The Ohio Urban University Program

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Executive Director, The Center for Community Solutions

John Begala is an executive, strategist, and community leader with a wide range of experience in both the public and nonprofit sectors. He has had a multifaceted career in health and social services, with particular interests in community leadership and health and social program and policy development.

Mr. Begala, who served as Executive Director of The Center for Community Solutions from 1998 through 2004, returned as Executive Director in July 2008 after several years of retirement. Through the organization’s partnership with Cleveland State University, he is also a Senior Fellow at the Maxine Goodman Levin College of Urban Affairs. Prior to joining Community Solutions, he was senior vice president of The MetroHealth System in Cleveland. He has held leadership positions at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center, Greater Cincinnati Hospital Association, and the Ohio Department of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities. In addition, his public service career includes three terms as a member of the Ohio House of Representatives, and one term as a member of City Council of Kent, Ohio. From 1999 through 2002, he served as a member of The Ohio Counselor and Social Worker Board.

Mr. Begala is a member of the adjunct faculty in the health care MBA program in Baldwin- Wallace College’s Business Division, receiving outstanding teaching honors from students in his Power and Ethics course. He has held numerous board and advisory positions for community service organizations. He is often called upon to speak on health and social service issues, and has written a number of articles for publication, including a regular column for Community Solution’s journal, Planning & Action.

Mr. Begala has written that, “stripped of all trappings, health and social services are fundamentally acts of love, and there are few better ways to make a living.”