John A. Calhoun

John A. “Jack” Calhoun has spent his entire career working to improve the lives of those who live on society’s edges while supporting fragile families and building caring communities. Jack started his career as a substitute teacher in Philadelphia’s core city. He then moved to Boston where he joined the fledgling poverty program – Action for Boston Community Development – where he helped to run youth development and community action programs in addition to coordinating Job Corps activities and directing the program, “New Careers for the Poor.” Subsequently, Jack founded and directed Justice Resource Institute, an organization that pioneered Massachusetts’ pre-trial diversion programs, instituting it in district courts throughout the State, and writing and seeing through to passage the nation’s first pre-trial diversion law. He also pioneered the State’s first restorative justice initiative in which youthful offenders met their victims with community members as mediators. Appointed by the Governor to serve as the Massachusetts’ Commissioner of the Department of Youth Service, he also chaired The Adolescent and State of the Family Task Forces. He helped to create a comprehensive, community-based (not institution-based) juvenile justice system that cut the State’s recidivism rate to an astonishingly low 10%.

In 1979 President Carter appointed him to serve as the U.S. Commissioner of the Administration for Children, Youth and Families, where he oversaw Head Start and programs addressing child abuse, foster care, adoption, and domestic violence. He helped to write the landmark Child Welfare and Adoption Act of 1980, which has been called “one of the three most important laws affecting children in the last 100 years.” Subsequently he served as Vice President of the Child Welfare League of America and the first President and CEO of the National Crime Prevention Council, where, for 21 years he helped to revolutionize crime prevention by focusing on building vital communities. The pioneering Youth as Resources program focused the energies of almost 500,000 youth across America as positive change agents in their communities.

Adept at running multi-site, community-anchored initiatives, Jack designed and ran the California Cities Violence Prevention Network for the National League of Cities, which Attorney General Eric Holder cloned as the 15-city National Forum on Youth Violence Prevention for which Jack served as Senior Consultant. Subsequently he helped design and administer the Justice-Department-funded “Role of the Faith Community in Preventing Violence and Building Community.” President Obama’s Assistant Attorney General Karol Mason said, “More than any one person, Jack has shaped the Department of Justice’s approach to juvenile justice.”

In demand as a keynote speaker, conference organizer and panel facilitator here and abroad, he has testified before city councils, county commissions, state legislatures and Congress. He has lectured at major universities among them Harvard, Penn, Baylor, and Fordham, published many articles, served on numerous boards, and is a frequent media guest. He served as one of the opening speakers for the WHO conference in Bergen, Norway and for 10 years served as co-moderator for the Aspen Institute’s Executive Seminar program. He is the author of four books: Hope Matters: The Untold Story of How Faith Works in America (2007), Through the Hourglass: Poems of Life and Love (2016), Policy Walking: Lighting Paths to Safer Communities, Stronger Families and Thriving Youth (2016), and And the Souls Felt Their Worth: A Life of Purpose, Policy, and the People Who Inspired Me Along the Way (2024).

Keenly interested in building bridges between public policy and the faith community, Jack helped found and co-leads Lewinsville Faith in Action, which in partnership with others, works for political, social, economic and environmental policies that are based on justice and compassion. He also serves as Board Chair of the California Cities Violence Prevention Network.

Jack holds a BA from Brown University, a Master of Theology from the Episcopal Divinity School, a Master of Public Administration and honored as a Littauer Fellow from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, and an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Heidelberg College. A recipient of numerous awards, he has been listed in WHO’S WHO IN AMERICA and WHO’S WHO IN THE WORLD for more than thirty years. Married for 52 years, Jack is the proud father of two, and grandfather of six.

CAREER TIMELINE

2015-Present Board Chair, California Cities Violence Prevention Network; Co-Chair, Lewinsville Faith in Action, McLean, VA; Member Refugee Resettlement Team, Lewinsville Presbyterian Church, McLean, VA

2024 Author And the Souls Felt Their Worth: A Life of Purpose, Policy, and the People Who Inspired Me Along the Way

2016 Author Policy Walking: Lighting Paths to Safer Communities, Stronger Families, and Thriving Youth

2010-2014 Senior Consultant U.S. Department of Justice and Development Service Group, Inc., for National Forum on Youth Violence Prevention

2006-2015 Senior Consultant to National League of Cities Institute for Youth, Education and Families Founder & Director California Cities Violence Prevention Network

2011 Author Through the Hourglass: Poems of Life and Love

2004-2006 Author Hope Matters: The Untold Story of How Faith Works in America

1983-2004 President and CEO, National Crime Prevention Council

2001 Doctor of Humane Letters (Honorary), Heidelberg College

1986 Master of Public Administration with Honors (Littauer Fellow), Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University

1981-1982 Vice President, Child Welfare League of America

1979-1981 Presidential Appointee, Commissioner, U.S. Administration for Children, Youth and Families

1976-1979 Gubernatorial Appointee, Commissioner, Massachusetts Department of Youth Services

1973-1976 Executive Director, Justice Resource Institute

1970-1973 Vice President, Technical Development Corporation

1966-1970 Coordinator Job Corps, Director Summer Work and Recreation Programs, Action for Boston Community Development

1965-1966 Teacher, Elementary Education, Inner City

Philadelphia, PA

1963-1965 Master of Divinity, Episcopal Divinity School,

Cambridge, MA

1962-1963 Attended Episcopal Divinity School, Berkeley, CA

1958-1962 BA, Brown University

SELECTED AWARDS

2012 - Award of Recognition, U.S. Department of Justice, National Forum on Youth Violence Prevention

2011 - Leader, Visionary Award from Justice Resource Institute

2004 - Lifetime Achievement Award for “Extraordinary Contributions to and Outstanding Service to Youth, Their Families and Communities in America and Throughout the World.” Center for Substance Abuse and Prevention, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

2002 - Spirit of Crazy House Award – Reclaiming Youth International Youth Advocate of the Year

1998 - Award of Recognition winner, U.S. Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention

1979 - Official Citation from the Massachusetts State Senate for “Outstanding and Dedicated Service to Children and Families of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts

1979 - Award of recognition from U.S. Attorney General Griffin Bell for Urban Court (Restorative Justice)

1978 - Recipient of the American Arbitration Association Award of Recognition