John Esterle

Prior to his current role as Trustee and Co-Executive Director, John began working at The Whitman Institute in 1988 as a Research Associate. In 1999, he became TWI’s Executive Director. In 2004, following the death of TWI’s Founder, Fred Whitman, John led TWI’s transition from an operating to a grantmaking foundation. The former board president of Philanthropy for Active Civic Engagement, John has also served on the boards of The Germanacos Foundation, LeaderSpring, and Images and Voices of Hope.  Currently, he is an advisory board member of The Beat Within, Civity, and the Hutchins School of Liberal Studies. Through 2001-2002, John was the PTA president of Rooftop Alternative K-8 Elementary School in San Francisco. Prior to joining TWI, John directed Crime and the News Media, a pilot project that featured a series of dialogues between Bay Area journalists and proponents of alternatives to incarceration. He received his B.A. in Liberal Arts from the Hutchins School of Liberal Studies at Sonoma State University and his M.A. in Broadcast Communication Arts from San Francisco State University.