Project 21 member John Wheeler is a retired advocate for people with disabilities. For 30 years, he worked as a paralegal intake specialist for the Maryland Disability Law Center. John and his wife, who have been married over 57 years, are helping care for an adult daughter living with progressive multiple sclerosis.
John earned a Master of Education in Rehabilitation Counseling from Coppin State College, an HBCU in Baltimore, Maryland. He is honorably discharged from the U.S. Air Force, where he served in base security and as an air policeman for four years of active and two years of reserve duty.
He and his wife – both fully retired – now devote substantial time providing spiritual guidance to the black community. John wants to bring hope back to black communities through the basic teaching of faith and family. He says his heart, mind, body and soul bleed because of how much he has seen the black family deteriorate over the course of his life. He is critical of black churches that devote more time to politics instead of family values, and believes returning to the teachings of Christ will create strong two-parent households.