends faced police charges after trespassing to skateboard on convention center grounds and accidentally damaging a golf cart.

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