John Weiss, Director of Strategic Initiatives

John Weiss has worked with diverse populations of youth, youth-serving programs, and schools for 25 years.   He currently serves as the Director of Strategic Initiatives (DSI) at the Neutral Zone and was its Executive Director from 2005-2014.  As DSI he has trained and coached 1000s of adults and youth from across Michigan and other states in both the Youth Driven Spaces framework and in restorative practices.

John served as a teacher in the Ypsilanti Public Schools and Willow Run Community Schools.  For 7 years he served as the Director of the Adolescent Division at the High/Scope Educational Research Foundation, now the Weikart Center for Program Quality.  In that role he was one of the initial developers of the Youth Program Quality Assessment (YPQA), a research instrument designed to evaluate the quality of youth programs.  John also served as a teacher in the Peace Corps in The Gambia, West Africa.  John lives in Ypsilanti Michigan, where he has resided with his family since 1995.