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Name: Walters, John
Current Position: former Director
John P. Walters served as the director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy from December 7, 2001, until the end of the presidency of George W. Bush. Walters earned a BA from Michigan State University's James Madison College and an MA from the University of Toronto.
Walters taught political science at James Madison College and Boston College before serving as Acting Assistant Director and Program Officer in the Division of Education Programs at the National Endowment for the Humanities from 1982 to 1985. Walters then worked at the Department of Education during the Reagan administration, where he headed the Schools Without Drugs prevention program.
Walters went on to serve as deputy director and acting director of the Office of National Control Policy under William J. Bennett, who was drug czar in the administration of President George H. W. Bush. Walters quit in protest when President Bill Clinton reduced the office’s staff and announced that he was redirecting antinarcotics policy to focus on hard-core users, while de-emphasizing enforcement and interdiction.
In 1996 Walters testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee and was highly critical of what he called Clinton’s “ineffectual policy—the latest manifestation of the liberals commitment to a therapeutic state in which government serves as the agent of personal rehabilitation.”
Walters has been president of the Philanthropy Roundtable, an association that advises more than 600 donors to charities. He has also served as president of the New Citizenship Project which promoted the role of religion in public life.