Carl Wilkens (born 1958) is an American Christian missionary and the former head of the Adventist Development and Relief Agency International in Rwanda.

Since 1978, when he first went to Africa as part of a college volunteer program, Wilkens had already spent 13 years working on the continent.

After training as a high-school teacher, he later went back to night school and earned an MBA at the University of Baltimore.

"[2] The first three weeks were spent in his house with trustworthy Tutsis seeking refuge, but when there was a possibility to go out and do anything to people, who were slaughtered every day, sometimes just meters away, he gave his all to help them.

One day, when Carl arrived at Gisimba, he saw more than 50 armed militiamen who were waiting for an occasion to kill everyone inside the orphanage.

When he was in his office, the Hutu prime minister Jean Kambanda, was there and someone told Wilkens to ask him for help.

But Wilkens, who was afraid of another militiamen attempt to kill people inside Gisimba, decided to move survivors to a safe haven - the Saint Michel Cathedral.

The orphanage was run by a Frenchman, Marc Vaiter, and before April 1994 its main goal was to take care of 16 HIV-positive orphans.

Wilkens reminisces that the situation during genocide was very complex, and that he was working often on the edge of law and morality: "I was in so many positions that could have been interpreted as compromising or even collaborating with the enemy.

Wilkens negotiated to save lives with Col. Tharcisse Renzaho - governor of Kigali and with prime minister Jean Kambanda later sentenced to life imprisonment by International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR).

General Romeo Dallaire faced a same dilemma, debating whether it was morally acceptable to "shake hands with the Devil" in order to save someone's life.

However, the effects of such negotiations - thousands of saved human lives - made some feel that it was worthy to pay the price.

But in 1995 he, his wife Teresa and their 3 children returned to Rwanda and for the next 18 months Wilkens worked for the Adventist Church on reconstruction projects.

Wilkens tours the United States to speak to students, teachers, and parents about his experience in Rwanda.

During his talks, he describes his experiences in Rwanda and how to stay positive by doing things such as creating new brain pathways.

On 26–27 April 2014, Wilkens spoke to students at several international schools in Taipei of his experiences in Rwanda, and was selling his book during a Model United Nations conference.