Food gives John joy and purpose. While more than fifteen years of kitchen experience and ARMY medic training taught John much, he acknowledges not nearly as much as the interns at Café Momentum taught him every day. After four and a half years as Sous Chef at the award-winning restaurant and program for justice-involved youth, John now brings his knowledge, experience and shared vision for systemic change to Momentum Advisory Collective.

John believes life will take you places and give you opportunities to make lasting impact -- and if you are ready to accept, you will be put right where you are supposed to be. Leading National Restaurant Training for Momentum Advisory and, enabling youth across the country to experience Café Momentum programming, is that place for him.

John learned during his time in the kitchen at Cafe Momentum to listen to everyone's stories and understand that we are all in need of something. A much more compassionate and patient person, he finds common ground when goals align. For him, that goal is removing barriers from the starting point for our youth. He’s witnessed that with support, the youth can reach their full potential. His daily mantra while working is “everyone here needs something from me today. It is my job to find out what that is.”

John is also an El Centro College Food and Hospitality Institute hall-of-famer and his recipes can be found in My Beef with Meat, Salud! Vegan Mexican Cookbook and in D Magazine’s The Cookbook.. When not with his Momentum family, John spends time with his wife, Viola Rose Mercer, who loves Momentum possibly more than he does. Together, they ride motorcycles, travel and eat. Cooking food is still a part of his everyday life because cooking is where he started and what led him to this chance at making change.