John joined DePaul in 1978, and  began his time at The Theatre School as Box Office Treasurer, before moving into many other positions including Budget Manager, Office Manager, and eventually Director of Administration, Assistant Dean, and Director of Alumni Relations. He served as The Theatre School’s chief administrative officer and alumni relations liaison until his retirement in 2014. He supervised the school's admissions operations, served as advisor to the school’s student government association and to ST*RS (students in their final year who raise funds to help offset the costs of annual graduate showcase activities). John was insturmental in creating the Graduate Showcase program, and served as advisor to the G.O.D. Squad (school orientation program in effect since 1979) and G.O.D. Squad 2 (pairing students in their final year at TTS with an alum).

At The Theatre School, he has been an adjunct faculty member, has served on numerous faculty and staff search committees, and on the Dean Search committees in 1998-99 and 2000-01. He was also President of the DePaul University Staff Council for the two years he served on the council. In 1997, John created the online alumni newsletter, "Theatre School News," published monthly, and posted and archived at The Theatre School website. It has become one of the school's primary recruitment, advertising and development tools. In addition, he created "Things To Do This Weekend," a weekly listing of theatre activities in the Chicago area that have a TTS alumni/student/faculty/staff connection. In 1999, John was the first Theatre School faculty or staff member to receive a Vincentian Endowment Grant, which he used to create and implement a fine arts program at a Chicago grade school. In 2000, he was the first Theatre School recipient of a DePaul University Staff Recognition Award. In the Spring of 2009, he participated in the Vincentian Senior Leadership Heritage Tour to France, and also co-taught a Discover Chicago class at DePaul from 2008 until his retirement.

John is a member of Mensa. He is a founding board member of the Eclipse Theatre Company and an award-winning and published photographer. In addition to having served as the production photographer for over three hundred Theatre School productions for over a quarter of a century, he has also done production and publicity photo calls for dozens of professional theatres in the Chicago area.​