Jack Healey - Background

Background

Born into an Irish-American Catholic family as the youngest of eleven children, Healey grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His mother was a teacher and his father was a metallurgist at Superior Steel, a steel rolling plant located in Pittsburgh.

He studied at St. Fidelis Seminary for high school and college and received a masters degree from Catholic University. He was a Franciscan monk for 10 years and a Catholic priest for four years. He left the priesthood in 1968 and began work as Director of the Young World Development Program at 'Freedom from Hunger Foundation' USA for five years.

At the 'Young World Development Program', Healey produced over 300 Walks for Development. 12 million dollars were raised from these walks and given to national and international non-profits, including Meals for Millions, The Free Clinic, and Freedom Farm Co-op of Fannie Lu Hamer. They also funded Catholic Relief Service, Church World Service, Heifer, and Oxfam International and other international non-profit organizations. These walks became the model for future walk-a-thons.

From 1973 to 1976, Healey worked at the Center For Community Change in Washington, D.C. At the center, Healey helped to build the Binder Schweitzer Hospital in Mexico and co-directed the Dick Gregory World Hunger Run across the United States. Dick Gregory won the Dawson Award from the Black Caucus for this run. Healey, along with George O’Hara, recruited Muhammed Ali to join Dick’s Hunger Run.

From 1977 until 1981 Healey directed the Peace Corps in Lesotho. Healey was one of the few Peace Corps directors asked to stay in the same country for his second tour. During his time as director of the Peace Corps, he was also a constant presence on many major morning, afternoon and evening shows such as Oprah, 60 Minutes and Nightline.

After finishing his tour with the Peace Corps, he worked as the Director of Amnesty International USA for 12 years. His work at Amnesty brought human rights to the forefront of popular culture by pioneering new ways to deliver the message of human rights to new generations. He helped bring young people into the human rights movement by organizing concerts with well known artists, and by reaching out to high schools and colleges through motivational speeches.

Healey has received 7 honorary doctorates and spoken in over a thousand colleges and high schools. He has produced 3 music albums and Douye, a documentary on Aung San Suu Kyi. Additionally, Healey worked as a consultant to both the Center of Victims of Torture in Haiti, and to comedian Dick Gregory for many years on the topic of world hunger.

Healey helped to start the Reebok Human Rights Foundation, which hands out the Reebok Human Rights Award each year, and two other non-profits, Witness (human rights group) and Equality Now, both of which have been very successful.

Healey gained attention in 1990 when he worked with other human rights activists to physically block the entrance to a UN Human Rights conference set to take place in Vienna, because the UN refused to seat the Dalai Lama. In 1992, Healey spoke out against the US government when Haitian refugees fleeing harm from a dictatorial government were turned away from the United States border. Healey campaigned to free Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest.