John E. Cox, Jr.

John E. Cox, Jr., a veteran nonprofit executive, founded The Communications Institute in 2003, and he presently serves as the Institute's President and Chief Executive Officer. The Institute programs have involved thousands of leaders from the public and private sectors and the media.

Mr. Cox has more than 35 years of experience in nonprofit administration, public policy, journalism, and government. He served as Chief of Staff to United States Congressman Barry Goldwater, Jr. in Washington, D.C. (1969-76), and California State Senator Clark Bradley in Sacramento (1967-69). He worked as a California broadcast journalist covering government and politics on issues ranging from the first political campaign of Ronald Reagan to the early development of the Silicon Valley.

Mr. Cox founded and served for 27 years as President/CEO and founder of the Foundation for American Communications (FACS), an international nonprofit institution, that educated more than 20,000 journalists in North American and Europe. The foundation's educational programs covered economics, energy, science, law, and government. They were funded by such diverse organizations as the Ford Foundation, Rockfeller Foundation, Kellogg Foundation, the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, NBC, CNN, ABC, and nearly every major newspaper group in the United States. .

Mr. Cox also developed special educational programs for such news organizations as CNN, NBC, ABC (Capital Cities), Gannett, Hearst, and Knight Ridder. He has written for national news organizations including USA Today and the Los Angeles Times and has appeared on television including CNN discussing the role of media in covering public policy issues. Graduates of FACS programs went on to serve as White House Correspondents and anchors for network television news. Under Mr. Cox's leadership FACS conducted more than $2 million in programs in his final year as CEO.

The FACS programs also taught 75,000 business executives and community leaders about the news media in American and how to work with journalists.

Mr. Cox is a California native and holds a B.S. degree in journalism from San Jose State University. Along with his interest in skiing and boating, he is a professional drummer. He now plays with a big band in Los Angeles performing in 2011 at such venues as Disneyland and the Reagan Presidential Library with the music of Duke Ellington to Count Basie. He and his wife of 44 years, Marianne Cox, reside in Los Angeles and Calaveras County in the Sierra Foothills.