FullName

John McDonald


Organization

Partners for Innovative Community


Role
Partner

Description

Partners for Innovative Community

John's background is heavy on the tech side, starting in aerospace in the 60’s and consulting on enterprise-level technology for some two decades. The other ½ of his career involved consulting on strategy planning and organizational restructuring, conflict resolution, etc.; the people-side, if you will. John spent the mid-years of his career managing a turn-around of Orange County’s legal service program for the poor, receiving the Franklin G West Award for 'highest contribution to Justice.' He was recruited as national Director of Management Training and Development for the Legal Services Corporation in Washington, D.C., responsible for design and delivery of management training and development for some 3,000 lawyer and non-lawyer managers across the U.S. He returned to California when the Reagan administration started shutting down elements of the national legal services program.

John has spent the last 25 years consulting on technology and people management issues (especially for professional services firms) under the corporate name of Professional Advisors, Inc. (which he currently maintains only as a presence since John is 70% retired from his consulting practice). He has spent a significant portion of his professional career working on various visualization methods for decision makers, starting before computerized tools were available.

He served as immediate past Chair of the Oceanside’s City Arts Commission where he created and started implementation of a new broad-based, strategic approach to 'weaving arts into the fabric of the community' and established the approach of overlaying the Arts on all public and private projects (we believe it is the first, or one of the first, such statement in the country. With that framework in place, John resigned the Commission to advocate from within the community for that strategy’s implementation. He currently leads an informal group of activists in the community that promoted the new Arts, Technology and Environment District recently approved by the Oceanside City Council. The group, now known as Partners for Innovative Community, is working with an existing San Diego non-profit to formalize itself and to expand the advocacy for the ATE District and similar projects. The group focus on that sweet point where arts, technology and environment converge to produce innovative solutions that create a better community for all citizens, rather than on the casual intersection of these ingredients.