Public Speaker and Educator

Dr John Bellavance has worked with NGOs and community organisations to support peace building and wellbeing for 40 years. In the 1980s, he and his wife Anne worked with the African American community to fight crack cocaine. His efforts were recognised by the White House, where President Reagan sent him a letter of appreciation for his efforts to rid America of this social ill. In the early 90s he took this fight against drugs to his home country of Canada, were he was able to bring the issue of illicit drugs as a state campaign issue. As part this work he has studied and written about values education for 30 years. The focus of his PhD thesis was the role of values in human/technological interactions with a particular focus on the role of values in the use of Information Technologies by high school age children. He has been teaching Information Technology in high schools for 20 years in the areas of computer networks, programming and data analytics. He published the book Values in the Digital World - Ethics and Practices that Underpin Wellbeing and will publish The 12 Pillars of Meaning and Connection in 2021.