Battles, a graduate of Florida A&M University, became a regional director in 2003 — overseeing eight states including Florida — after working more than two decades as the senior conciliation specialist in the Miami field office. The Miami City Commission passed a resolution declaring Dec. 12, 2002, as “Thomas Battles Day” in recognition of his years of service in improving relations between racial and ethnic groups in South Florida.

He has been involved with several high-profile cases that contributed to dark chapters in the nation’s race narrative: In 1998, he headed to Jasper, Texas, after three white men dragged a black man to his death behind their pickup trucks.

In 2006, he made the trip to Jena, La., as the small town became the site of a massive civil rights conflict when six black students known as the “Jena Six” were charged with attempted murder after a white classmate was severely beaten.

“If you see Thomas, you know there is a problem,’’ said Benjamin Crump, the Martin family attorney who worked with Battles on a case in Panama City several years ago. “But if you see him, you also know there is going to be a solution. His mission is always to keep the peace.’’

In Florida, his mediation footprint includes helping to coordinate sensitivity training workshops at a Pembroke Pines school when a group of students hung a noose as a joke in 2008. Years before, he worked with the Haitian exile community after Jean-Bertrand Aristide, Haiti’s first democratically elected president, was overthrown in 1991. And he was involved with peace efforts during the Elián González custody saga, a case that tested ethnic relations in the city after the boy arrived by boat on Thanksgiving Day, 1999. Months later, the U.S. government seized Elián from his relatives and returned him to his father in Cuba.

“During the Elián case, Thomas was a steady person, working hard to see the different sides of the issue and getting everyone to the table. There was great respect for him in the Cuban-American community,’’ said Guarione Diaz, president emeritus of the Cuban American National Council who was working with Battles to address the tension when Elián was removed. “We were having a lot of community conversations about how to keep violence from erupting.’’

Back in February 2012, Trayvon was visiting his father in Sanford while on suspension from a Miami high school. The unarmed teen was returning from a convenience store that Sunday night, when he and Zimmerman had an explosive confrontation that left Trayvon dead, Zimmerman claiming self-defense and a city of 53,000 suddenly thrust into the center of the tragedy.

Blacks, who had long felt mistreated by the Sanford Police Department, saw in Trayvon another case of mistreatment by law enforcement, and his death quickly became to symbolize racial injustice.

“The mood here was very volatile. The feelings here were deeply rooted,’’ said Lowman Oliver, a pastor and community activist. “There was a lot of anger and there were even more questions.’’

As city leaders worked to answer those questions and calm residents, they turned to Battles.

“The situation was escalating. We needed somebody from the outside that could command respect, pull the community together and generate dialogue,’’ said Andrew Thomas, the senior project manager for the city of Sanford who made the initial contact. “He and his team were very effective.’’

Among his first tasks: Battles rallied about 70 or 80 Sanford-area ministers — of varying races and faiths — and talked to the group about the role they should play in bringing peace back to the city.

“The idea was to bring different kinds of people into the same room and get them to talk,’’ said Rev. Charles Holt, of St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in neighboring Lake Mary. “He was able to get the largest group of pastors together, partly because his group carried weight, representing the perspective of the Justice Department.’’

From those meetings, the Sanford Pastors Connecting was formed. With Battle’s help, members of that group now have four designated seats at the trial for pastors to attend and bring back reports to their congregations and neighborhoods. Often, Battles is seen there too.

His team also negotiated police protection for the Dream Defenders, a group of students who walked 40 miles from Daytona to Sanford in a “justice for Trayvon” protest.

On the evening of the first day of testimony, the NAACP hosted a town hall for residents at an area church to update them on the case and call for calm after the trial, particularly if Zimmerman is acquitted. One by one, pastors and civic leaders came to the podium in front of a mostly black crowd.

Battles sat quietly in a side pew.

“He is always neutral. He does not go into a crisis on one side or the other,’’ Oliver said. “His job is to walk the middle and try to find common ground and common solutions.’’