Episode 121 John Dean - "Shreveport-Bossier: My City, My Community, My Home"

Shreveport-Bossier: My City, My Community, My Home

People like John Dean who for many years have been both business leaders and incredibly active in trying to make our community better make me want to call them "business activists". You can find my full discussion with John here.

Here are the questions I asked:

0:34 1. John, you have had a great career as a CPA at the accounting firm Heard, McElroy & Vestal but what I want to focus on today is how much you have done and continue to do for our community.

Let me but graze the surface. Presently or formerly, you have been the Early Education Chair for the Committee of 100, Chairman of the Shreveport Chamber of Commerce, part of the Early Childhood Education Advisory Committee for Community Foundation, President of the Committee of 100, part of the Advisory Committee for VOA’s Communities in Schools, President of Step Forward and President of the Grayson Foundation.

Let’s start here. You once said, “If we’re going to do anything to improve our community, we’re going to have to put significant resources – time and energy – into early childhood education.”

Tell me a little, if you could, statistically where we are with early childhood education and why it’s so important.

6:02 2. I see advertisements in national newspapers like the Wall Street Journal about Communities in Schools (CIS). I understand that the Caddo Parish School Board has partnered with VOA to implement this program in key schools in the parish.

Are you familiar with CIS? What’s your impression?”  

10:21 3. Like me, I know that you are very concerned about the future health of Downtown Shreveport. Talk to me about where you see Downtown Shreveport today and what we can do to ensure it remains vital into the future.

19:42 4. As I mentioned earlier, you are the President of Grayson Foundation, one of the largest private foundations in Northwest Louisiana. Talk to me, if you could, about some of the types of projects Grayson Foundation is looking to fund.

33:38 5. You had a great career as a CPA and could have simply focused on your profession and your family. How did you learn the importance of giving back so much of your time to trying to make our community better?

37:16 6. My last formal question is, what are some of the things that make you optimistic that our community might be headed in a positive direction?