Teacher

Program director at Kellogg Foundation

Author

Public school teacher, university administrator, foundation program director, author, and professor. Dr. John Beineke worked at his father’s gas station in downtown Marion on weekends and summers as a teenager and then a college student, paying his way through school. He participated in student organizations and sports at Marion High School, where he lettered in cross country.
Dr. Beineke has had a distinguished career in education and philanthropy. He graduated in 1972 from Marion College (now Indiana Wesleyan University) and began his career teaching at McCulloch Junior High School. Receiving his masters and doctorate from Ball State University, he went on to teach in several colleges and universities. In addition, he served as dean of colleges of education at three institutions of higher education in three states. Dr. Beineke spent five years at the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, where he was a program director in leadership, youth, and higher education. While at the Kellogg Foundation he funded a grant with Marion High School teacher Bill Munn to create the Community History Project in collaboration with the Marion Public Library. Dr. Beineke is now working on developing what will be called the “Cactus Project” to digitize Marion High School yearbooks.
Dr. Beineke is a prolific writer, authoring both academic and young adult books. He has won a number of awards for his service to education and has served on two state boards dealing with teacher preparation and licensure. He is currently Distinguished Professor of Educational Leadership and Curriculum with a joint appointment in the Department of History at Arkansas State University.