John Wallace

Professor, University of Pittsburgh

John M. Wallace, Jr., Ph.D. is a professor at the University of Pittsburgh with appointments at the School of Social Work, the Katz Graduate School of Business and the Dietrich School Arts and Sciences. Dr. Wallace is also the senior pastor of Bible Center Church, located in Pittsburgh’s Homewood neighborhood.

Wallace is the co-principal investigator on the Pitt Assisted Communities and Schools (PACS) project, and the principal investigator on the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities funded Healthy Living, Healthy Learning, Healthy Lives Project—a community-based participatory research project that examines the correlates, causes and consequences of disparities in children’s asthma. Dr. Wallace also is a co-investigator on the National Institute on Drug Abuse’s ongoing national study of drug use among American young people, Monitoring the Future. His research has been published in numerous professional journals, books and monographs. His current projects focus on ESTEAM (entrepreneurship, science, technology, engineering, agriculture and math) education for children, and the creation of social enterprises to address food access and insecurity, youth unemployment and other pressing social problems.

Dr. Wallace is the co-founder and board president of the Homewood Children’s Village, board president of Operation Better Block, and the founder of the Oasis Project—the community and economic development division of Bible Center Church. He earned his BA from the University of Chicago and MA and PhD degrees from the University of Michigan, all in sociology.