Southern Africa

John Butler-Adam

Program Officer Johannesburg

John Butler-Adam focuses on higher education issues from the foundation's Southern Africa office. His grant making supports the emergence of a new and more diverse generation of academics; assures that the region has the skilled people it needs to bring about social and economic development; helps to create a more equitable and integrated post-school education system in the context of limited choices faced by young people; and supports research that promotes an understanding of higher education and its role in Africa.

Since 2005, John has also been the foundation's coordinator for the Partnership for Higher Education in Africa, a multi-foundation collaboration. In addition, he manages the foundation's African Higher Education Initiative.

Before joining the Ford Foundation in 2005, John was the chief executive of a consortium of eight higher education institutions in the South African province of KwaZulu-Natal, where he was responsible for initiating, managing and monitoring academic and administrative programs that strengthened cooperation among the institutions. Earlier, John was the deputy vice chancellor (academic) at the University of Durban-Westville, with responsibilities for research and faculty matters, library services and human resources. He came to that position from the directorship of the university's Institute for Social and Economic Research.

John has taught at the Universities of Natal and Durban-Westville and worked at the University of Cape Town. John holds a Ph.D. in geography from Pennsylvania State University—where he was a Ruth Young Boucke Fellow—and a bachelor's degree from the University of Natal.