KOSCIUSKO — At the most recent meeting of the Gradway Board of Directors, the board unanimously voted Dr. John Teevan as the new Gradway Board President, effective July 1. Teevan has served on the Gradway Board of Directors for seven years and will fill the shoes of Ot Schroeder, who founded the organization and has served as Board President or Vice President since its inception. Schroeder is looking forward to continuing to serve on the Gradway Board of Directors and will partner with Teevan to ensure a smooth transition.

Dr. John Teevan

Teevan is the Executive Director of Regional Education for Grace College. He leads the establishment of cohorts of Grace students in Indy and Detroit. He also leads in the education of 1,000 prison students in the Indiana State Prison system through a contract the college has with the state.

After studying economics at Princeton, Teevan earned a Master of Divinity degree and then a Doctor of Ministry (Intercultural Studies) at Grace Seminary. He and his family lived in Ohio for 18 years where he was a pastor; they have lived in Winona Lake for the past 25 years.

Teevan has been active in the Warsaw community having served on the Cardinal Services board, the CASA board, Kosciusko County Hospital and Lutheran Health Network boards and Habitat for Humanity board and as a long-time member of the Warsaw Breakfast Optimists.

His wife, Jane, is a substitute teacher and their son John (and his wife Christina) taught for 10 years in the Warsaw Community School system. His son Matthew is director at Da-Lite Screen, and son Adam lives and works in Seattle.

Gradway is a Kosciusko County based organization working in four area school districts to combat high school dropout rates. The partner school corporations; Warsaw Community, Wawasee, Tippecanoe Valley and Whitko, each have at least one Gradway coach available to work with students at risk of dropping out.

Gradway’s mission is to promote graduation one relationship at a time. Gradway coaches strive to create positive, healthy relationships with their students to encourage them toward graduation.