John P. Downey is a past Executive Board Member, and current Alumni member. John has 24 years experience in higher education leadership. During his role with Giving Hope Network, John helped broaden the scope of GHN by helping tell the story of GHN’s successes, and serving as a representative in North Carolina.

One of John’s passions is to help young people succeed. This passion started at an early age when his parents passed away and he was raised by his grandparents. His good fortune to have such excellent grandparents kept him and his siblings (two brothers and one sister) from needing to be a recipient of a charity such as Giving Hope Network.

John’s charitable and community service based work has included the Mecklenburg Kiwanis Club in Charlotte, North Carolina in which he has served as president and treasurer, helping raise funds for kids with cancer. He has also served on the South Charlotte Parks & Recreation Commission, Bereavement Ministry with his church, and has been a supporter of Eleos International for over 10 years. He has also been a very bad soccer coach for several years.

John currently serves as Dean of Students at Queens University of Charlotte where he works to help students achieve their life goals. He has his Bachelor’s Degree from Rider University, Master’s from The College of New Jersey, and a Ph.D. from Indiana University. He lives in Charlotte, NC with his wonderful 10 year old son Joshua. Recently engaged, he will be marrying his beautiful fiancé Micandra on June 25th.