John Poreba on the road visiting with foundation partners in Chicago“IWP deepened my appreciation for the principles that inspired America’s founding, as well as my commitment to strengthen its societal institutions – education, business, government, and communities – through a blend of realism and bottom-up solutions.”
– John Poreba, Salutatorian, IWP Class of 2011
John Poreba has dedicated his career to building win-win partnerships that advance a free society. He has facilitated the development and sustainability of dozens of foreign policy, free speech, entrepreneurship, and free-market centers at elite universities across the nation. In his current role at the Charles Koch Foundation, he now partners with educational institutions and companies to ensure America’s talent supply, creating innovative pathways to mission-critical jobs.
John credits his time at IWP as instrumental to shaping his understanding of the interplay of America’s foundational institutions and his approach to problem-solving and partnerships.
An Interview with John Poreba
Why did you choose IWP for graduate school?
What impressed me about the Institute was its unapologetic appreciation for the founding principles of our country, as well as its faculty and students’ sense of realism about the potential and limitations of human nature. Its curriculum pushed beyond the commonplace siloing of subjects and felt more representative of the real world: dynamic and interconnected.
What type of work did you want to focus on?
Since I didn’t study political science or international affairs as an undergraduate, I was interested in cultivating an understanding of world history, philosophy, political science, and foreign affairs. Following graduation, I pursued director and program officer roles in the nonprofit sector, where I could explore focus areas I found compelling through the lens of my IWP education. This approach afforded me the opportunity to do amazing things like teach political communications to young leaders in Haiti, to tour the Nevada National Security Site with grantees of an international security center I helped scale, and to support the growth of a national network of CEO groups in 24 markets pioneering talent pathways in tech, manufacturing, and other industries. Openness has been the key to surfacing these opportunities while always building upon core skills like relationship building, creative problem solving, and strategic thinking. Exposure to many areas has helped me be more creative by seeing connections others miss.
Please tell us about how you are creating new solutions in education and employment.
A healthy and adaptable workforce is no doubt important for individuals, communities, and the economy. It directly impacts our national security and our competitiveness. But there is a misconception that a college degree is necessary to have upward mobility in America. While many people benefit from their degrees, we also know there are more than 60 million people with some or no college, or for whom college is not a great fit.
Countries in civil distress often face high youth unemployment, leaving workers starved for meaningful opportunities. In situations with large populations of disgruntled workers who have a lot of free time and energy, you can end up in trouble quickly. My current work involves encouraging students, workers, and employers to swap outdated mental models for a more-flexible approach, one that involves skills-based hiring and multiple pathways to career mobility. Grantees I’m supporting are leveraging user design techniques, AI, and employer-validated micropathways and credentials to help workers discover their strengths, build their skills, and become more identifiable to employers.
This work requires a good deal of empathy and bridgebuilding. Stakeholders like CEOs, chief human resource officers, college deans, policy makers, entrepreneurs, and hiring managers face different incentives and can easily talk past one another. The process involves generating consensus around a shared vision, identifying mutual benefit, and thinking creatively about how to overcome barriers and measure progress. Each project is different and exciting in its own way. One of the biggest challenges is helping employers see the business case for these new pathways. Too often, they perceive them as either too cumbersome or purely charitable endeavors. We’re looking to create real value for all parties through improved performance, retention, and innovation because that will help with sustainability. Social-impact philanthropies, like the one I work for, can help derisk these experiments and prove out why employers should support them into the future.
This work every day involves economic thinking and consensus building. Those are skills I sharpened in Prof. John Tsagronis’ class on the National Security Policy Process, where we studied stakeholder incentives, wrote policy briefs geared towards audiences with very different incentives, and made our cases for what often were imperfect paths forward.
What do you feel is the biggest impact you have made in your career?
Building out a national network of foreign-policy research centers and programs focused on bringing greater realism to our national defense was a highlight. I prospected, recommended, and stewarded center infrastructure, tenure-track professorships, postdoctoral fellowships, books, and policymaker roundtables to challenge over-extension of America abroad. Over several years, my efforts and those of my colleagues have led to greater awareness and accountability for the human and financial costs of deep military engagement. This work has also raised the bar for justifying military force and occupation as core national-security interests.
Do you believe that your IWP education has contributed to the success of your work?
IWP’s focus on the timeless principles of the American Experiment—dignity, openness, and mutual benefit, among others—was foundational for me. It gave me confidence to know that, if I were to advance these ideas, I would be building on bedrock.
Also helpful were the candid conversations in class about the positive and negative realities of human nature. I walked away with a healthy sense of skepticism about what we can and cannot achieve in the world and that it’s possible for idealistic and well-meaning plans to fail when you don’t consider local knowledge, culture, even geography. In social-impact philanthropy, it’s easy for a funder to think it can “parachute in” and change lives with resources and frameworks. The reality is that the people closest to the problem are often best positioned to help solve it. My colleagues and I try to respect that dynamic and approach challenges with high levels of openness and a learning mindset.
What advice would you give to an IWP student who is not planning to work directly in government?
The private sector offers exciting opportunities and entrepreneurial freedom to apply the tools of statecraft. America’s domestic and international affairs are interconnected, with strong institutions at home aiding in our ability to contribute to the global marketplace, to project power and influence when necessary, and to deter threats. Grantmaking through a private foundation afforded me wide latitude to make a difference, whether through supporting scholarly research, developing talent, or educating policy makers.
More career advice? Think creatively and long-term. You will likely have many different roles over the course of your career. That is the trend these days. Consider a portfolio approach that perhaps involves time in and outside of government. Invest in a handful of skills each day so you can eventually master them. But also invest, say 20% of your time, in experiences and new skills for discovery and growth purposes. One of my favorite stories to demonstrate this concept is that of Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works. That is a small team, founded during WWII and set aside from the main company operation, that is focused on creative solutions and technology – out-of-the-box kinda stuff. By thinking differently, that team surprised everyone with history changing aircraft like the U-2 spy plane, the SR-71 Blackbird, and the F-22 Raptor. Experimental discovery can do something similar for your career if you stay curious and dedicate a portion of your time to asking, “What’s next?”
What are your plans for the future?
You’ll find me continuing to build upon core skills like creative problem solving and strategic thinking, and I also hope to dive more deeply into skills like persuasive storytelling. I taught public speaking years ago and enjoyed my public-diplomacy studies. Now it’s time to revisit those principles of rhetoric and apply them to social media, film, and marketing campaigns. Many of our grantees are eager for that type of communications support. Stories, compelling narratives, and cultural artifacts have always played an important role in creating and accelerating societal movements. Should be an exciting next chapter.