Tony Johns Named Executive Director of Crossroads Community Ministries

Atlanta, Georgia, May 26, 2016 (Newswire.com) - ​​​​The Board of Directors of Crossroads Community Ministries is pleased to announce the selection of Tony Johns as its next Executive Director. Currently Chief Operating Officer of City of Refuge, Johns takes up his duties with Crossroads Community Ministries on July 1st.

“We are simply thrilled with this appointment,” noted Crossroads Board Chair, Wayne Vason, senior counsel with Troutman Sanders. “Over the past 16 years,” continued Vason, “Stan Dawson and his team built a gratifying reputation for combining compassion, accountability and dignity in service to the homeless among us. Tony Johns’s record with one of our key partners, the City of Refuge, along with his lifelong pattern of service to others have prepared him superbly for this opportunity.”

"I have experienced first-hand the impact of Crossroads' work with some of the most vulnerable people in our community. I am humbled by the board's vote of confidence and look forward to working with the committed staff and volunteers as together we collaborate with others in service to people in need."

Tony Johns, incoming Executive Director

Noted Johns, “I have experienced first-hand the impact of Crossroads’ work with some of the most vulnerable people in our community. I am humbled by the board’s vote of confidence and look forward to working with the committed staff and volunteers as together we collaborate with others in service to people in need.”

Originally a service of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in downtown Atlanta, Crossroads Community Ministries is today an independent nonprofit with broad support from many stakeholders. In 2015 alone, Crossroads:

·         Served over 4,200 homeless persons, almost half of whom were women and children

·         Provided 60,000 meals from Clyde’s Kitchen, open six days a week

·         Secured 6,500 MARTA passes for employment and emergency medical purposes

·         Provided mailing addresses and state I.D.s or birth certificates to nearly 3,500 guests.

The search for Crossroads’ Executive Director encompassed over 100 area leaders, many with direct experience serving the disadvantaged. Noted Board Chair Vason, “After several rounds of interviews with a number of highly interesting candidates, the eight-person search committee unanimously concluded that Tony Johns combined just the right blend of experience, passion and ministerial grounding to help lead our organization to even greater impact in service to our guests and to the larger community.” Johns joins Crossroads with significant experience in operations, fundraising and program management gained within a variety of nonprofit and faith-based organizations in Georgia, Tennessee, Florida, California and Utah, many of which serve the needs of the homeless. Over the past seven years with City of Refuge in northwest Atlanta, Johns has been Director of Community Involvement, Chief Development Officer and, most recently, Chief Operating Officer.

An active volunteer himself, Tony Johns currently serves on the Board of Directors of Bright Futures Atlanta. Previous roles include his chairmanship of The Refuge Community Centre in Cleveland, TN, service on The Employment Council for the United Way Regional Commission on Homelessness in metro Atlanta, and his participation on the Advisory Board of “Smart & Secure Children Parenting for Parent Leaders” for the Satcher Health Leadership Institute of Morehouse School of Medicine. In 2011 he was honored as the alumnus of the year by his alma mater, Pentecostal Theological Seminary.

A native of Cleveland, Tennessee, Johns is an ordained minister with the Church of God. He, his wife Angela and their two children reside in Douglasville.

Johns succeeds Crossroads’ long-time Executive Director, Stan Dawson, who retired in December 2015 after over 16 years of service to the mission.

Source: Crossroads Community Ministries