About Jack Donovan
I am serving in my third year on the Gainesville City Commission as commissioner from District 3. I am seeking re-election to another term in office, during which I expect to continue on our Commission’s committees for regional utilities, economic and community development, public safety, transportation planning, and equal opportunity.
I would also continue in my commission appointments to the County-oriented Juvenile Justice Coalition, Transportation Disadvantaged Board, Poverty Reduction Advisory Committee, Ending Homelessness Implementation Committee, Affordable Housing Coalition, Black on Black Crime Task Force, Community Coalition for Older Americans, and UF President’s Community Council on Alcohol Abuse, as well as in varied Chamber of Commerce initiatives.
During my first term of service, I have received the 2007 Women for Wise Growth’s Doris Bardon Leadership Award, the 2006 Alachua County Democratic Elected Official of the Year Award, the 2006 Gainesville Association of Social Workers’ Elected Official of the Year Award. In this campaign to date, I have received the endorsements of the North Central Florida Central Labor Council and Gainesville’s Judy Levy National Organization for Women.
I was raised in Massachusetts, have a BA in literature from Dartmouth College, a Masters degree in Public Policy from Harvard University, and a Master of Divinity from the Graduate Theological Union’s King School for Ministry in Berkeley, California.
My life’s work has been in community and economic development and in ministry, taking me to the Pacific Islands in the Peace Corps, to Vietnam as a State Department social welfare advisor during the war, to Boston’s anti-poverty agency, and to the greater Gainesville area as pastor of two congregations and as chaplain for Hospice.
While in Gainesville, I have also served on the boards of the ACTION Network, the Bread of the Mighty Food Bank, and Planned Parenthood of North Central Florida and have been a member of the Community Coalition Against Poverty, the North Central Florida Human Rights Council, and the Campus Ministry Cooperative.
I am married to the Reverend Alisun Donovan and we have three children, Brigitte at Santa Fe Community College, Erin at UF’s Law School, and Jesse who is a UF graduate and teaches high school in Chicago. Our home is in the northwest section of Gainesville.