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Born September 8, 1964 in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Graduate, Emmaus High School (Emmaus, Pennsylvania), 1982. Bachelors in Business Administration, University of Miami (Coral Gables, Florida), 1986. Resides currently in Deptford, New Jersey.
Much of the career of '''Michael Johns''' has been spent working in corporate [[health care]]. He has worked for the pharmaceutical transnational [[Eli Lilly]], in the health care practice of a leading Philadelphia consulting firm and, since 2000, as vice president of [[Gentiva Health Services]], a Fortune 1000 corporation. As part of Gentiva senior management, Johns helped lead a quintupling of the company's market capitalization and one of the largest corporate health care acquisitions in recent years [http://www.biospace.com/news_story.cfm?StoryID=7420415&full=1]. He also has defended the interests of publicly-traded companies, including as a founding member of the influential CEO Council.
In January 2001, Gentiva lost an Ohio-based age-discrimination suit filed in 1998 against the company's former parent company. Because Gentiva had indemnified their former parent company as part of a previous split-off from the parent company, an Ohio jury levied damages of $30m against Gentiva. A report at the time quoted Johns as saying, "We are not pleased - and in fact, are shocked - at the size of the jury verdict" [http://www.homecaremag.com/mag/medical_suit_cost_gentiva/]; the case was subsequently settled for an undisclosed sum [http://gentiva.com/news/read_press.asp?pressid=160].
In his health care roles, Johns has advocated a moderate course on American health care policy, vigorously supporting the need to protect biopharmaceutical and free market health care innovation, while simultaneously defending the need to protect [[Medicare]], Medicaid and other governmental health programs for the nation's elderly, poor and disabled.
An influential advocate for many of the prominent themes of mainstream conservatism, Johns also has held high-level posts in American government and public policy. His writings on American foreign policy in the 1980s helped shape and promote the foreign policy of the [[Ronald Reagan|Reagan ]] administration. He was one of the original advocates of the so-called "[[Reagan doctrine]]," successfully urging the United States to support forces opposing [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] client states; he also was one of the first Reagan Doctrine advocates to actually visit the front lines of these hot spots ([[Angola]], [[Cambodia]], [[Nicaragua]], and the former Soviet Republics) with regularity. Some advocates for Johns credit him with helping turn Washington's intellectual tide away from containment of the Soviet Union (as advocated by post-war American leaders, such as [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] and [[Harry S. Truman]]) and toward a more aggressive approach dedicated to the "rollback" of global communism. Many conservative historians now credit this latter approach with leading, ultimately, to the collapse of the former Soviet Union.
Following the [[Cold War]]'s end, Johns helped advance pro-active American engagement in the post-Cold War world, running U.S. government-funded international economic and political development projects in post-war [[Kuwait]], [[Turkey]] and other nations.
Johns has worked at the conservative [[Heritage Foundation]] and with leading figures on the American right. However, he has also been tapped by moderate Republicans, including former New Jersey Governor [[Thomas H. Kean]], U.S. Senator [[Olympia Snowe]] and former President [[George H.W. Bush]] (for whom he served as a White House speechwriterspeech writer). In the first Bush White House, he helped define and advocate some of the policies that have come to be known as "[[Compassionate Conservatism|compassionate conservatism]]," focusing on outreach to low and middle-income Americans and non-traditional Republican constituencies.
==Supporting the 'Reagan Doctrine'==
Some clues as to Johns's views on U.S. engagement in Latin America can be gleaned from his implicit defense of [[Ronald Reagan]] over the [[Iran/Contra scandal]], in a 1987 edition of the conservative magazine [[Policy Review]]. He wrote: "Up against the ropes in the Iran-Contra affair, Ronald Reagan should have come out swinging, announcing clearly that this government carries itself in the tradition of the Marquis de Lafayette, that freedom fighters will no longer be left to die in the jungle, like Brigade 2506 at the Bay of Pigs." [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appeasement]
Indeed, Johns was an enthusiastic advocate for the contras. In a 1988 article, he described the contras as "the largest armed resistance movement since the Mexican Revolution", and went on to describe them as "[[Nicaragua]]'s democratic resistance".
==Career==
*Contributing author of ''Finding Our Roots, Facing the Future: America in the 21st Century'' (Madison Books, 1997)[http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1568330928/qid=984782703/102-7217118-6315345] and ''Freedom in the World: The Annual Guide of Political Rights and Civil Liberties'' ([[Freedom House]], 1993).
*He has written for the ''Wall Street Journal'', ''Christian Science Monitor'', ''[[National Review]]'', [[Freedom House]]'s ''Freedom Review'' and other publications.
*National television appearances include [[PBS]]'s ''MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour'', CNBC, PBS's ''Nightly Business Report'', C-SPAN, [[Fox News|Fox Morning News ]] and others.
*Inducted into University of Miami's Iron Arrow Honor Society [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_Arrow_Honor_Society], 1984.
* "[http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=1999%40ccnysci.UUCP&output=gplain "Ethiopian Regime Looks West for Helping Hand"], ''The Christian Science Monitor''," May 16, 1989.
[[Category:Angola]][[Category:Health]][[Category:United States]]
