LIGHT OF THE VILLAGE
Officers
Founder/ Executive Director:
John Eads grew up in New Mexico, and at the age of 14, he became a cadet at New Mexico Military Institute where he graduated from high school four years later. He continued at NMMI and earned a junior college diploma and a commission in the United States Army. John later earned a Masters of Business Administration degree from New Mexico State University, and a Masters in Hospital Administration from Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas. From 1998 through 2007, he served as Chief Executive Officer in two different hospitals for the Infirmary Health System. In 2005, he was awarded the Distinguished Early Career Healthcare Executive award for the state of Alabama.
From 1997 to 2001, John and his wife, Dolores, served with Prison Fellowship Ministries and conducted in-prison seminars in prisons throughout Alabama. They established Prison Fellowship seminars in the State’s juvenile facilities in 1998 and continued to serve inside both adult and juvenile correctional facilities until 2001. In 2001, John and his wife founded Light of the Village and served there part-time while working for the Infirmary.
In 2007, John decided to leave the healthcare field to devote full time to his work as Executive Director at Light of the Village.
John has traveled to East Los Angeles and learned about gang intervention at Homeboy Industries, considered to be the nation’s Best Practice for gang intervention. Additionally, he and his wife traveled to Camden, New Jersey to learn about youth programs from Urban Promise. In 2014, the Eads participated in a ten day leadership course taught exclusively by former Navy SEALS in Virginia. Since completing the course, several Navy SEALS have visited the ministry and play an active role in contributing to the Light of the Village.
Currently, the Light of the Village offers a six day a week presence inside the Alabama Village and surrounding communities. It serves children, teenagers, and adults. Since 2014, the ministry has expanded to four summer camp sites, and two after-school programs. We serve over 400 inner-city children a day for eight weeks during the summer and over 100 a day during our after-school programs. Additionally, we offer a GED program, job placement, ACT college prep tutoring and a variety of their programs to meet the needs of our community.