In Search of Careers for the Common Good Part Four: A conversation with John Sullivan, J.D.

In Search of Careers for the Common Good is a four-part series of candid conversations with professionals across three different career stages – early, middle and encore – discussing the ways in which reality and one’s ideals about careers intersect in the search and struggle to find careers for the common good.  

In part four of this series, Christopher Wong Michaelson has a discussion with John Sullivan, who recently retired from a long and distinguished career as a corporate lawyer but who remains active in volunteer engagement with organizations such as the Minneapolis Foundation and the Matthew Shepard Foundation. Sullivan shares his story about following his interests rather than a pre-set plan in his search for a career for the common good. He says, “I doubt that my legal work will be remembered for long, but I believe that I have helped local nonprofits become more effective and I have created significant change for the lives of LGBTQ+ people and my hope is that those changes will inspire additional changes by future leaders.” 

This series is co-sponsored by the following enterprises at the University of St. Thomas: 

• The Center for the Common Good 
• The Alumni, Career & Corporate Engagement Center 
• The Selim Center for Lifelong Learning  

• Sponsored by The Melrose & The Toro Company Center for Principled Leadership at the University of St. Thomas.
• Produced by Nicole Zwieg Daly, JD, EdD, CPPM.
• Engineered by Tom Forliti.